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Staff & Faculty

The IEI's highly skilled staff provide consulting services to project groups and new ventures while developing and maintaining the IEI's rich offerings of programs and relationships. The IEI offers many years of experience in business development and consulting, a wide variety of skills, extensive networks and boundless enthusiasm for new ventures and experiential learning. We look forward to meeting you!

STAFF
SENIOR FELLOWS
FACULTY

 

Staff and fellows

executive Director

Jaine LucasJaine Lucas, MS

Jaine Lucas is the executive director of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Institute (IEI) and MidAtlantic Diamond Ventures (MADV).  During her career, Ms. Lucas has been a marketing and branding executive, entrepreneur and business owner, creative writer and polymer chemist. She has worked for and with start-ups and Fortune 1000 companies across many industries in strategic, creative and general management roles.

Most recently, Ms. Lucas was director of the IEI and MADV programs at Temple. Prior, she provided strategic marketing and operations leadership for a start-up apparel company targeting female sports fans.  She led brand management for the Retail Marketing division of Sunoco, including launching and managing the company’s NASCAR sponsorship, one of the largest and most complex programs in motor sports.  Ms. Lucas also managed brand marketing and communications, credit card sales, customer service, and directed the operations of the Sunoco private label credit card center.

Before her tenure at Sunoco, Ms. Lucas was a global communications leader with GE Plastics where she championed external and internal communications.  In the 1990s, she developed and operated an award-winning boutique marketing firm, Lucas & Partners, built on a novel business model.  Her prior agency experience includes The Weightman Group (Philadelphia) and a division of Chiat Day (New York) where she developed integrated marketing programs for large national B2B clients.  She was part of the team that developed the highly acclaimed branding for Dow Plastics 20 years ago which is still in use today.  Her agency work earned numerous awards for creativity and effectiveness from the NY One Club of Advertising, Addys, BMA Bell Ringers, Art Director’s Club of Philadelphia, Most Memorable Ads and Readex.

Ms. Lucas holds a MS in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) and graduated summa cum laude and with University Honors in Chemistry from Fairleigh Dickinson University.

She is a member of the board of directors for the Entrepreneurs Forum of Greater Philadelphia; an advisory board member for PowerUp Gambia!; and a member of Women Inventing Next (WIN) and the Greater Philadelphia Senior Executive Group. She is a passionate advocate for those with autism and their families, and served as a member of the board of the Center for Autistic Children for over 13 years.

senior fellow of the institute and associate professor of entrepreneurship

Chris PavlidesChris Pavlides, MBA

Mr. Pavlides is Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship at the General & Strategic Management Department of the Fox School of Business of Temple University. For the last 4 years, he served as the Executive Director of the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Institute (www.fox.temple.edu/iei) and the Mid-Atlantic Diamond Ventures (www.fox.temple.edu/madv) of the Fox School of Business, during which period he elevated the ranking of IEI to the top 10 entrepreneurship programs in the nation.

Concurrently, Mr. Pavlides is Founder & Chairman of the Greater Philadelphia Senior Executive Group, Inc. a non-profit 501(c) 6 PA corporation. GPSEG is the largest C-level executive networking organization in the tri-state region (www.GPSEG.org).

Mr. Pavlides' previous position was COO & CFO of Edison, NJ-based StrikeForce Technologies Inc, a software development internet security company. Earlier, he was CFO of a VC-backed, high tech start up, Electron Direct LLC, in Wilmington, DE. Before that, Mr. Pavlides was Head of the Global Business Development - Finance Group of Houston, TX -based Conoco Inc, a multinational oil & gas company. Earlier, he was Managing Director of Global Syndications for AT&T Capital Corp., VP - Investment Banking/Corporate Finance for GE/Kidder Peabody & Co., and VP - Corporate Banking for Chase Manhattan Bank.

Mr. Pavlides has a BA in Economics and MBA in Finance and International Business. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers (www.globalentrepreneurshipconsortium.org). He is member of the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (www.usasbe.org) and Chairman of its Global Entrepreneurship Interest Group. He is a member of the Small Business Institute (www.smallbusinessinstitute.biz) and the International Council of Small Business (www.icsb.org).

Mr. Pavlides introduced and led the Mid-Atlantic Diamond Ventures as a new IEI program within Fox School. He also initiated, negotiated and implemented Temple University partnership in the BioLaunch611+ Keystone Innovation Zone/BioStrategy Partners (www.biolaunch611.org.  He is a member of the Advisory Board of the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship - Philadelphia Chapter (www.nfte.com). He is a member of Mid-Atlantic Capital Alliance, the Eastern Technology Council and the Association for Corporate Growth. He is a frequent speaker and moderator in local, regional and national seminars, conferences and events and has been quoted frequently in the media in relation to entrepreneurship.

entrepreneurship Facilitators

Robert Yerkov

Robert is a sophomore at the Temple University Fox School of Business and Management. He is an active member of the ESA (Entrepreneurial Student Association) and TUSG (Temple University Student Government). Prior to the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Institute Robert worked as a brand representative for Abercrombie and Fitch’s Hollister Brand.  His interests and activities include listening to music, reading, playing tennis, and going to the shore.  Robert is also actively involved in Politics and has worked on both regional and national campaigns. He attends CPAC, an annual conservative political action conference held in Washington D.C and has met with elected officials such as Dennis O’Brien, John McCain, and George W. Bush. In his free time Robert also volunteers at elementary schools in the area as well as at Torresdale Frankford Hospital. He graduated from Holy Ghost Preparatory School in the spring of 2007. Robert lives in North East Philadelphia and comes from a family of four.

