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Dr. Cervantes Lee

serves as the Faculty Director for Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CEI) at Cal Poly Pomona College of Business and leads efforts in advancing investment-ready venture creation, cross-disciplinary entrepreneurship, and fostering a collaborative ecosystem that connects academic research with industry application.

Since August 2024, he has also been the founding Executive Director of the Asia Innovation Hub, launched in partnership with the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center, where he leads programs like Accelerate to Nasdaq, Asia Milestone Makers, and the Nasdaq IPO Bootcamp to mentor growth-stage CEOs on global expansion and IPO readiness. Known as the “Panda Professor” since his time at UNLV starting in 2022, Dr. Lee is an expert in multi-unit restaurant leadership and has coached CEOs of global chains operating 5,000–20,000 locations.

Before transitioning to academia in 2019, Dr. Lee spent two decades in principal investment managing over $100 billion in assets, with sector experience across hospitality real estate, location-based businesses, and consumer tech, and held roles at Beike Holdings (NYSE: BEKE), Redbridge Student House, Panda Express, Peking University Founder Group, CBRE Investors (NYSE: CBRE), AIG Global Real Estate (NYSE: AIG), and Arthur Andersen’s Corporate Finance division.

Dr. Lee holds a Global Executive Ed.D. in Restaurant Management from the University of Southern California (2001), an M.S. in Real Estate Development from MIT (2008), and both an MBA in Finance (2021) and B.A. in Economics (1997) from National Taiwan University. He served as President of the MIT Club of Southern California (2018–2019) and has supported undergraduate recruitment as an MIT Educational Counselor since 2021. In 2014, he became only the second professional globally to earn all five designations from the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC), where he also served on the faculty of ICSC University (2012–2015).