Announcing the 2020-21 Albers-SJIM Business Plan Competition Final Round Judges

March 19, 2021

SU IEC announces the 2020-21 Albers-SJIM Business Plan Competition Final Round Judges! 

  • Haresh Ved: Haresh Ved is a seasoned technocrat with 25+ years of proven experience in the corporate and startup world. He is the Founder and Managing General Partner of Cronus Ventures, an early-stage VC firm he launched in 2000. Additionally, he is the Founder and Chair of TiE Angels Groups Seattle (TAGS), an angel investment group that promotes collaboration between angel groups across the TiE chapters globally. Haresh spent more than a decade holding key leadership roles at Microsoft Corporation, creating pen-centric and mobile computing technologies, systems and products, including Tablet PCs, Windows for Pen Computing, Windows CE, Handheld and Pocket PCs.
  • Brenda Christensen: Brenda Christensen spent more than three decades in the computer and storage networking industries. She has worked in sales, marketing, and engineering at Xerox, Houghton Mifflin, Digital Equipment and Adaptec. She served as the founding Vice-President of Marketing for the data storage networking company, Brocade Communications. Recognized in the Storage Networking Industry Association Hall of Fame, Brenda has sat on the boards of start-up companies in Israel, India and France. Additionally, she is the author of “The $8 Man,” which presents first person stories from seventeen immigrants from India to the US and Canada in the 1960’s and 1970’s.
  • Phillip Stein: For 27 years, Phillip Stein was the owner and CEO of a chain of H&E Do-It-Yourself Centers and H&E Home Centers in Victorville, California. During his time as CEO, Mr. Stein expanded the company to include more than 500 employees and seven retail storesSince selling the business in 2008 and retiring, Mr. Stein has acted as a family and start-up business consultant, serving industries such as interior design, candy manufacturing, and cement recycling among others. Phillip has held various leadership and board member positions at organizations such as the Micro Surgical Foundation (New York), Executive Service Corps (California), Jewish Federation (Seattle) and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Washington state).
  • Madhu Singh: Madhu Singh is the Founder and Chief Legal Officer at Foundry Law Group. She is the supervising legal mentor and a regular speaker at Wayfind Legal, a pro bono service for nonprofits. She was also on the Board of the Women’s Business Exchange and served as its past President. In addition to her practice, she just completed her seventh year as an Adjunct Faculty at the Community Development and Entrepreneurship Clinic at Seattle University School of Law. Additionally, she continues to advise and volunteer at local nonprofits.

In the Albers-SJIM Business Plan Competition, students from Seattle University and St. Joseph’s Institute of Management in Bangalore, India come together in collaboration by creating business solutions for a pressing social problem. Teams are intentionally made of students from both schools to consider the causes, effects, and possible solutions to global issues from a larger perspective.