Arne Morin

Arne is a senior majoring in Entrepreneurship at Temple University. He is a member of the Entrepreneurial Student Association as well as the treasurer, graphic artist, and webmaster for the Fox School’s newest student professional organization, Students for Responsible Business. Arne worked with the president of the organization to revamp a vendor truck on campus into The Sexy Green Truck. It is an environmentally friendly vendor that serves local and organic food at affordable prices to the students and surrounding community. After school he plans to create his own environmentally friendly clothing company. Arne has recently moved into a new house in South Philadelphia. He graduated from Springfield High School in 2005

 

Faculty Teaching Entrepreneurship

Dwight Carey, Instructor

Dwight Carey started his first business immediately after receiving his undergraduate degree. For the last forty three years he has started an additional sixteen more companies both in the United States and abroad. Those companies are in service, engineering, robotics and support systems and factory automation industries. One of these companies, American Productivity Group, LLC., of which Prof. Carey is Managing Member and President, is a joint venture with Samsung Electronics Corp.

In addition to running companies he sits on boards of domestic and international organizations and is an active member of the Committee for Monetary Research and Education and the von Mises Institute at Auburn University. His graduate studies have been both at Harvard Business School's case studies and as a member of the James Madison program at Princeton University. He has been awarded the Congressional Business Man of the Year for 2003, 04, 05 and 06, 2005 winner of the Ronald Reagan Gold Medal for Outstanding Business Leadership, winner of the Congressional order of Merit, twice awarded the medal for Business Leadership and awarded The Technology Partner Award by Specialty Publications for co-developing a new robotic control system. His writings appear regularly in trade publications, as book chapters, most recently, Mending Manufacturing, and Fortune Magazine's Small Business.

At Temple University, Prof. Carey teaches in the Engineering School, Fox School of Business, both undergraduate and MBA courses. He is also on the Board of Advisors for the Enterprise Management Consulting program. He was chosen to create and coach the CIBER International Business Plan competition team for the Ohio State 2006 competition cite against some of the top 11 Universities in the world. Team Temple's first such contest lead to its losing to the two time Grand Champion, Brigham Young University.

Rajeswararao Changanti, PhD, Professor

Professor Chaganti's teaching portfolio includes entrepreneurship, strategic management, business policy & administration courses in the MBA and EMBA Programs. His research writings have appeared in Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, Journal of Small Business Management, Journal of Management Studies, Strategic Management Journal, among other publications. He co-authored two books: High Performance Management Strategies for Entrepreneurial Companies [1991] and Corporate Governance and the Timeliness of Change -- Reorientation in 100 American Firms [1998].

He served in several leadership positions: Chair of the Department [1995-99; 1990-1993], founding Executive Director of the Institute of Global Management Studies [1997-1999], co-editor of the Journal of International Management [1998-2000]. He organized several national and international conferences, including "Managing Financial Risks and Opportunities in Asian Markets" [April 1998] and "Cross-border Mergers and Acquisitions -- Regional and Global Perspectives" [April 1999].

TL Hill, Instructor

TL Hill has more than 20 years of experience as an entrepreneur and consultant in both for-profit and non-profit settings. After building and selling a publishing firm, he joined the Fox School first as Director of the Family Business Alliance and then as the Lead Faculty for the New Venture Consulting Practicums, in which MBA students do market research, industry analysis, strategy formation and business planning for high-technology start-up ventures, often from overseas, social ventures, and new divisions of established firms.

TL Hill's research interests include entrepreneurial networks, the boundaries of the firm, governance of social ventures, and community and economic development. An editor of 30 books, his publications include academic articles in entrepreneurship journals and economic development studies funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, William Penn Foundation, Philadelphia Commerce Department and various corporations.

Arun Kumaraswamy, PhD, Lecturer

Arun Kumaraswamy (Ph.D., 1996, New York University) studies the management of innovation and growth, and the evolution of standards in high-technology industries.

Dr. Kumaraswamy has published in reputable journals such as the Strategic Management Journal, the Academy of Management Journal, Organization Science, and MIS Quarterly. He has taught courses in Strategy, Management of Technology/Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

Sanford M. Sorkin

Mr. Sorkin has over forty years of experience in technology related fields covering a wide range of development, entrepreneurial and management activities.  Since 1980 he has written over 20 textbooks and training manuals used extensively in the United States and Canada.  Translations of the material also have been prepared for use in other countries.  He has managed large-scale projects as a consultant and as the owner of a software company.  Mr. Sorkin is the founder and past president of Sanford M.  Sorkin Associates, a management consulting and training organization.  He is also the past president of Coastal Technologies, the developers of customized software, software packages, and web based development, and New Instruction, Inc., a worldwide training organization offering on-site and public seminars. 

