Name David Choi Role Entrepreneur | Organizations founded Nanogea | |
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Books Values-Centered Entrepreneurs and Their Companies Education University of California, Los Angeles (1997) | ||
David Y. Choi is an American entrepreneur and professor.
Contents
Academic career
Choi graduated in 1989 from University of California, Berkeley with a BS in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research and an MS in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research in 1990. In 1997 he then graduated with a PhD in Management from UCLA. Choi was a fellow of the Leadership Initiative at Harvard Business School. There he co-wrote a paper entitled "The Genes of Strategy Innovation" with Gary Hamel and Liisa Valikangas, in which he compared the molecular function of the human genome in an exploration of how innovations arise in modern economies.
Choi joined the Entrepreneurship Faculty at Loyola Marymount University in 2003. In 2005, Choi produced a paper that showed that Asian-Americans were far less likely to be hired as executives at Caucasian-owned businesses than Asian-American owned businesses. In 2006 he produced a study that showed online piracy was a driver of disruptive innovation in the economy, stating that online piracy could be examined from a management and entrepreneurship perspective, rather than purely through a legal prism.
Choi has been Director of Loyola Marymount University's Hilton Center for Entrepreneurship and has been Director of the Business Incubator since 2012. He has been known for his use of new technology in the classroom. In 2011 Choi was the winner of the Innovative Pedagogy for Entrepreneurship Education award from the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship.
Business career and studies
Choi was a consultant for The Boston Consulting Group, corporate executive, and entrepreneur prior to his work as a professor. Choi was interim president of Matinee Media from 2006 to 2008. In 2010 he co-founded and became both CFO and Chief Business Officer of Nanogea. He was also a Secretary, Treasurer and Director for the company Heavy Earth Resources between 2011 and 2013. In August 2005, he was featured on the television show Making It!, where he was featured regarding his company GPI.
Choi has been interviewed by the media regarding local entrepreneurial successes in the Los Angeles region. In one of these interviews Choi has advised that the best time for a company to raise financing is when it least needs it. He has also stated that when individuals look at working for themselves, they often overlook the possibility of purchasing an existing small business. In another article, Choi has discussed entrepreneurial opportunities that cost less than $1 million to buy into.
He has also stated that an investor should look for long-term opportunities, as ideas that have a fast profit turnaround are rare, and not to ignore the fundamentals of a company in lieu of latest financials. He has also argued that US and its citizens need to invest more in the infrastructure of the region and major projects in order to create significant growth, instead of cutting back on current investment.