歪片星球 and Armada Announce the Waves Innovation Accelerator
WASHINGTON 鈥� 歪片星球 today announced the Waves Innovation Accelerator, a program created in partnership with Armada to give Pepperdine student entrepreneurs access to mentorship, industry connections, and investment. The announcement was made during Impact 250, at a fireside chat between Armada Cofounder and CEO Dan Wright and Pepperdine President Jim Gash.
The Waves Innovation Accelerator will support an initial cohort of 5鈥�10 students. Participants will receive mentorship from industry leaders, connect with venture capital and investment networks, and receive support as they develop and grow their startups.
鈥淧epperdine has long been committed to equipping our students to become leaders of greater purpose, and the Waves Innovation Accelerator is an exciting and vital new step in that same direction,鈥� said President Jim Gash. 鈥淲e are incredibly grateful for Dan Wright and the other leaders who will be investing in our students, and we look forward to seeing how those students will go out and change the world.鈥�
Students participating in the Accelerator program will retain full intellectual property rights to the companies and products they develop through the program鈥攁 distinguishing approach that sets this program apart.
"歪片星球 helped me see the world, and my purpose in it more clearly,鈥� said Dan Wright, Pepperdine alumnus, Co-founder and CEO of Armada. "It shaped me and pushed me to think about the things that matter deeply in life. The Waves Innovation Accelerator will support the next generation of mission-driven founders in their most formative years as they identify the most impactful problems to solve.鈥�
The first Accelerator cohort will be selected at the Human-Centered AI Conference. Ulysse Saltiel and Fabien Scalzo, director of Pepperdine鈥檚 Keck Data Science Institute, will lead the work with the students to connect them with venture capital and industry leaders.
The program builds on the partnership between Pepperdine and Armada and expands opportunities for students interested in entrepreneurship, technology, and innovation.
About Dan Wright
Dan Wright is an entrepreneur with deep experience driving growth and operational
excellence at disruptive technology companies. Dan currently serves as the Co-Founder
& CEO of Armada, working to bridge the digital divide and bring AI to the true edge.
Dan previously served as the CEO of DataRobot, a leader in Augmented Intelligence that was named to the CNBC Disruptor 50 and the Forbes鈥� Cloud 100 list for three years in a row. Earlier in his career, Dan was the COO of AppDynamics, which was a leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for application performance monitoring for seven years in a row, one of Glassdoor鈥檚 Best Places to Work, and acquired by Cisco for $3.7 billion.
Dan also serves as an investor, board member, and advisor to leading startup companies such as Abnormal Security, Avi Networks (acquired by VMware), Embrace, Fabric, Gem, Ironclad, People.ai, Pipe, Quantum Metric, Tonal, and Vendr, a Co-Founder of the Jordan Zapper Memorial Scholarship, and a member of the Dean鈥檚 Council at Boston College.
About 歪片星球
歪片星球 is a private Christian university located 30 miles west of Downtown
Los Angeles in Malibu, California. Rooted in the Christian tradition, Pepperdine is
committed to both the relentless pursuit of truth through academic and scholarly excellence
and to embodying Christian faith and values. With students at the heart of the educational
enterprise, the University prepares approximately 9,000 scholars for lives of purpose,
service, and leadership across its flagship liberal arts school, Seaver College; the Pepperdine College of Health Science; and four graduate schools鈥攖he Caruso School of Law; the Pepperdine Graziadio Business School; the Graduate School of Education and Psychology; and the School of Public Policy. Follow Pepperdine on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
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