About Us

Mojgan has 25 years of non-profit/philanthropy experience in the education sector, with a significant part working with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and project-based learning initiative.

She has a Master's Degree in Information Science from the University of Illinois, where she was a Visiting Assistant Professor. Mojgan has worked in the IT/Biotech sector, and start-ups such as Saba Software and BaseHealth, showcasing her extensive experience as an entrepreneur in the information technology sector. Her passion is mentoring young professionals.

Prof. Tabesh is a Senior Research Fellow at UC Berkeley, previously a visiting professor and research fellow at Stanford University and distinguished faculty of the Sharif University of Technology.

His research interest is AI-based cognitive learning, his work at Stanford conceived as an online interactive learning platform. The platform is under development at Polyup which he co-founded as an Edtech startup in Silicon Valley. Yahya also won the Erdős international award in 2010 for his sustained and distinguished contribution to the enrichment of math and computer education.

Prof. Ellis taught mathematics at West Valley College for over 30 years and has taught at the University of California at Santa Barbara and the United States Military Academy at West Point.

He earned degrees in mathematics from Oberlin College and Ohio State University and is the recipient of the AMATYC Mathematics Excellence Award and the California Community College Hayward Award recognizing his lifetime achievement in education. He is also the recipient of the Teachers Teaching with Technology Leadership Award and is a co-author of over 25 books on the learning and teaching of mathematics using technology.

He speaks regularly at regional, national, and international conferences and has been a Project Coordinator for the California Basic Skills Initiative (BSI) and was a Senior Mathematics Advisor for Texas Instruments, consulting on mathematical software technology and professional development materials and workshops. He is currently the Mathematics Editor of the Pacific Crest Publishing Company.

Maeve Richard served as the first head of diversity and inclusion at SoFi. Previously, she led the Stanford Graduate School of Business Career Management Center (CMC) as the Assistant Dean and Director, where she focused the CMC on equipping and empowering nearly 1000 graduate students and hundreds of alumni annually in their pursuit of career and life aspirations.

At Stanford, Maeve was accountable for designing and delivering the CMC's career advising, employer engagement, job postings platforms, and career education events, services, and resources.

Prior to joining Stanford, she served in a series of executive and management positions overseeing finance, relationship management, human resources, information technology, program management, operations, change management, and corporate finance in various companies, including McAfee, Sun Microsystems, Levi Strauss & Co., JPMorgan, and SRI International.

Maeve is an advocate for equity, access, and self-determination.

Kaz is a partner and CFO at RONA Holdings Investment company and has over 25 years of experience in financial management, spanning startups to large international corporations in the United States, Japan, and Brazil. As a senior finance executive, he recently helped raise over $150 million for start-ups, including Genesys Labs, Centerbeam Inc., and Reply.com. In addition, he brokered M&A deals among Brazilian and foreign companies in logistics services.

Before that, Kaz served as Director of Business Planning and Strategies at Visa International and Director of Business Planning and Strategies at Prestige International, Japan’s leading CRM solutions provider, during its pre-IPO phase. Kaz holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Doshisha University in Japan and a Masters of Business Administration from East Carolina University.

Rhonda Shrader is the Executive Director of the Berkeley Haas Entrepreneurship Program and the Bay Area Node for NSF I-Corps. She teaches two graduate-level Innovation & Entrepreneurship courses: Lean Transfer and Startup Disco. As an entrepreneur, Shrader was an early team member of MIT-spinout Organogenesis, one of the first publicly traded regenerative medicine companies. She has founded—or was an early-stage team member at—startups in biotech, behavioral health, nonprofits, retail, and AI. She was a long-time mentor for UCSF’s Idea-to-IPO course and is an active advisor for the NASA spinoff BrainAid. Shrader serves as a faculty member for UC LAUNCH’s Accelerator, the NSF’s National I-Corps program, and the U.S. State Department’s GIST program. She earned an undergraduate degree in neuropsychology, pre-medical studies from Harvard, and an MBA from Berkeley-Haas.

Farzad Naimi is a serial entrepreneur, philanthropist, and co-founder - managing partner at RONA Holdings investment company. He brings over 30 years of successful Silicon Valley startup leadership, including co-founding and being part of the initial team of four startups with successful IPOs in the U.S., Japan, and Brazil (Centex Telemanagement, NASDAQ, Prestige International, NIKKEI, Genesys Labs- NASDAQ, subsequently acquired by Alcatel for nearly $2 billion in 2000 and Cielo, BOVESPA, raised over $4 billion, one of the largest IPOs in the world in 2009). Farzad also co-founded RONA Holdings investment company to address opportunities in Disruptive Technologies, Biotechnology, and Artificial Intelligence, with 18 successful Exits. Farzad is an advisor to UC Berkeley AMENA Center for Entrepreneurship & Development.

Stu is a University of Illinois graduate of art and design. He started his career in communication arts, focusing on digital media and branding. Most of his career history was in Chicago Marketing and Ad agencies working on brands such as Absolut Vodka, Ford, P&G, Disney Vacation Club, Discover, Yahoo, FujiFilm, Pearson, Kellogg's, Coca-Cola, Saturn, Allstate, and Adobe. Since he moved to the bay area, he shifted his attention to start-ups, cultivating more multidisciplinary skills to direct, manage, innovate, and develop small teams to achieve efficient brand results fast.

Tallan Haghighatgou is a 2023 cum laude graduate from the UC Berkeley Economics Department and previously graduated from West Valley Community College. She served as a research lead at the Student Policy Institute of Berkeley, where she directed research on key policy issues regarding the U.S. student loan crisis. Tallan currently works as the WIN Director of Student Affairs, helping the Executive Director expand the WIN program and the United Community Alliance across schools in the Bay Area. She initially started as WIN's homelessness project intern during the program's pilot launch and then went on to project co-lead for the WIN-sponsored Homelessness and Foster Student Initiative. Tallan was awarded the 2021 WVMCCD Student Trustee Award for academic excellence and extensive service to the community. Moreover, Tallan was also awarded the Ed Walsh Outstanding Service Award during her Presidency for the Alpha Gamma Sigma Honor Society chapter of West Valley College.