Barney Santos

Barney Santos is the CEO & co-founder of Gentefy, Inc. Before working in his current role, Barney spent the past 15 years building and managing new business ventures in the for-profit, non-profit, academic, and corporate sectors. Most recently Barney was the Head of the Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation at Cal State L.A., where he developed the entrepreneurial ecosystem and worked with faculty & staff to create new academic programs that increased entrepreneurial activity among students and faculty. Prior to CalStateLA, Barney was the Head of Exploratory New Business Models at Unilever, where he was in charge with not only designing and experimenting new innovative business models for North America, but was also instrumental in helping develop the company’s global business model innovation process. In addition to his role, Barney also worked in collaboration with Unilever’s global technology startup division, Unilever Foundry.

Over the course of his career, Barney has cemented himself as an emerging expert in translating effectual and casual reasoning into applied methodologies for new venture creation, solving wicked problems, and new business model design. He is currently using this expertise to develop new products and services that address underserved Latino neighborhoods in order to increase entrepreneurial activity and foster local economic empowerment. Barney holds a Bachelor's Degree in Entrepreneurship from Cal State LA, a Master’s Degree in Entrepreneurship and Innovation from USC, and a Doctoral Degree from the School of Hard Knocks.