Daniel Tellalian

FOUNDEr & CEO

Daniel Tellalian is the Founder and CEO of Angel City Advisors. Angel City was created to provide an accessible platform for investors, entrepreneurs, policy leaders, and community voices to come together in pursuit of a better world. It is a place where market-oriented solutions can be designed and executed to address complex issues. Daniel comes to Angel City with over two decades of experience in impact investing, social entrepreneurship, business mentoring, financial transactions, and community economic development.

Dr. Susan Windham Bannister

A nationally and internationally-recognized innovation executive, Dr. Windham Bannister served as founding President and CEO of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Initiative, the brainchild of former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick. Sue's role was to develop, implement and lead the ground-up strategy for the $1 billion investment. She currently is President and CEO of Biomedical Growth Strategies, a boutique strategy advisory firm serving the life sciences industry. Among other activities, she advises the Bioscience Los Angeles County (BioLA) initiative as its Board Chair.

BELINDA (LIN) BARDWELL

As a proud tribal citizen of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of the Odawa Indians, Belinda (Lin) Bardwell has spent her adult life working to improve the lives of Native Americans. She believes in integrating traditional teachings with today’s principles to see Native Americans excel. In order to accomplish this, she values cultural exchange so that non-Natives get a better understanding of Indigenous culture and knowledge.

Mónica Carlos

Monica Carlos is a seasoned project manager and community developer. With 30 years of track record in Southern California communities, Monica engages up close with local leaders to design and construct street-level improvements in underinvested neighborhoods.  Her urban planning, facilitation, construction, and project management skills are elements of local capacity building initiatives and catalytic projects throughout Greater Los Angeles.

farahnaz forozan 

Over the past two decades, Dr. Forozan has built a spectrum of expertise and experience pertaining to pharmaceutical, biotech, diagnostics, clinical trials, and CRO/Central lab industries with specialized expertise in oncology, immuno-oncology, neurology, and microbiomes through an array of roles at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Genzyme, LabCorp/Covance, and Bristol Myers Squibb.

Troy Foster

Troy Foster is the firmwide chair of the Emerging Companies & Venture Capital practice at Perkins Coie and is Angel City Advisors’ general counsel. He has focused on emerging companies and venture capital law for his entire career, and has substantial experience taking private companies through early stages in route to mergers, sales, and public offerings.

Linda Griego

Linda Griego’s career uniquely melds community/public service with private enterprise. She serves as chair of the MLK Health & Wellness Community Development Corporation, which she founded in 2015, and serves as trustee of the Charles R. Drew University of Science and Medicine.  Ms. Griego was appointed by the LA County Board of Supervisor to serve on the LA County Economic & Resiliency Task Force charged with economic recovery efforts during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Elwood Hopkins

Elwood Hopkins is a national expert on place-based initiatives, funder collaboratives, and urban policy. He is the Founder and Managing Director of Emerging Markets, Inc. and Executive Director of its nonprofit counterpart, Emerging Markets Development Corporation. For nearly two decades, the double-bottom line hybrid organization has assisted major banks and financial institutions in carrying out place-based initiatives in low-income neighborhoods across the nation. Recently exploring various models of neighborhood investment trusts as a Kresge Presidential Fellow, you can read some of his thinking in an article recently published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review.

Vikram Jadhav

Vikram is a process modernization and change management leader working to improve the way institutions approach their engagement practices. Working across a range of disciplines, he designs and implements low cost and scalable solutions that drive internal collaboration, member and employee engagement, and ROI.

Ariel Jaduszliwer

Ariel is a Managing Partner at Brainstorm Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm that invests US and Mexican startups and whose portfolio includes unicorns such as Zappos, OpenTable, KIO Networks, and more recently Turing. Ariel is a Kauffman Fellow and Mentor. He was the Vice President of Pacific Community Management, a pioneering growth equity impact investment firm, and still sits on the boards of several of its portfolio companies. Ariel also serves on the board of Defy Ventures, a nonprofit that provides entrepreneurship training to incarcerated people.

Yscaira Jimenez

Yscaira Jimenez is an innovator, investor and entrepreneur at the intersection of education and work. She splits her time between helping learners and earners reach their full potential, coaching entrepreneurs, and investing in promising early stage ventures. Her most recent entrepreneurial endeavor was as founder and CEO of LaborX, the LinkedIn for the LinkedOut, where she was linking people who are currently linked out of the knowledge economy to good jobs. Yscaira has a passion for social entrepreneurship.  A 2014 Echoing Green Fellow and an Entrepreneur in Residence at MIT, she is also advancing scholarship on the unique nature of social entrepreneurship.

Kacy Keys

Kacy Keys is a real estate development executive, and land use and transactional real estate attorney, who has made her career specializing in urban infill and transit-oriented development projects. She has overseen the development of over $1 billion in real estate assets with experience in residential, retail, office and mixed-use product types. She is currently active as an independent developer in the Southern California market through Praxis Development Group.

Mary Lee

Mary M. Lee consults with community based organizations, public officials, government agencies and philanthropy to dismantle racially biased systems and structures and build just and equitable neighborhoods. She is a former Deputy Director of PolicyLink, a national advocacy organization working to advance racial equity, economic and social justice.

Jason Neville

Jason Neville is running a place-based NOLA nonprofit revitalizing the Lafitte Greenway. Jason is a redevelopment professional and affordable housing innovator who’s passion is working with people to make cities better. Jason has fifteen years’ experience designing and delivering catalytic, inclusive revitalization projects in underinvested neighborhoods, including experience in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors in Los Angeles and New Orleans. Jason recently published a popular 1-hour course on Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) on Planetizen.

