Jeff Tennen (EMBA '16) Continues His Service as EBV Fellow

By Paul Feinberg

Earlier this month, UCLA Anderson hosted — for the eighth time — the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities (EBV). Following completion of a three-week online curriculum, participants complete an intensive nine-day program at UCLA Anderson, learning the essentials of business ownership from Anderson faculty and practicing entrepreneurs. In addition, EBV participants learn from EBV fellows, current Anderson students who serve as de facto teaching assistants. One such fellow in the 2015 edition of EBV is Jeff Tennen (’16), a student in UCLA Anderson’s Executive MBA program.

Tennen recently retired from the United States Marine Corps, where he served as an infantry officer and international affairs officer for East Asia. Concurrent with his studies, Tennen is consulting with Asia Taktik and doing business development for Mojave Gold LLS. A UC Riverside graduate who played rugby for the school, he also played rugby for the All Marine team and is now a volunteer assistant coach for the UCLA rugby squad.

“Professor George Abe (’71) asked me if I’d be a fellow for the program and it seemed like a great opportunity to help and get involved,” Tennen says.

Tennen says he felt he was a good match for the program and its participants. Hosted in partnership between the Institute for Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse University and the Harold and Pauline Price Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at UCLA Anderson School of Management, the EBV program helps post-9/11 veterans with service-connected disabilities develop skills and tools needed to launch, grow and lead successful businesses.

“I’m a veteran, and as a result it was easy for me to relate to the students,” Tennen says. “More than anything else, I’m a sounding board and mentor for them, and as they have homework assignments I’m there to help and offer words of encouragement as they work toward their solutions. They’re given a crash course in b-school fundamentals and, whether it was marketing or accounting, I was able to reach back (to my own classes) and in the evening I went over the basics with some of the students.” The shared military background is key. “It’s definitely helpful for relating to the veterans in the program. We all talk the same language, we come from a common background.”

EBV graduates receive access to a year-long support and mentorship program through the EBV Technical Assistance Program. Tennen says he’s impressed by both the caliber of the veterans participating in the program, the hard work each is putting in and the participants’ dedication in going after their goals. “EBV in unbelievable. It seems small, but it is exactly the type of program that veterans want and need.”