About the California Institute for Innovation and Development (CIID)

The California Institute for Innovation and Development (CIID) empowers you, students and alumni, with programs, experiences, networks, and a mindset to embrace disruption as an opportunity — to identify needs and solutions to society’s problems and to create an impactful future for themselves and their communities.

Central to CIIDs entrepreneurial experience are deep, broad, and ethical networks of seasoned entrepreneurs and executives. These networks provide context, content, connections, experiences, and resources essential to the student journey and to growing CIID’s impact.

Core Principles

At CIID, we believe that entrepreneurship and innovation foster:

Positive impact by generating value for society through venture creation, new product development, and innovative social enterprises.
A mindset that equips students with tools to identify and create value from opportunities and problems.
Broad, deep, and ethical networks of external experts to support stakeholders with critical knowledge, experiences, and resources.
Diverse and inclusive perspectives and disciplines as essential to a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Our Team

The CIID team provides support to students, alumni, and others interested in pursuing entrepreneurship through our programs.

On Amir

Professor of MarketingWolfe Family Presidential Chair in Life Sciences Innovation and Entrepreneurship oamir@ucsd.edu
Amy Nguyen-Chyung

Assistant Teaching Professor anguyenchyung@ucsd.edu
Rick Townsend
Tim Schwartz

Executive Director
Office: Wells Fargo Hall - 5W101
tgschwartz@ucsd.edu
Role: Provides guidance and oversight for all CIID programs; co-directs the StartR accelerators.
Kimberly Davis King, MBA

Co-Director, StartR and Rady, Impact and Inclusion
858.353.4903
kking@ucsd.edu
Role: Leads the StartR and Rady, Impact and Inclusion accelerators, providing direction and coaching to startup teams.
Karen Jensen

Entrepreneurship Advocate
858.534.1761
khjensen@ucsd.edu
Office: Wells Fargo Hall - 5W102
Role: Advocates for startups through activities on and off-campus.
Diana Kanchanasuwan

Events Manager
858.822.6268
dianak@rady.ucsd.edu
Office: Wells Fargo Hall - 5W
Role: Provides events and logistical support for all CIID programs.