The Entrepreneur Academy is both glad and humbled to have so many great faculty members give their time and expertise to this project. We give them straight A’s across the board.
Guy Nelson
Lesson 1: Ideation
Guy is a Seattle-based professional workplace trainer, author and creative thinker. He’s also an actor, musician and broadcast journalist who enjoys traveling the world helping people innovate in their businesses, classrooms and organizations.
Sean Moore
Lesson 2: Starting a Responsible Business
Sean is the Program Director of the Washington Center for Women in Business. He has spent 18 years working in the retail sector with specialized experience in the action sports and outdoor industries. During that period, Sean has gained proficiency in social media marketing, visual merchandising and inventory control.
Lindsay Andreotti
Lesson 3: Business Model Canvas
Lindsay is the CEO of Brilliance Enterprises a company focused on coaching, mentoring and supporting the next-generation of leaders and entrepreneurs in order to help them succeed in life and in business. She is also the Chief Experience Officer of Earth.University, whose programs focus on self-mastery, self-awareness, resilience, interpersonal, conflict resolution, healthy lifestyle, and visioning skills for anyone wanting to navigate life transitions.
Meagan Hulsey
Lesson 4: Access to Capital
Megan is a Business Lender at Craft 3, a non-profit organization that makes loans to strengthen communities and small businesses. Megan is a leader in the regional entrepreneurial ecosystem with a broad network of business resources and partners that can help businesses achieve their potential. As a former business owner, she has experience in assisting companies in refining their business plans, crafting their marketing strategies, defining organizational culture and coaching and scripting successful fundraising pitch decks.
Madhu K. Singh
Lesson 5: Business Structures
Madhu is the founder and Chief Legal Officer at Foundry Law Group. Madhu and her team enjoy growing the firm by empowering businesses to get organized and protect their business assets and intellectual property. She currently serves as President of TIE Seattle, a local nonprofit focused on fostering entrepreneurship in the Greater Seattle Area. In addition to her practice, she is in her eighth year as Adjunct Faculty at the Community Development and Entrepreneurship Clinic at Seattle University School of Business/Law. In her spare time, she supervises cohorts of attorney’s advising new nonprofits, volunteers as an advisor to local microenterprise clinics and mentors emerging startups in accelerators programs.
Denise Dumouchel & Alanna Imbach
Lesson 6: Choosing the Right Location
Denise has spent her entire career in education and nonprofit administration and currently, is the Executive Director of BARN on Bainbridge Island. She completed her PhD in Environmental Studies in 2003, focusing on experiential learning, human development, and teacher education. Whether crafting stories, carving wooden spoons, or swimming in Puget Sound, Denise enjoys balancing the big picture with the intricacies of day-to-day experiences.
Alanna and her husband Marcel left the concrete jungle of NYC for salty-sweet Northwest beaches, fresh air, skiing, kayaking, grandparents, and brewery hopping to become Co-Founders of Vibe Coworks in Poulsbo. It has become home for freelancers, commuters, remote workers and entrepreneurs as a shared workspace and co-working community to support Kitsap’s modern professionals in their quest to commute less, connect more and have an escape from their lonely home offices.
Jennifer Korfiatis
Lesson 7: Marketing
Jennifer is the Founder/CEO of Jennifer Korfiatis Marketing in Wenatchee. She has an MBA with a specialization in Marketing and earned a Certificate in Entrepreneurship from the Harvard Business School. Jennifer is a serial entrepreneur and worked with clients ranging from the State of Washington and large Seattle-based medical conglomerate, to regional non-profits and the local salon around the corner.
Aziz Makhani
Lesson 8: Intellectual Property
Aziz is a Certified Business Advisor with the Washington Small Business Center network. He has more than 35 years of experience in various high technology disciplines and companies. Additionally, he has created three successful startups. The Pullman area WSBDC office serves a wide community spanning Whitman, Garfield and Asotin counties in Washington. Aziz advocates peer-to-peer support and brings his experience in product development, worldwide marketing and sales, quality assurance and on and offshore production to stimulate new business growth.
Kiana Kabanje
Lesson 9: Crisis Management
Kiana is the Disaster Preparedness Outreach Program Manager for the Emergency Management Division of the Washington State Military Department. She provides disaster preparedness public education through a variety of programs and publications to encourage and individual and community preparedness.
Tommy Gantz
Lesson 10: Supply Chains
Tommy is the Association of Washington Business (AWB) Director of Governmental Affairs on tax and fiscal policy. Previously she was a supply chain strategy analyst for Boeing Global Services, where she evaluated markets and trends while communicating strategy and evaluating performance metrics.
Leigh Felton
Lesson 11: Avoiding Common Mistakes
Leigh is Director at Microsoft Corporation in the Office of Responsible AI. She went back to Microsoft after running her own consulting and business strategy business for four and a half years. Her real passion has been starting the many businesses that she has had the opportunity to be part of over the years. Leigh considers herself an entrepreneur by trade, accepting that her calling is in Corporate America, while her heart is seeing the success of businesses get off the ground, and the difference that those businesses can make in the world.