Leadership Team

An organization is only as strong as the leadership that guides it.  EMS has been very fortunate in having a talented and dedicated leadership team. Every year EMS is lead by a group of its members who volunteer their time to lead the organization. EMS would not function without the dedication and hard work of these leaders.

PROGRAM LEADERS

Mitchel Seaman - President

Mitchel is a third-year Cognitive Science major at UCLA.  He has worked with National Services Group, a student-founded organization, starting and running a successful painting franchise in West Los Angeles.  He is a web and graphic designer and a technical entrepreneur. He currently works with outsourcing firm Startech Global, modifying its online presence for search engine optimization.  He is active on UCLA's campus, consulting with student government, the Undergraduate Business Society, Bruin Consulting, and Anderson Business School's Entrepreneur Association to promote entrepreneurship among university students.  Mitchel also heads an outreach program linking EMS to the Entrepreneurs' Association. When not working or studying, he enjoys cycling, rock climbing and any board sport you can imagine.

Jessica Buerger - Vice President

Ms. Buerger is pursuing a European Studies major with a Business Administration minor at Loyola Marymount University. She works as a Research Assistant in the College of Business to gain an array of empirical evidence on concepts concerning business ethics, strategic alliances, and legitimacy. During her summers she has exceeded monthly goals at Saks Fifth Avenue and has surpassed the target of $250,000 in sales by over 40%. In February of 2007 she received the Saks Fifth Avenue High Performance Acknowledgement Award for being a Top Producer. This past summer she interned at the Royal Bank of Canada and in doing so learned much of financial sales in her home city of San Francisco.Currently she is coordinating her first venture, a woman’s shoe “shop-blog” that showcases up-and-coming trends from around the world. www.heightofashion.com will be up and running in the coming months so watch out for her site!

ACTIVE BOARD

LaKeisha Landrum - Co-Executive Director

La Keisha Nicole Landrum is a passionate American entrepreneur with an appetite for helping new businesses get off the ground. As the executive director of the Entrepreneur Mentor Society, Nicole has worked and mentored alongside Southern California’s most accomplished and exciting entrepreneurs. Other prominent entrepreneurial organizations including the Maverick Angels, Tech Coast Angels, Entrepreneur’s Organization, The Riordan Programs and the Pasadena Angels are programs she has collaborated with. She brings a fresh, passionate fire to entrepreneurialism. She is a graduate of Loyola Marymount University and received her bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Finance.

Harry Yim - Co-Executive Director

Harry was introduced to entrepreneurship at an early age helping his mother run a diverse array of small businesses from a Mexican bakery in Inglewood to one of the top grossing fish markets in the heart of Compton, California.  Harry went on to attend the Marshall School Business at the USC under the Dean’s Scholarship program.  After graduating with a emphasis in Information Systems - Harry decided to  start his professional career in Silicon Valley where he joined the  IBM Silicon Valley Lab developement team.  While learning the software development cycle at IBM, Harry started a mobile DJ business that continues to operate and grow today.  In late 2005 - Harry moved back to Southern California to assist with IBM’s acquisition on Omegamon and decided to part ways with IBM shortly after to test out the consulting waters.  Harry has been since actively engaged in improving internal business IT systems and processes for companies such as IBM, 99cent Only Coporate, MOOG Inc, Cast and Crew Entertainment.  Harry is now part of a innovative music startup called LP33.tv and strving to further develop his growing consulting company called Executive Talent Agency created earlier this year.

Rob Carpenter - Senior Managing Consultant, Development & Corporate Relations

Rob Carpenter is a social entrepreneur, political commentator and nonprofit founder. He has served in the White House Office of Political Affairs writing policy briefs for the President, Vice President and Cabinet Secretaries, as a research assistant at the American Enterprise Institute (researching strategic defense policy, healthcare, education, infrastructure development, and the environment), and as the national youth chairman for a former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. He also has served as the Special Assistant to the CEO of Teach For America, where he was responsible for helping launch the national Political and School Leadership Initiatives in 25 states. Prior to this, Carpenter was the national research director at Students for Saving Social Security, directing research at more than 300 colleges and universities throughout America. He currently is managing partner for a strategy, communications and management consulting firm, and executive director of the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Building LA’s Future (www.endinggridlock.org).

