Rodrigo Mahs is a valued member of the team at The Paul Merage School of Business and the University of California, Irvine. He contributes to our highly personalized environment with his commitment to be responsive and respectful to everyone in the Merage School Family, from prospective students to the business community at large.

Rodrigo brings over 19 years of international experience in developing and leading large-scale solutions and strategic partnerships with leading global organizations. He has collaborated with CEO’s, entrepreneurs, Deans and government leaders to architect and deliver impactful solutions around economic development, corporate innovation, education, leadership and organizational strategy.

Rodrigo has worked extensively in over 18 countries with organizations such as Apple, The Coca-Cola Company, Disney, JPL NASA, The United Nations, Intel, Avanade, Cenovus Energy, The Walt Disney Company, Juniper Networks, Raytheon, Banco Santander, Bradesco, Novartis, Honda Motor Company, CoreLogic, Experian, PIMCO and the Kuwait Foundation for Advancement of Sciences among others.

Before joining the Merage School, Rodrigo was Executive Director, Head of Global Innovation at 500 Startups, an active early-stage venture capital firm with over 2,600 portfolio companies in over 77 countries, including 31 unicorns ($1B+).

Rodrigo is trilingual (speaks English, Portugues, Spanish), holds a Juris Doctorate degree from Brazil where he spent over ten years and is also a graduate of UCLA Anderson’s Executive Program.

Rodrigo strongly believes that Universities are not only historically positioned as educational hubs for a city or region, but are also a strategic hub for establishing meaningful and sustainable connections and partnerships with key stakeholders such as corporates, foundations, students, investors and government.