Forward Together

Entrepreneurs-in-Residence and Executives-in-Residence (EIR)

The School of Management at California Lutheran University aspires to offer leading edge, modern business education to its students. Maintaining active relationships with companies, employers, managers, and thought leaders is an important element in bringing fresh knowledge and applied views into our programs and classrooms. Our Executives-in-Residence and Entrepreneurs-in-Residence play a particularly important role in this.

As senior leaders, our Executives-in-Residence have held executive leadership positions in which they have demonstrated managerial acumen; Entrepreneurs-in-Residence have started and grown successful businesses.

Typically appointed for up to three years (renewable), our Executives-in-Residence and Entrepreneurs-in-Residence share their expertise with us by mentoring students, guest speaking in classes and to other audiences, participating in alumni and community outreach, and by taking an active role in advising the dean, the faculty, and the advisory councils of the school.

We are glad to currently have the following leaders serve the School of Management in this capacity:

Entrepreneurs-in-Residence

Jim Cathcart

Jim Cathcart

Author

Jim Cathcart, CSP, CPAE is a Sales & Marketing Hall of Fame member (2012) and the author of 18 books including the international best sellers: Relationship Selling and The Acorn Principle. He is an industry leader among professional speakers and holds virtually every award and credential in that field. His over 3,000 presentations worldwide to over 2,000 separate clients has given him a broad perspective on the keys to business success in any field.

His decade of involvement with Cal Lutheran is evidence of his commitment to helping people succeed. In addition to his domestic business he is an active speaker and advisor to clients around the world. In his spare time Jim is a mountain trail runner and a professional entertainer.

Kelly Kimball Portrait

Kelly Kimball

Founder and Chairman, Vitu

Kelly Kimball is a technology entrepreneur, political strategist, business consultant and sought-after lecturer. Kelly has pioneered various disruptive business enterprises and grew them to dominant positions in their newly created marketplaces. In addition to his role as Founder and Chairman of Vitu, Kelly is on numerous director and advisory boards of companies with “impact” missions in the domains of energy, health and finance.  Kelly is also a mentor for Unreasonable Group – an organization dedicated to entrepreneurs solving global problems. Kelly has lectured at numerous colleges and universities on politics and entrepreneurship and is currently outlining a book on disruptive business strategies.

Michael McCrary

Michael McCrary

Founder and CEO, PureSpectrum

Michael McCrary is the founder and CEO of PureSpectrum, a modern-day sample automation platform based in Los Angeles California. In 2003, Michael joined Greenfield Online where he became the company’s SVP of North America Sales. He played an instrumental role in Greenfield’s public offering (Nasdaq: SRVY) and eventual sale to Microsoft for $486 million. From 2008 to 2014, Michael helped pioneer both Cint as Managing Director and Lucid as President. Given his depth of experience, deep customer relationships and with the support of his family, Michael went full time as an entrepreneur and founded PureSpectrum in 2015 which is one of the fastest growing consumer insight tech firms.

Executives-in-Residence


Primo Custudio

Primo Custodio

Vice President Human Resources, Operation & Technical Services, NBC Universal, ret. 2016

Primo Custodio retired in March 2016, after a career spanning 44 years. He held the position of Vice President of Human Resources for NBC Universal since September 2001. In this role, Custodio was responsible for overseeing the Human Resources function on the West Coast for the Operations & Technical Services consisting of Universal Studio Operations including production and post-production and West Coast Technical Operations consisting of engineering & technology, and Universal Technical Operations. Custodio began his career with what is now NBC Universal in 1972, holding various management positions in Employee Benefits, Training & Development, Labor Relations, Staffing, and Employee Relations. During his tenure with NBCUniversal, he has overseen the Human Resources team through 6 significant mergers and acquisitions.

Custodio holds an M.B.A. in Management and Organizational Behavior and a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management from California Lutheran University. 

Nick Shauer Portrait

Nick Shauer, MBA, SPHR

Vice President Human Resources, Tutor-Perini

Nick Shauer has spent his career addressing significant business profitable growth opportunities by building people, program, policy and technology infrastructure solutions and effectively leading others to more sophisticated and efficient operations. The infrastructures have built shareholder value by creating rewarding and retentive employee experiences and external facing employee brands, leading to maximum team member productivity. His attention has been focused on all areas of people management, with heavy attention on needs that address macro and micro economic conditions, and organizational culture change. He currently leads human resources at Tutor-Perini, a $4.5B, 8,700 team, industry leading construction and engineering business. As a leader at Tutor-Perini, he is addressing market driven challenges in acquiring and retaining talent, growing leaders and ensuring quality succession of middle and senior managers. The leadership team is engaged to ensure the company is a great place to work. In addition to audit and HR experiences at Price Waterhouse and Kinko’s early in his career, Nick has supported public boards, executives and all team members as the top HR executive at PennyMac and Guitar Center. Nick earned an MBA and a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting. He has keynoted and facilitated talent management seminars and enjoys an appointment as an Executive-in-Residence at California Lutheran University. 

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