Previous Alumni Awards

James Werbe is the recipient of the 2025 School of Management Outstanding Young Alumnus of the Year award. He joined to Cal Lutheran as a transfer student from UCLA. During his time at Cal Lutheran, he pursued an interdisciplinary major in "Business, Philosophy, and Psychology" from which he graduated in 2023. As part of his program, he took courses in Entrepreneurship and participated in several activities such as the New Venture Fair or Startup Weekends and an active community member at Hub101, our startup community space. In 2022, he founded Wayside Energy, an early-stage company developing intelligent battery management systems for electricity providers. In 2024, he received a Dorfman Incubator Grant for Wayside Energy, which was followed by a large grant from Cal Seed - selected from nearly 100 promising clean technology companies in California. While still only two years out of Cal Lutheran, he is not only making an impact as a successful entrepreneur, but he has also started to give back by engaging with extra-curricular programs for our students at the School of Management and community members at Hub101, and by helping the communities in which we live - during the devastating Palisades and Eaton Fires of 2025, he actively worked with relief organizations in the area to collect clothing, food, and other support for impacted families.

Sushma Vasudevan is the recipient of the 2025 School of Management Distinguished Alumna of the Year award. Sushma is Senior Vice President for Analytics and Data Science at PureSpectrum, a leading global market research and insights platform, incubated at the School of Management’s Hub101. At PureSpectrum, Sushma has played an instrumental role in building and scaling the technology and where she is responsible for the company’s suite of PureProducts. Her hands-on expertise in developing artificial intelligence-driven products - spanning natural language processing, predictive analytics, reinforcement learning, and recommendation systems - has resulted in the creation of proprietary assets that are central to the company’s strategic offerings. Prior to PureSpectrum, Sushma’s career is also marked by significant contributions to global technology leaders such as IBM Corporation and GE Capital International Services, where she honed her expertise in leveraging data-driven insights to drive technological advancements and business transformation. As an accomplished speaker, she frequently shares her insights on ethical and responsible AI practices through keynote addresses, webinars, and corporate discourse, underscoring the importance of transparency, fairness, and accountability in AI development. In addition to her leadership role, Sushma serves as a board member for the School of Management’s Center for Economic Research and Forecasting (CERF). She has also contributed to our programs as an Adjunct Professor, where she teaches graduate-level courses in Statistics and Market Research.

Our Young Alumna of the Year is Anastasia Martinez. While at Cal Lutheran, Anastasia was a very active student in a variety of student clubs, including Delta Sigma Pi, our national co-educational student fraternity. Even more importantly, she was a stellar student who was also chosen to be part of the prestigious federal McNair Scholars program, funded at only around 150 institutions across the United States by the U.S.    Department of Education. The program is designed to prepare undergraduate students for graduate studies through involvement in research and other scholarly activities focused on first-generation college students or members of a group that is traditionally underrepresented in graduate education. I am proud to say that I had the honor of being Anastasia’s mentor in that process during which she worked on research related to LatinX entrepreneurship. In 2022, she was invited to present her research paper “The Land of Limited Opportunity: The Challenges Latinx Entrepreneurs Confront in California” at the highly competitive National McNair Conference at the University of Maryland. After graduating from Cal Lutheran in 2022, Anastasia received a full scholarship for a graduate program in Business Analytics from Rensselaer Polytechnic University and she started to work for L’Attitude Ventures, a LatinX-focused venture capital firm where she sourced deals and built an extensive network of founders in Los Angeles and in New York. Recently, Anastasia moved on and on International Women’s Day co-founded Libra Leaders, a platform that empowers women investors and founders by providing access to capital, connections, and visibility. She has stayed in touch with her alma mater since graduation and has truly made us proud. We look forward to her continued success and to her increasing involvement in our work at the School of Management.

Jeff Brouelette graduated from the School of Management with a Bachelor of Science in Accounting in 1991. During his time at Cal Lutheran, he was Captain of our NAIA State Championship baseball team. After graduation, he went on to climb the corporate ladder in a number of companies and industries, mostly in the real estate sector. In 1998, he received an MS in Taxation from Golden Gate University and in 2012, he founded Strategic Financial Group, which he served as a CEO for several years. In 2015, he co-founded Arroyo Capital, a real estate finance and development company that provides finished lots to homebuilders in major homebuilding markets across the United States. Jeff is a Principal and the President of Arroyo Captal. He is actively involved in all financial aspects of the firm, underwriting new investments and oversight of projects during development, construction, and marketing. During his lifetime he has underwritten billions of dollars inreal estate across major homebuilding markets in the United States. Besides his success in industry, we value Jeff for his loyalty to and engagement with his alma mater. 

The School of Management Distinguished Alumnus of the Year 2023 is Don Armstrong, founder and CEO of Vitu. Prior to founding Vitu, Don founded and was COO and CTO of SDR Technologies, where he designed groundbreaking campaign finance disclosure systems for federal, state, and local government agencies. After selling the company to NICUSA and receiving a BA in Business Administration in 1999, he served as Chief Architect and spearheaded the development of technology solutions across an array of government services. In 2003, he co-founded Motor Vehicle Software Corporation, now Vitu.com, a major disruptor in its industry that implements numerous groundbreaking DMV-related innovations, including the nation's first fully digital car sale in 2020. Under his leadership, Vitu grew to more than 400 employees and is now the largest private-sector provider of DMV services throughout the US. His is also a valued member of TechNet, the bipartisan network of tech CEOs advancing public policies and private sector initiatives within all levels of government. Don has hired interns from Cal Lutheran, employed our graduates, engaged in student-led consulting projects, he mentored students, guest-spoke in classes and at events, he serves as a member of my Dean’s Executive Council, and he has supported the school with significant gifts. 

The School of Management Young Alumna of the Year 2023 is Majd Abdullah Almaki. Before Majd joined the MPPA program in 2018, she had completed an internship at the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA). After graduation in 2020, she returned to Saudi Arabia, where she is a founding member and the Director of the Gender Balance Center at the IPA, a Gender Expert in the National Observatory of Gender Balance Indicators, and also a committee member at the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), developing guidelines for the promotion and implementation of gender equality. Recently, she spoke at a World Bank conference on data-driven decision-making for enhanced gender participation in the public sector. 

Amie Krause is the Chief People Officer at Revance. She is a strategic and agile HR executive with 25 years of experience in talent acquisition, employee relations, compensation, benefits, leadership development, coaching and operations. Prior to her tenure with Atara, Amie held several HR leadership positions at Amgen, including her role as Global HR Lead, Organizational Effectiveness during which she served as the human resources lead for Amgen’s global commercial operations covering the Americas, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Additionally, she served the Commercial HR lead standing up Amgen’s cardiovascular franchise launching two products. Amie is passionate about diversity, equity and inclusion and was a founding leader of the Atara Women’s Alliance (AWA). She has been a strong advocate for the LGBTQ community at Atara and is an active member of the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA). Amie holds both a B.S. in business management and an MBA from California Lutheran University. She has also completed the UC Berkeley Extension program for Human Resources Officers. Away from the office, Amie doubles as an adjunct professor at the California Lutheran University School of Management.