Staff

Paul Jerde
Executive Director
Phone: 303-492-5576

Executive Director of the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship. Currently serves on the Advisory Board of CU’s Technology Transfer Office, Mr. Jerde co-founded Corboy and Jerde, LLC, an investment banking firm specializing in private transactions for emerging growth and medium sized businesses. Previously, Mr. Jerde was CEO and Chairman of Requisite Technology, Inc., an early stage electronic commerce information services business. Prior to Requisite he served as CEO of Cortech, Inc. a public biotechnology research firm and before that was CEO of Mountain Medical Equipment, a public home-healthcare medical products company. Mr. Jerde received his BA in Mathematics from Dartmouth College and an MBA from the College of Business and Administration (now the Leeds School of Business) at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Dr. Stephen Lawrence
Academic Director
Phone: 303-492-4351

Stephen Lawrence is the Deming Center Academic Director and Chair of the Management and Entrepreneurship Division.  He teaches entrepreneurship, international management, technology management, and supply chain management, and has received several teaching awards over the years. His research interests include technology and entrepreneurship, technology selection and acquisition, and commercialization of sustainable energy. He holds BS and MS degrees from Purdue University and a PhD in business from Carnegie-Mellon.

Alison Peters
Managing Director
Phone: 303-492-3490

Alison Peters has served at the Deming Center since 2005, with a focus on clean energy, natural products, and sustainability. Prior to joining the Deming Center, Alison served as the Director of Environmental Affairs for the City of Boulder. She has also worked for Rocky Mountain Institute, Microbusiness Development, and served as a consultant to nonprofit and small business clients.  She has a BA in political science/economics from Yale and an MA in economics from Stanford.

Trent Yang
RASEI Entrepreneurship & Business Development Director
Phone: 303-492-4645

Trent Yang joined the Deming Center in 2009 to coordinate business outreach and commercialization for the campus-wide Renewable and Sustainable Energy Initiative.  Most recently, he worked with Globespan Capital Partners to establish a cleantech practice.  He has also worked with Booz Allen Hamilton, MIT’s Energy Initiative and a water resources startup company.  Trent has a BS in aerospace engineering from CU,  as well as an MS in aerospace engineering  and an MS in technology and policy, both from MIT.

Patty Graff
Associate Director
Phone: 303-735-4970

Patty Graff has been involved the Deming Center since 2001. She coordinates student programs such as internships and is the project manager for the international Cleantech Venture Challenge (CVC), the Center’s signature business plan competition. She has also worked in marketing for companies such as Leopard Communications.  Her focus is to ensure that undergraduate, graduate and doctoral entrepreneurship students significantly improve their probability of success as a result of participating in the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship program.