Our Team
Who We Are
We are a powerful team made up of seasoned entrepreneurs and experienced investors who are experts at finding great ideas in which to invest. Our efforts are focused on selecting talent teams and companies with huge potential.
SD CHANG, MD, MBA
Co-Founder and Managing Principal
Dr. Chang currently serves as Managing Principal of 3LA Ventures, LLC. His responsibilities include providing global oversight for the Manager, corporate strategy, business development, compliance, and investor relations. Prior to 3LA Ventures, LLC, Dr. Chang was Managing Partner at a Broker/Dealer in equity securities, where his responsibilities included corporate strategy, business development, investor relations, and operations. Dr. Chang is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER TM, has an active Series 65 Registered Investment Advisor registration, and an active California Real Estate License (Lic # 02130649 / Anastasi Properties, Inc).
Dr. Chang earned a BS in Biology from Stanford University, an AB in Quantitative Economics from Stanford University, a MD from Stanford University School of Medicine, and an Executive MBA from Pepperdine University.
HELEN CHENG, PHD
Co-Founder and Managing Principal
Dr. Cheng currently serves as Managing Principal of 3LA Ventures, LLC. Dr. Cheng responsibilities include primary responsibility for maintenance of financial records of the Manager and 3LA VC Fund II, compliance, investor relations, corporate strategy, and business development.. Prior to 3LA Ventures, LLC, Dr. Cheng served as a Marketing Manager for Accuray, Inc., a leader in the radiation medical device field, where her responsibilities included corporate communications and marketing development. Prior to this, Dr. Cheng worked as a management consultant for CSC Healthcare, a management consulting firm specializing in the healthcare sector. Her responsibilities there included financial planning, corporate restructuring, risk assessment, and workflow efficiency.
Dr. Cheng earned a BS in Biology from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and a PhD in Cancer Biology from Stanford University School of Medicine.
JINSONG GUO, MBA
Principal
With over 20 years of experience in residential and commercial real estate investment and services, Mrs. Guo provides real estate knowledge and support to 3LA Ventures. Previously, Mrs. Guo worked as an internal auditor for Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Maryland, a Business Risk Analyst at Deloitte & Touche, and founded and later successfully sold her own real estate company. Mrs. Guo serves as a Real Estate Advisor and Client Relations Manager for 3LA Ventures and is a licensed California Real Estate Broker.
Mrs. Guo earned a BA in Linguistics from Beijing University, and a MBA from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
JON LEVIN
Real Estate Manager
Mr. Levin has 30+ years of experience in the real estate sector, and serves as an advisor for 3LA Ventures. He has been in the mortgage loan business for 35 years, racking up over $5 Billion in production and was a national Top 20 Producer for over 20 years. In 2007, he rose to the #3 mortgage producer position in the nation. His intelligence and understanding of the financial markets, mortgage strategies, and far reaching market research are un-paralleled in the industry. Mr. Levin is an active California Mortgage Broker and a California Real Estate broker. He previously was the world record holder for speed golf in his age group.
Mr. Levin has a BA in Business Finance from California State University - Long Beach, College of Business Administration
NHU DO
COO/Business Manager
Ms. Do has over 20 years of management experience in high-touch retail industries. She previously worked at Louis Vuitton for 10 years, managing their flagship stores. There she provided knowledge in analyzing supply and demand, controlling shrinkage of inventory, trending and forecasting of sales to maximize profits. Prior to joining our team, Ms. Do worked for over nine years as a Manager for First Republic Bank, leading one of their top locations in the Peninsula.
Ms. Do has a BS degree in International Business and a minor in French from San Jose State University.
Advisors
DEMOSTHENES VARDIABASIS, PhD
Professor of Economics
Graziadio Business School
Pepperdine University
Dr. Vardiabasis has over 25 years of experience as a professor, entrepreneur, executive, and consultant. He has founded several companies and has served as a chairman and CEO of the IQ Now Corporation, which was acquired by a public company and of Health Windows, which provided services to such companies as American Express, Hilton, Yamaha, and Honeywell. As a consultant, Dr. Vardiabasis has worked with companies representing a wide range of industries, including: Baxter Healthcare, Northwest Airlines, ICTS Europe, Edison Utilities, Northgate Supermarkets, El Proyecto, Brinks, Greek National Tourism Organization, Korean government, Latin Business Association, and the Arthritis Foundation. He served as a member of the U.S. committee to assist Russian Reform and of the National Policy Forum, chaired by U. S. Senator Phil Gramm. Recently he was appointed as Economic Commissioner in California by Governor Schwarzenegger. Dr. Vardiabasis, through his company, Global Strategic Edge, is currently working with executives and entrepreneurs on business strategy and creative operational solutions.