IMANI Nicole

Imani Nicole is a creative chameleon, community bridger and builder who keeps a pulse on LA culture. She utilizes her background in marketing, communications and copywriting to convey mission, vision, and values of socially impactful organizations across Los Angeles. As a consultant, she has conducted market landscape analyses for enterprises such a legacy children’s advocacy organization, as well as ecosystems such as the social innovation sector within Los Angeles County. Imani has also consulted and assembled partnerships for wellness brands, food businesses, and other social enterprises in the LA area.

Bonnie Oliva-Porter

Bonnie Oliva-Porter is a human capital strategist dedicated to building high-performing organizations that serve, advocate for, and build equity for underserved communities. Bonnie has over 15 years of experience across multiple industries, from tech and VC to non-profit and government. Previously, she was a founding team member at Tala, a mobile technology and data science company providing financial products and services in emerging markets.

Zsolt Pethe

Zsolt Pethe is a seasoned impact investing professional with over two decades of experience in business development, banking, and management consulting across the private and nonprofit sectors. His investment perspective is informed by his endeavors in the realm of social entrepreneurship.

Marc Rand

Marc Rand is the Managing Partner of Community Capital Advisors, a strategic investing consultant focused on place-based foundations. While he has experience across a broad array of investment solutions, Marc has particular expertise in designing and managing community loan funds.

Jennifer Samson

Jennifer Samson is a real estate, PropTech, and change management leader. She has successfully developed and managed over $150 million in catalytic urban real estate projects spanning affordable housing, park development, public right of way infrastructure, and public art installations. Jennifer is experienced in placemaking, the nexus of built and open space development, and community engagement. Jen recently joined the PropTech start-up, Curbio ($100 million in venture backing to date), as the VP of Customer Success responsible for leading the project delivery of the organization.

Sonal Sharma

Sonal Sharma is a student at Brown University, majoring in Business Economics with a concentration in entrepreneurship.  She believes that community challenges can be best addressed with innovation and creativity.  After a successful summer internship, Sonal has continued her work with the firm over consecutive fall and winter internships while pursuing her formal studies.  Sonal now contributes as an associate, providing both primary and secondary research towards Angel City business plans, strategic frameworks, and investment due diligences. 

Thomas Tseng

Thomas Tseng is Principal of Sengo Insights, a market research agency with global capabilities extending from the U.S. to the Asia Pacific. With over 20 years of industry experience, Thomas is a seasoned market research professional and has amassed a long track record delivering actionable consumer insights for a diverse range of clients spanning Fortune 500 clients, non-profit organizations, academia, and government agencies.

Kiara Vandergriff

Kiara Vandergriff is a New York native, Marine Corps veteran and proud mom raising three beautiful children as part of an on-base Marine family.  She has adapted her professional skills to virtual business management, supporting small businesses in operations, systems, team-building, and special projects. 

Kiara earned a Business Administration degree with focuses on Marketing and Management from the University of Hawaii West Oahu. Aiming to equip clients for success, Kiara’s provides online business management support for Angel City Advisors.

Brian Wasige

Brian is the founder and CEO of Patrium Health, a health-tech company focused on transforming home-based healthcare delivery. Prior to Patrium, Brian was an Advisor at Avivar Capital where he supported the team with investment diligence, thematic research and analysis. He also represented the firm in the T3 innovation network, which explores and funds the use of Web 3.0 technologies (artificial intelligence, machine learning etc.) to reinvent the future of work. 

Theresa Wilson

As a mission and community investing professional, Theresa is passionate about leveraging market-based solutions and innovative partnerships to accelerate economic development, alleviate poverty, and facilitate social justice. Theresa has 10+ years of experience working with small businesses, supporting the development of strategic investing portfolios, conducting debt, equity, and fund investment due diligence, and monitoring strategic investment portfolios.

Joanne Bai

Joanne Bai was a 2020 summer intern. Joanne’s internship focused on research into the definition of social innovation and the creation of a regional database of social enterprises as part of an ecosystem catalyst project. She also researched neighborhood investment trust models.

James Dallape

James Dallape was a winter 2022 Angel City intern as a Brown University senior, focused on Urban Studies and Economics.  As an editor and copyeditor for French literary magazine La Publication and the Brown Policial Review, respectively, James has contributed his skills to the editing and publication of an Equity Framework Document focused on investment into revitalization of the Grand River corridor in western Michigan.

Gaya Gupta

Gaya Gupta was a 2021 summer intern. Gaya’s internship focused on the attraction of community grocers to food deserts, research and interviews for a community benefits agreement dialogue, as well as the development of a regional database of social enterprises for funder-investor review. Gaya is now reporting for the NYT.

Joseph Madour

Joseph Madour was a 2021 summer intern at Angel City Advisors. Joseph’s internship focused on the development of community investment trust models, regulatory hurdles for community lenders, as well as data acquisition for our Equity Mapbook. Joseph is now in medical school.

Martine Niwe

Martine Niwe is a 2024 winter intern focused on exploring the intersection between visual arts, data, and social justice. Her roles at Brown University as the illustrator of the Black Star Journal, first-year liaison of the Black Consulting Initiative, and Bonner Scholar, contribute to the skills necessary to aid Angel City’s goal of connecting social enterprises. Martine’s internship is focused on researching, refining, and expanding Angel City’s existing dataset of social enterprises.    

Mason Usher

Mason Usher is a 2024 winter intern studying Neuroscience and Computer Science. He is a pre-medical third-year student at Brown University with a background in cancer dormancy research and interests in neuroimaging, medical illustration, and rock climbing. Mason's internship is focused on developing an assessment of the life sciences innovation ecosystem in Southern California. He is looking to gain a new perspective on the influence of community projects on biomedical research and developments.