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Lavin Entrepreneurship Center Staff

Meet the Lavin Center Team

In order to fuel the passions and dreams of entrepreneurs, the Lavin Center provides a wide range of support staff. These members have expertise that include web design, accounting, strategic consulting, and marketing, among many other areas.

The Lavin Center staff also has a far reaching network that starts with SDSU faculty and goes to outside contributors from the likes of CEOs, senior level executives, business founders, SDSU alumni, and affiliated industry organizations. We represent and provide access to hundreds of other academic and business professionals who support the Lavin Center’s mission of entrepreneurship which is to actively inspire entrepreneurs in and outside the San Diego community.

Lavin Center Staff

Alex Denoble

Alex DeNoble

Executive Director, Lavin Center Professor

email: [email protected]

Alex F. DeNoble is a Professor of Management and Executive Director of the Lavin Entrepreneurship Center in the College of Business at San Diego State University. He currently also serves as the Chair of the College of Business Steering Committee. Prior to his role in the Lavin Entrepreneurship Center, he served for 3 years as the Chair of the Management Department in the College of Business.

His primary areas of expertise include entrepreneurship and corporate innovation, technology commercialization and strategic management. He has conducted research in these areas and has taught related classes in the University's undergraduate, graduate and executive MBA programs. He has published articles in such journals as IEEE Transactions on Management, the Journal of Business Venturing, the Journal of High Technology Management Research, the Journal of Technology Transfer, International Marketing Review, and Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice.

His other professional activities encompass both executive training and strategic consulting. Recent assignments have included business plan development consulting for new and existing entrepreneurial firms, market research and analysis for technology-based companies and entrepreneurship training for Taiwanese, German, Russian, Japanese, Mexican, Middle Eastern, Finnish, Danish and U.S. executives. Over the past several years, he has conducted training programs or consulted with such companies as Qualcomm Inc., Siemens Corporation, Delta Electronics (Taiwan), the U.S. Russia Center for Entrepreneurship, Banco Nacional de Commercio Exterior (the National Export Bank of Mexico), NEC Electronics USA, Shell Technology Ventures, and Orincon Technologies (now a part of Lockheed Martin).

Dr. DeNoble is the recipient of several awards including the 2008 Monty Award from SDSU for Outstanding Faculty Contributions, 2004 Educator of the Year award from San Diego's T-Sector Magazine; the 2001 Gloria and Edwin Appel Award from the Price-Babson Fellows program for excellence in entrepreneurship education, and the 2000 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award (in the supporter category).

He received a B.S. in Accounting from Monmouth University in 1975, a M.S. in Accounting from Virginia Tech in 1977 and a Ph.D. in Strategic Management from Virginia Tech in 1983.

Beryl Pratts

Beryl Pratts

Finance and Programs Analyst

email: [email protected]

Beryl Pratts is currently working as the Finance and Programs Analyst for the Lavin Entrepreneurship Center. She is responsible for financial forecasting, budgeting, and program evaluation, as well as streamlining and managing financials for the Center's programs.

Prior to working at the Center, Beryl worked a variety of accounting positions with Sempra Energy, San Diego Gas and Electric and Southern California Gas Companies. Beryl has worked in financial analysis with experience in financial systems. She graduated with a degree in Business Administration, Accounting major from Loyola University in New Orleans, Louisiana.

 

Student Staff

 

Aishwarya Khanna

Pooja Vaidya

Web Developer & CRM

email: [email protected]

Pooja is a graduate student at San Diego State University (SDSU) pursuing her Master’s in Computer Science. She has completed Bachelor of Engineering in Information Technology from India. Before coming to SDSU, she worked couple of years with Dassault Systemes as R&D Engineer; and with Cybage Software as Software Engineer in India.

At the Lavin Entrepreneurship Center, Pooja is responsible for developing and updating the Center's website, managing Salesforce account, creating Web-To-Leads web forms, migrating data to Salesforce from Excel and csv files using Apex Data Loader and enhancing website's current design and technologies. She also supports additional websites created and managed by the Center.

