Advisory Board
Guided by Industry Leaders
William Wang
William Wang CEO and Founder of VIZIO, Inc. was born in Taiwan and relocated to the US with his family at the age of 12. He graduated from USC with an Engineering degree and has started and sold several of his businesses and is a great example of a “visionary serial entrepreneur.” In 2002 his family and a close group of friends and former investors founded VIZIO. William’s success has gained the brand numerous awards including Good Housekeeping’s Best Big-Screens, CNET’s Top 10 Holiday Gifts to mention a few and has guided VIZIO into the #1 brand of HDTVs in the U.S. Recently, VIZIO has won the #1 Ranking in the Inc. 500 for Top Companies in Computers and Electronics for the 2nd consecutive year, Ad Age’s Hottest Brands of 2009, Fast Company’s Top 10 Most Innovative CE Companies along with Walmart’s Supplier of the Year awards. Personal awards include Ernst & Young’s and The Orange County Business Journal’s Entrepreneur of the Year honors.
Atif Rafiq
Former President – MGM Resorts Int’l (NYSE: MGM)
Atif Rafiq is the former President of Commercial and Growth of MGM Resorts Int’l. Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Rafiq served as the Chief Digital Officer and Global Chief Information Officer at Volvo Car AB since January 2017 and, prior to that, as Chief Digital Officer and Corporate Senior Vice President at McDonald’s from 2013 through 2016.
Peter Pham
Co-Founder & Managing Director – Science Venture
Peter Pham leads the effort to raise money for Science incubated companies which has totaled $400M. By focusing on business development throughout his career and building a robust and strong network, Peter has sharpened his skills in identifying the best talent behind strong brand identity, as seen with his hands-on work with PlayVS, Liquid Death, and Mammoth Media. Previously as an operator, he has helped companies like Photobucket as employee No. 5, spearheading growth and corporate development, thereby leading the company to its $300M acquisition to MySpace, as well as lending his insights as cofounder and CEO of BillShrink which was acquired by MasterCard in 2012. He is also an angel advisor to companies like Nextdoor, Ring, and Medium. He shares his personal insights in a post he wrote about investing in Liquid Death.
Wing Lam
Founder – Wahoo’s Fish Taco
Wing Lam is the co-founder of Wahoo’s Fish Taco. Today, Wahoo’s has over 50 locations in Southern California and Colorado, Hawaii and Texas, with plans to add new locations in Arizona. Mr. Lam is very active in national and local civic activities as a volunteer and serves as a director for numerous non-profit corporations. Mr. Lam has a Bachelor of Science in Finance from San Diego State University. He is an active member of the Orange County Chapter of the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO). Mr. Lam and his family reside in Newport Beach, CA
Rob R. Ukropina
Managing Partner – Black Diamond Ventures
In 2008, Rob joined Black Diamond Venture, a venture capital firm, as the Managing Partner heading up their Newport Beach office. In 1992, Rob founded Overnite Express with the idea of picking up after FedEx and UPS – 9PM – and delivering California, Arizona and Nevada. Overnite Express is now the premier west coast small package overnight delivery company. In February 2008, Overnite Express was sold to Norco Corporation. Rob sites on several entrepreneurial company boards, including C2 Reprographics, Allyance Communications, United Document Storage, MoGreet, NEI Treatment Systems, GameDar, and e-recycling. In 2004, Rob was awarded “Excellence in Entrepreneurship” by the Orange County Business Journal. In 2005, Rob was named Father of the Year; Orange County by the Father’s Day Council. In 2007, Rob was selected by the SBA as “Small Business Person of the Year – California”. Rob is a guest lecturer at USC, UCLA, Chapman, UCI, The Young Entrepreneurs Organization, The Christian Entrepreneur Organization, The Entrepreneurship Institute and The Orange County Business Forum. In 2008, Rob was the keynote speaker at the Harvard Business School Annual Entrepreneur Conference. In 2009, Rob was the keynote speaker at the USA SBE conference. Rob is a graduate of the USC Marshall Business School.
