Michael S Panesis, MBA

About

Mr. Mike Panesis is the Executive Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship at California Lutheran University (CLU) in the USA. He comes to CLU from the Technology Management Program (TMP) at the University of California (UC), Santa Barbara’s College of Engineering, where he ran the University of California Santa Barbara’s (UCSB) highly successful New Venture Competition (NVC). While at UCSB, he also developed a mentor network for advising students, represented the TMP at community events, and innovated with the NVC to reflect best practices in the Santa Barbara start-up community. Additionally, Mike played a key role in creating the new start-up incubator for the Goleta Entrepreneurial Magnet.

Mike is Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Governors of Tech Coast Angels (TCA), one the largest accredited angel investor group in the country and is head of the TCA’s Central Coast Investor Network, and a founding member of Santa Barbara Angel Alliance.

Mike’s career spans a diverse range of industries and roles, including executive management, tech start-ups, information technology management and management consulting for companies like Semtech, Whitestone Research, DealerTrack, Church & Dwight, Deloitte & Touche and AT&T.

Mike holds a MBA degree in Marketing from Rutgers University in New Jersey and received his BS in Computer Science for Business from the DeVry Institute of Technology. He is on the Board of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Enterprise Forum of the Central Coast Chapter and Steering Committee of the Ventura County Greek Festival.

Education

Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree in Marketing from Rutgers University.

Bachelor of Science (BS) degree in Computer Science for Business from the DeVry Institute of Technology.

Expertise

Entrepreneurship

Startups

Grant Funding

Entrepreneur Speaker Series, from Community Leaders Association and Verizon

Hewlett Grant, for travel to VentureWell Conference

$300K gift from NewCo Foundation for providing authentic experiences to aspiring student entrepreneurs.