Since completing the sale of his businesses in 2001 and starting a teaching career at Temple University, he has become an active participant in charitable and non-profit organizations.  Currently, he serves on the Board of Directors of the Police Athletic League of Philadelphia and the PAL Scholarship Foundation.  He is also participates on multiple boards and committees throughout the Philadelphia metropolitan area.

After graduating from the Wharton School he worked in the Computer and Pharmaceutical industries in a number of different capacities and in 1978 formed his first company.  Since that time he has founded and operated four corporations, and participated in numerous startups as a consultant, partner, or investor.

He has also assisted and mentored numerous Temple students with startup ventures in the United States, India, and China.  Additionally, a number of classroom project related activities have blossomed into successful businesses for his students.

Christopher Starr, Instructor

Mr. Starr is the Executive Director and Founder of the Mid-Atlantic Angel Group Fund, I L.P. (MAG), the largest angel group and first structured angel fund in the Mid-Atlantic region.  The MAG Fund has over $4.4 million under management and includes 89 institutional and individual accredited investors   Mr. Starr is responsible for all aspects of administration and operations of the Fund and is the primary contact for both entrepreneurs and the funding community for the Fund’s membership.

Most recently, Mr. Starr was Vice President of Investments at the Science Center, responsible for the management of Science Center Capital, a venture capital fund targeting seed and early stage technology and life science investments in the Greater Philadelphia region.   Prior to that, Mr. Starr was the Managing Director and Vice President of Investments at Innovation Philadelphia.  Earlier in his venture capital career, Mr. Starr held positions at Lenfest Capital and the Eastern Technology Fund. Previously, Mr. Starr held various roles with the Innovation Factory, Merck & Co., Inc., and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter.  Additionally, Mr. Starr worked at the law firm of Stevens & Lee, handling business transactions and deal processing in the corporate group.

In 2001, PhillyTech magazine selected Mr. Starr as one of the “30 Under 30” business executives to watch in the Philadelphia region’s high-tech industry.  Additionally, in February 2002, the Philadelphia Business Journal recognized Mr. Starr as one of the Philadelphia region’s “40 Under 40” young business leaders.

Mr. Starr earned his B.B.A., magna cum laude, and M.B.A. with concentrations in strategic management and finance from the Temple University School of Business.  In addition, Mr. Starr earned his J.D. with a focus on corporate law from the Temple University School of Law.

Jean Wilcox , Phd., Instructor

Dr. Jean Wilcox is a founding partner in Nenko Advisors International, LLC a management consulting firm that works with privately held companies to improve revenue, reduce costs and improve communications. Prior to founding Nenko, she was the CEO of CattLeLogos Brand Management Systems LLC, an entrepreneurial company that offered end-to-end marketing services with a focus on assisting companies to project a clear, consistent brand image both externally and internally.

Jean has a PhD in chemistry from the University of Chicago. She began her career at Xerox, holding several technical positions before she moved into marketing and business development roles. Jean has over 20 years experience working in the international business arena. At Versatec, a Xerox subsidiary,  she was Manager of Japanese business development. After leaving Xerox, Jean worked for Synergy Computer Graphics, a subsidiary of Nippon Steel Corporation, where she taught basic Japanese language classes to the employees.

On leaving Synergy she formed a consultancy called Ginkgo Enterprises that, among other strategic marketing services, offered cross cultural training workshops. Clients included National Semiconductor, among others, and training sessions ranged from 3 hour “Understanding Cultural Mindsets” seminars to intensive 3 day workshops in “How to Do Business Cross Culturally: Focus Japan.”

Ginkgo Enterprises also performed extensive product positioning for Sun Microsystems, with various Sun locations and customers in the US and Japan to clarify the customer value proposition of Sun workstations, Asian language operating systems and storage devices among other products.

A consulting contract with Bellcore to develop a strategy to focus on the emerging Internet led to a position as Executive Director of Market Strategy, Web Sites and Brand Management. She was Marketing VP for their Internet Business Unit. Subsequently she was team leader in the company's name change to Telcordia Technologies, Inc. and subsequent rebranding effort and was responsible for managing the company’s complex web site incorporating multiple business units, research and e-commerce sites.

Jean left Telcordia to become VP of Marketing and Product Development for the Graphics Division of Hunt Corporation. In this role, she created a global marketing team with staff in the US, Europe, and Asia. Their efforts created a simplified and focused global brand strategy under a common design structure that eliminated redundant resources as well as market confusion resulting from multiple product brands.

Jean's key strength is her ability to envision the big picture and to communicate it clearly to any type of organization. She has exceptional team building skills across functional lines and international boundaries, and has lead cross-cultural training workshops on three continents. She has a gift for color and design and has been active in both developing and using computer graphics for over 15 years.