Bringing more than 50 years of business experience with him, Alan Mannason (who recently turned 90 years old!) has been involved as a mentor to our students for more than a decade. Needless to say, Alan is a mainstay of the program and he has been a part of it for longer than most of our professors!

Alan started his career as a field salesman in the liquor industry and then, like the entrepreneur that he is, he opened his own liquor store. After that, he transitioned into divisional management and worked his way up to Senior VP of Sales and Marketing at a major manufacturer. As SVP, Alan lived in San Diego, Los Angeles and Chicago and (if you are a wine lover you might get a little jealous of him here) he frequently had the opportunity to visit some of the most well respected wineries in Europe.

Starting in 2002, Alan has been a fixture in our Entrepreneurial Marketing class having mentored dozens of students in our Student-led Business Consulting Program. To our students, Alan is a strong leader with the ability to effectively guide people. From our perspective, Alan helps make the students he is mentoring more marketable to our business clients because he brings wisdom and gravitas to each project he is a mentor on.

Alan is also generous in terms of awarding scholarships. Over the years, Alan has had the pleasure of awarding just about 40 scholarships to students at Cal State Fullerton.

When asked about his reflections on his time thus far as a mentor Alan had this to say:

“I hope what I have done in the past has helped the future of some students.”

Alan, let us assure you that you have most definitely made a difference in many a student’s life.

Thank you for being a mentor!

If you are interested in volunteering in our program please send us a message to csufentrepreneurship@fullerton.edu

This post was written by Adrienne Bailey