Board of Directors

Vivian Shimoyama has directed initiatives for public, non-profit, and private sector organizations setting strategic vision, and managing organization growth which resulted in economic impact. She is a recognized expert on small businesses and has advocated for thousands of small business owners through local, state, national and international initiatives. Dedicated to growing small businesses she heads two ventures — Growth Small Business and Scale Smarter Partners, LLC, these firms accelerate business growth through guided tools that allow companies to thrive. She built and directed the team for the Southern California Region Initiative for Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses, and has advisee a range of organizations and Fortune 100 companies on total quality and business process improvement programs, small business programs, and economic inclusion.

• Long Beach Economic Development Commission, Commissioner
• California Small Business Association and CA Education Foundation, Board member
• Long Beach Center for Economic Inclusion, Founding Board
• Honored by the U.S. Congress and U.S. Small Business Administration with the National
• Women in Business Advocate Award
• National Women’s Business Council, Served as federal appointee
• Pacific Gateway Workforce Investment Board; Chair Emeritus

Dr. Robertson is the Business Development and Information Systems Officer at UCLA Technology Development Group. He is currently involved in the marketing, patenting, and licensing of University of California, Los Angeles’ extensive life science technology portfolio, focusing on small molecule oncology and gene therapy technologies.

With 10+ years of technology transfer experience, he brings some of the industry’s best practices to UCLA TDG to help UCLA continue being a world-wide leader in licensing and entrepreneurism. He is also responsible for the implementation and adoption of several information technology tools aimed at improving the efficiency of the office.

• Columbia Technology Ventures, Graduate Fellow
• AUTM, Metrics & Surveys Portfolio, Cabinet Member
• AUTM, US Annual Licensing Survey, Chair and Committee Member

John P. Keisler is currently the CEO & Managing Partner for Sunstone Management Inc., a venture capital firm located in Southern California that invests in diverse early-stage technology startups through innovative public-private-partnerships that blend unique expertise across government, education, and private sectors.

Previous to Sunstone Management, Mr. Keisler spent over 20 years in public service, most recently as the Economic Development Director for the City of Long Beach. With approximately 500,000 residents, the City of Long Beach is the 7th largest city in California and a major engine of economic development for the region and the nation through its university, history of aerospace manufacturing, and its international seaport. Under his leadership, the organization created an innovative Blueprint for Economic Development, and helped to facilitate an historic increase of private sector investment in the city. The mission of the award-winning organization, and John’s personal passion, is to increase equitable economic opportunities for workers, investors, and entrepreneurs in Long Beach and throughout California.

John continues to live in Long Beach with his beautiful wife Laura and his two sons Christopher (12) and Benjamin (15), where he serves on a number of non-profit boards and coaches youth sports.

• City of Long Beach, Management Assistant (2005)
• Animal Care Services, Bureau Manager (2008-2011)
• Parks, Recreation & Marine Department, Business Operations Manager (2011-2013)
• Long Beach Police Department, CFO (2013-2015)
• City’s First Innovation Team Director (2015-Present)

Payal Kamdar founded VSolvit (pronounced: “We Solve it”) in 2006 as a technology services company focused on the Federal Government. VSolvit is a successful Woman Owned technology services provider with various Federal Government customers. VSolvit’s expertise in
Data Analytics, Business Intelligence, Data Warehousing, Facilities Management, Geographic Information Systems, and Application Development has been recognized at a national level.
Payal measures her success by two criteria: how well VSolvit serves its customers and community, and how well VSolvit enables its team members to elevate their performance.

Payal is a graduate of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business Program. She has participated in the Port Hueneme Industry Council Partnership, LA Regional Small Business Development Center Board, and served as Vice President of the Channel Island AUVSI Chapter. Payal believes in “Made in USA, Stays in USA”; 100 percent of VSolvit staff works or lives within the US. Payal is a role model for her two daughters and mentors select businesses for future growth.

John Shen is a serial entrepreneur and a big advocate of entrepreneurship and US small businesses. A creative pioneer in both industries, he founded American Lending Center in 2009 and Sunstone Management in 2015 in Long Beach, California. American Lending Center (ALC) is a private nonbank lending institution and nationally recognized leader in small business lending that’s successfully financed senior loan products to 90 qualified EB-5 projects in 13 states and contributed to a combined construction and business expansion budget of over $1.5 billion. ALC’s lending practice has successfully created more than 15,000 new jobs nationwide since 2009. Sunstone Management is a diversified private capital management firm that provides a range of early-stage venture capital, real estate, and fixed income funds to qualified and accredited investors. The firm delivers new and exciting options for economic growth through innovative public-private partnerships, making use of its unique experience across government, education, and private sectors. Sunstone is the founding private organization and capital partner of the LBA.

• Undergraduate degree from the Law School of Peking University
• Masters Degree from Duke University
• Appointed Economic Development Commissioner for the City of Long Beach under Mayor Robert Garcia
• Honored with the “Forever Duke” award from Duke university in 2015.
• SBA 504 Lender of the Year award for best in small business lending.

As a board member, Wade supports the LBA in its mission to accelerate early stage startups with seed funding, mentorship and exit strategy. Wade is a professor of economics at California State University, Long Beach and Director of the CSULB Institute for Innovation & Entrepreneurship. Wade works primarily in the areas of risk and analysis related to business development and sustainability for local economic development. He has worked on research and development projects for the Downtown Long Beach Alliance, CalRecycle, The World Bank, U.S. Agency for International Development, the U.S. Forest Service, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Government of Indonesia, and has been a visiting scholar at Harvard University Institute for International Development.

• • Dr. Martin has been published in numerous academic journals
  • Edited 3 books
  • Been a commentator on Market Place on NPR as well as for numerous newspapers
  • He has also served as editor-in-chief of the academic journal Contemporary Economic PolicyAccounting Program