In 2003, he co-managed a California statewide convention for Arnold Schwarzenegger, making California history by delivering the largest-ever political literature drop. In 2004, he garnered international and national media attention for the Claremont Colleges by co-organizing a 3,000 person anti-hate and unity rally in 24 hours. Carpenter has managed numerous organizations and more than 10,000 volunteers. He has received awards from the Phillips International Foundation, California State Legislature, California Department of Education, and the U.S. Navy, Army, and Marine Corps, among others. Carpenter received his B.A. from Claremont McKenna College.

David Murphy - Senior Managing Consultant, Development & Corporate Relations

David Murphy is a serial entrepreneur focusing on tech startups and social entrepreneurship. He is the cofounder of Hotline Communications (whose software was used by customers like Apple Computer & General Motors, and named “Best of Show” at Macworld Expo), and of Building LA’s Future (www.endinggridlock.org), and of a strategic consulting and fundraising firm. His ventures have been featured in a range of publications, from the LA Times and LA Business Journal, to the Silicon Alley Reporter, KABC, Salon.com, and Macworld Sweden. He previously served as Government Affairs Manager at the Valley Industry & Commerce Association (VICA), a nonprofit advocating on behalf of member companies as NBC Universal and Boeing.  David previously supported CEO and board searches for Fortune 500 companies while at executive search firm Spencer Stuart, worked in Claremont McKenna College’s Annual Giving Office, and helped Space Adventures during its unprecedented growth into the world’s leading space tourism firm. Murphy previously maintained an office in the U.S. Capitol at the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Rules, and worked at the Kiev, Ukraine, office of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

David graduated with a B.A. with Honors in Government from Claremont McKenna College, where he hosted or otherwise assisted with more than 50 Athenaeum dinner & lecture series speakers, including Newt Gingrich, Jeane Kirkpatrick, and Anthony Lake. He is currently finishing a book profiling leaders who give back to society, featuring interviews with the heads of Southwest Airlines, Cushman & Wakefield, the Iraq Study Group, and others. A native of the Washington, D.C., area, Murphy as a high school student co-founded Hotline Communications, an internet startup that grew to employ more than forty people and was praised as “one of the best kept secrets on the internet” by the Los Angeles Times. Murphy has lived in Sofia, Bulgaria; Kiev, Ukraine; and Nairobi, Kenya; and traveled extensively in Europe, Africa, and Asia, where he met with business leaders and government officials on an Avery Foundation Fellowship.

Ben Tao

Hailing from the Great Lakes state of Michigan Ben Tao is now finding his way through the vibrant city of Los Angeles.  Never content to doing just one thing Ben has done various random things to keep amused since graduating from university.  From counting people wearing their seatbelts to teaching English in Japan Ben has been fortunate enough to learn and grow from a variety of different experiences.  What now keeps him occupied is his startup venture, Howma.com– an ambitious foreign language-learning platform called Howma.com.  It’s a website designed to help native English speakers learn Chinese and Chinese speaking people to learn English.  In his spare time he enjoy working out, snowboarding, helping out with EMS (the Entrepreneur Mentor Society), and daydreaming about what he will do when he retires at the age of 30.

Daniel Bowen

Daniel Bowen majored in Finance and Entrepreneurship at Loyola Marymount University where he graduated with honors.  While at LMU, Daniel co-founded two start-ups, co-wrote an award winning business plan, competed in business plan competitions nationwide, was a member of SCEA, and an inaugural member of the Entrepreneur Mentor Society.  After graduation Daniel moved home to Dallas, TX and founded www.youngandfrugal.com where he writes about business and personal finance for Gen-Y.  Since founding his blog, he has become a syndicated blogger, been ranked as a top 10 Gen-Y blogger on fastcompany.com, and has been listed as an example of “Why Gen-Y is Going to Change the Web.”  Currently Daniel works in the treasury department of a Fortune 500 company and is also working on his newest venture, founding a chapter of EMS in Dallas.

Shaun Tan - Founder, Director
Mr. Tan is a summa cum laude graduate from UCLA with a B.S. in Business and Economics. A serial entrepreneur, Mr. Tan has started and bought four separate $1,000,000+ companies. Currently Shaun is the President of Solara Engineering, an aerospace manufacturer based in the San Fernando Valley. Shaun is also the Managing Partner of Avid Capital, a buyout firm that focuses on distressed companies and opportunistic investments.

LEADERSHIP ALUMNI

2007

David Duel - President
James Campbell-Vice President

2006

Ghyrn Loveness -President
Megan Eberling-Vice President
Joseph Lei - Campus Director