Carmen Palafox graduated from the Executive MBA program at Berkeley-Haas with a focus on entrepreneurship, new venture finance, and strategy. While in the program, Carmen consulted to small businesses and startups in Consumer Package Goods, Cleantech, FinTech, and Software as a Service. Her projects focused on operations, fundraising, growth strategy, product pricing, and customer segmentation. She was formerly Vice President, Investment Operations, at Dimensional Fund Advisors LP. Carmen joined the firm in 1996 when the company was relatively small employing 50 people and managing $30 billion in assets at that time. Over the course of 15 years she scaled operations into new markets, including Latin America, Canada, and Europe. She managed and negotiated vendor and partner agreements for the company, and oversaw investor relations. Carmen is active in her community, and served as President of the Los Angeles Chapter of the Association of Latinos in Finance and Accounting (ALPFA). She currently is a board member of CCEO YouthBuild, and on the Advisory Board of Santa Monica Business College. In addition to an MBA, Carmen holds a MA in sports management from the University of San Francisco, and a BA in economics from the University of Southern California. At Make in LA, she’s focused on coaching entrepreneurs in finance and investment, managing fund operations, and developing investor relationships.