USC Dornsife College Of Letters Arts and Sciences

University of Southern California

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Adlai Wertman is a professor of clinical entrepreneurship at the USC Marshall School of Business and holds a joint appointment at the Rossier School of Education. He is also the founding director of the Brittingham Social Enterprise Lab at Marshall—a center focused on educating and supporting USC students, faculty, staff and community members on using business models to address global social, environmental and health challenges. The Lab offers a one-year Master of Science in Social Entrepreneurship—the first such degree offered by a business school in the United States.

Prior to joining the faculty at Marshall, Adlai spent seven years as president and CEO of Chrysalis—the only non-profit in Los Angeles devoted solely to helping homeless people change their lives through employment. As part of its award-winning program, Chrysalis ran one of the larger social enterprises in the country—Chrysalis Enterprises—with annual revenues more than $4.5 million and nearly 1,000 clients each year. Prior to Chrysalis, Adlai spent 18 years as an investment banker in New York and Los Angeles.

Adlai is an advisory board member of the Global Health Institute and the Roberts Enterprise Development Fund (REDF) and a trustee of the Jewish Community Foundation. He has also served as a commissioner of the Los Angeles Fire and Police Pension Fund. Adlai is a frequent speaker on the issues of social entrepreneurship and social enterprise. Adlai was a senior fellow at the UCLA School of Public Affairs and a Wexner Heritage Fellow. Adlai earned his B.A. in economics from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and his M.B.A. in finance, public policy management and strategic planning from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Adlai Wertman