 

Jacinda

Jacinda Molina

Marketing Specialist

email: jamolina@sdsu.edu

Jacinda is a junior at San Diego State University majoring in Business Management with a specialization in Entrepreneurship and a double-minor in Marketing and Honors Interdisciplinary Studies. She has previously served on the Fowler College of Business Council as the Vice President of Communications and Associated Students Representative. With extensive experience in event planning and communications, Jacinda has joined the Lavin Entrepreneurship Center Staff as a Marketing Assistant and project management lead for the 2021 California Entrepreneurship Educators Conference. 

 

Sylvia Paredes

Sylvia Paredes

Graphic Designer

email: [email protected]

Sylvia Paredes is a Junior at San Diego State University majoring in Graphic Design and minoring in Marketing. In addition to having a passion for design, she enjoys growing her artistic skill set when it comes to illustration and experimental work which usually consists of recycled materials. Her goal while working at the Lavin Entrepreneurship Center is to create design that accurately reflects the center’s message while being artistically engaging through the continued exploration of design possibilities. She believes design has much to offer the world.

 

Mary Ainsworth

Mary Ainsworth

Writer

email: [email protected]

Mary Ainsworth is a senior at San Diego State University majoring in Communication and minoring in Digital and Social Media Studies. Mary is a Lavin in the Lavin Entrepreneur Program, and has extensive experience in online communications, email marketing, and project management. As the writer for the Lavin Center, Mary is responsible for creating written content for all aspects of our center including the community and campus newsletters, campus emails, website content, the annual report and social media content. She is passionate about the Lavin Center’s mission at SDSU, and hopes to inspire other students to get involved in entrepreneurship on campus.

 

Sirena Briant

Sirena Briant

Marketing Specialist

email: [email protected]

Sirena Briant is a senior at San Diego State University, majoring in Communication and minoring in Marketing. She has previously served on the Associated Students Marketing and Communications committee as the Vice President of Film Management. Sirena learned about the Lavin Entrepreneurship Program in her freshman year, participating in the Journey to Entrepreneurship course and was accepted to the Lavin program in her junior year. In her role as Marketing Specialist, Sirena is enthusiastic to help the program grow, as well as continue to improve her marketing skillset.

Rylie Jennings

Rylie Jennings

Marketing Specialist

email: [email protected]

Rylie Jennings is a fourth year, Finance major originally from Yakima, WA. Her freshman year, she applied to the Zip Launchpad program with an idea for a start-up meant to help manage and support Traumatic Brain Injury survivors with their recoveries. Using her previous experience with a TBI to drive her passion for this project she continued through the Zip Launchpad program until the L1 phase. Now she is a member of the Lavin Entrepreneurship program since 2020 and currently earning her credentials to specialize in Real Estate. On campus, she is the 2020-2021 Treasurer for the Pacific Islander Student Association, a video assistant for the SDSU Football team and the NCAA Mountain West Network. Her background is composed of sales and business management experience with her work with Southwestern Advantage, as an educational consultant performing door-to-door sales in Nashville, TN.  She is very excited to work with the programs that have inspired her throughout her college career as a project manager.

Jonathan

Jonathan Shedd

Data analyst assistant

email: [email protected]

I am a junior at San Diego State University majoring in Mathematics and minoring in Finance. I enjoy manipulating and simplifying data in order to find a way to make it as simple as possible for others to understand. My goal while working at the Lavin Entrepreneurship Center is to provide meaningful dashboards and visualizations which can help to show the center’s growth, but also point out areas where the center can improve. As this is my first intern position, I am enthusiastic and motivated to learn and want to contribute to the overall growth of the center. In the future, I would like to be involved in the financial field in some capacity.

Urandari

Urandari Otgonbaatar

Accounting Assistant

email: [email protected]

Urandari Otgonbaatar is a first year international MSA student specializing in Accounting Information Systems (AIS) at San Diego State University. She received her BBA in Accounting from Mongolia in 2018 and worked as a Fixed Asset Accountant in one of the biggest telecommunication company in Mongolia. On campus, she is serving as a Treasurer for the Beta Alpha Psi - Beta Eta Chapter in 2022.

Urandari has joined the Lavin Entrepreneurship Center Staff as an Accounting Assistant in January of 2022. For the center, she prepares the monthly financials and helps aid in the financial strategies of the center. With her accounting skills, Urandari is excited to share her experience and knowledge to the Lavin Center as well as expand her accounting skill set.