Launching a New Center for Cal Lutheran Entrepreneurs

The theme at the dedication of Cal Lutheran University’s Steven Dorfman Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship was that even with modest beginnings, you can achieve success with innovative ideas and a strong support system—exactly what the Center brings together.

With the founding gift from Steven Dorfman, the former Vice Chairman of Hughes Electronics and former CEO of Hughes Space and Communications, the Center will support Cal Lutheran students, faculty, and entrepreneurs, advancing the study and practice of innovation and entrepreneurship in both academic and real-world settings. Based in Westlake Village, the Center, part of the School of Management at Cal Lutheran, manages HUB101, the University’s seven-year-old coworking space, incubator, and community launchpad dedicated to supporting entrepreneurs.

During a toast to celebrate the Center, Dorfman noted that many of the speakers at the October 20 event were the first in their families to attend college, who, through hard work, made their marks in business or academia. Dorfman was the first in his family to graduate from college, where he said he “mopped floors, waited tables, tutored the football team” and ran a side business making sandwiches for students studying late at night. After graduate school, he joined Hughes, working his way up and helping lead Hughes in the development of space technology, cable and satellite television, and other scientific and commercial enterprises.

Since retiring, Dorfman has focused much of his energy on philanthropy, and after he moved near the Cal Lutheran campus in Thousand Oaks, he became involved with the University, joining the School of Management’s Advisory Council and Dean’s Executive Council, and most recently the Advisory Council of the Dorfman Center. Dorfman originally provided the lead gift for a new building for the School of Management, but when that was put on hold because of the COVID-19 pandemic, he redirected his funds to the Center. Dorfman’s gift includes support for the Steven Dorfman Professor of Practice in Entrepreneurship—held by Michael Panesis, the Executive Director of the Dorfman Center, undergraduate scholarships, a student competition fund, and incubator grants for local companies involving Cal Lutheran alumni or students.

“It will be my pleasure to watch the center mature over the next few years,” Dorfman said before an audience that included area business leaders and founders, his family and friends, and Cal Lutheran Regents, administrators, faculty, students, and alumni. “It will be satisfying for me to have my gift make a positive difference for Cal Lutheran University, for the students of Cal Lutheran, and for the community.”

Cal Lutheran President Lori Varlotta said that there were four pillars to the Steven Dorfman Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship. She noted that the Center features Dorfman’s active engagement; involves high impact programs that combine theory and practice that will help students realize a path to their careers; serves as a model for future philanthropic support as Cal Lutheran embarks on a new strategic and master planning process; and offers programs and services reflective of the needs of a changing demographic of students, many of whom are 25 and older, first-generation college students and students of color, who work while attending college, and who are financially independent from their parents. “This center hits a grand slam,” she said.

“We’ve been on a journey with Steve for seven years,” said Gerhard Apfelthaler, Dean of the School of Management. Apfelthaler said that since HUB101 began seven years ago, “startups have raised millions of dollars in funding, and students—many of whom help manage HUB101 operations as ‘doers’—have found internships and full-time positions at these companies. Steve’s gift will launch us into our next phase of entrepreneurship, where many more promising ventures take off.”

The dedication featured a keynote speech from finance executive and Latina entrepreneur Laura Moreno Lucas, former Managing Director for New Listings & Capital Markets at Nasdaq, who serves on the Dorfman Center Advisory Council. Moreno spoke about how she came to the U.S. from Guadalajara, Mexico at age seven, speaking only Spanish, eventually graduating from college, and working her way up in the brokerage business.

Also at the ceremony were the first two Dorfman Scholars at Cal Lutheran: first-year students Elsa Klubberud and Elaine Vo. Said Klubberud, “This scholarship takes a big financial burden off me and my parents. I can put that money to use, working on starting a business. I hope to pay it forward. I want to be the next Steve Dorfman.”