MILLIND MITTAL
Fellow/VP Data Center Technologies
Xilinx, Inc.
Millind Mittal has over 20 years of technical and business leadership experience in the semiconductor industry. He is currently a Fellow/VP at Xilinx with focus on data center technologies and strategic architecture initiatives. He also has leadership roles in multiple industry consortiums defining new interconnect technologies for data centers: CCIX (Chairman of the Technical Steering Committee), GenZ (Board member) and CXL (Xilinx's technical lead). He has been a founder and chief architect of start-ups in networking, security, and storage. He is skilled at identifying business opportunities, product architecture definition and implementation. He is the recipient of more than 140 patents.
SANJEEV KHAGRAM, PHD
Dean, Thunderbird School of Global Management
Arizona State University
Dr. Khagram is the Director General and Dean of the thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University and the Foundation Professor of Global Leadership and Global Political Economy. He is a world-renowned scholar and practitioner in the areas of globalization, transnationalism, leadership, strategic management, entrepreneurship, social enterprise, cross-sector innovation, public-private partnerships, inter-organizational networks, good governance, transparency, the global political economy, sustainable development, human security, and the data revolution. He holds a bachelor's in development studies and engineering, a master's degree and doctoral degree minor in economics and doctorate in political economy, all from Stanford University.
Professor Khagram most recently led the establishment of the cross-sectoral Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data and International Open Data Charter. He also previously founded and was the architect of the multi-stakeholder Global Initiative for Fiscal Transparency (GIFT). Dr. Khagram was selected as a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum and authored UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon’s Report on the Impacts of the Global Economic Crisis in 2009. He was dean of the Desmond Tutu Peace Centre, Foundation and Trust from 2003-2005, and he was Senior Policy and Strategy Director at the World Commission on Dams where he was the lead writer of the Commission’s widely acclaimed Final Report from 1998-2000. Prof. Khagram also founded and led Innovations for Scaling Impact – a global enterprise from 2007-2012.
Prof. Khagram has worked extensively with global start-ups, corporations, governments, civil society groups, multilateral organizations, cross-sectoral action networks, public-private partnerships, foundations, professional associations and universities all over the world from the local to the international levels.
CHAD CARDINAL, MBA
Senior Vice President of Strategy and Operations
The Aspire Group, Inc.
As Senior Vice President of Strategy & Operations, Chad is accountable for the following strategic business units: Strategy, Analytics, and Marketing while having direct involvement in the firm’s Fan Relationship Management and Legal verticals. Chad joined The Aspire Group in 2015 and has become known for staff retention, long-term thinking, and a relationship-driven approach towards creating win-win situations.
In advance of joining Aspire, Chad was fortunate to serve as the Ticket Sales Manager for the Boston Bruins & TD Garden. Responsibilities included oversight of several ticket & premium products for the Bruins, Celtics & arena events, which totaled north of $85M annually. Before Boston, he was the Senior Manager of Ticket Sales with Sporting Kansas City (MLS) where the team set revenue and attendance records for every ticket menu item. As an individual performer for the Minnesota Timberwolves & Lynx, Chad was twice in the Top 15 league-wide as a revenue producer.
Originally from Brooklyn Park, MN, Chad was a student-athlete (baseball) and graduated from Mayville State University with a degree in Exercise Science & Sports Management, minor in Coaching & certificate in Information Technology. He is also a graduate of the Pepperdine Graziadio School of Business and Management (MBA).
Outside of Aspire, Chad is a Professor at the Pepperdine Graziadio School of Business and Management where he teaches within the Applied Behavior Science department to international students pursuing a Master of Science in Global Business graduate degree.
MARK TRIBBITT, PhD, MBA
Professor of Strategic Management
Graziadio Business School
Pepperdine University
Dr. Mark A. Tribbitt is a tenured professor of strategic management at Pepperdine University. Prior to pursuing a career in academia, Mark spent 14 years in the financial services industry in various leadership positions. Most recently, he was Vice President of Operations for JPMorgan, managing servicing and trading of a $350 billion mutual fund portfolio.
Mark earned a Ph.D. in Strategic Management from Drexel University, an MBA from Villanova University, and a B.S. in Finance from the University of Delaware. His primary research interest deals with the intersection between corporate governance and corporate entrepreneurship. His teaching focuses on strategic management, entrepreneurship, and management of technology and innovation.
Mark is a member of several academic associations including the Academy of Management, and he has presented his work at multiple global academic conferences. He has also won numerous awards and accolades for his teaching.