Our Faculty
What makes Trump University's faculty stand out from the crowd is their experience in the real-world. The Trump U faculty is made up of Fortune 500 senior executives, outstanding entrepreneurs, and also includes professors from the world's leading educational institutions, such as: Columbia University, Dartmouth College and Northwestern University. Our faculty; along with the founder of Trump University, Donald Trump, are dedicated to one cause: Making the Real World Your Classroom.
Trump University Faculty:
Gary Eldred
Jack Kaplan
John Lounsbury
Richard Parker
Randal Pinkett
Don Sexton
John Vogel
Paul Wimer
Sean Yazbeck
Dolf de Roos
Gary Eldred
Gary W. Eldred, Ph.D., has worked as an investor, consultant, professor, and author in the field of real estate for more than 25 years. He frequently speaks at major investment conferences and has been interviewed/consulted by journalists at CNN, BBC, Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and many others. Dr. Eldred, has authored 21 books, including Investing in Real Estate and the series, "Make Money in Real Estate." He has also written or co-written three college textbooks and many academic articles and research papers. Dr. Eldred began acquiring properties at age 21, and today his properties include residential rentals as well as ownership interests in office buildings, shopping centers, and apartment communities. As a real estate consultant, Dr. Eldred has served Fortune 500 companies such as Wells Fargo, Georgia Pacific, and Century 21, as well as entrepreneurial investors and property developers. He has held faculty positions in the graduate business programs of Stanford, University of Illinois, and University of Virginia. He has also taught urban land economics and real estate investing at the University of British Columbia and the American University of Sharjah in Dubai.
Jack Kaplan
Jack M. Kaplan is a teacher, author, and entrepreneur with extensive business experience in early-stage financing and in growth companies. Mr. Kaplan has taught entrepreneurship courses focusing on, business plans, entrepreneurial management, and new technology ventures. He has made presentations at numerous seminars and is the author of several books, including Patterns of Entrepreneurship, Getting Started in Entrepreneurship, Smart Cards: The Global Information Passport, and many articles. Mr. Kaplan has launched and managed three successful IT systems and database software companies. He is president of Datamark Technologies, Inc., a stored-value and loyalty company that was recently acquired by Stored Value Systems. He has worked as a consultant for a host of Fortune 500 organizations, including Aetna, Panasonic, and Johnson & Johnson. He is currently adjunct professor of entrepreneurial studies at Columbia Business School.
John Lounsbury
John W. Lounsbury, Ph.D. is a teacher, author, and licensed industrial-organizational psychologist. Dr. Lounsbury teaches courses in testing, personality assessment, research methods, psychometrics, and human resources management. He has chaired more than 60 doctoral dissertations and written numerous articles on personality, career development, career satisfaction, interpersonal relationships (on and off the job), and many other topics. He has consulted with more than 100 national and international companies in the areas of test development, personality assessment, pre-employment, selection testing, program validation, and career planning. Dr. Lounsbury is president of Resource Associates, Inc., a full professor of psychology at the University of Tennessee, and a fellow at the American Psychological Association.
Richard Parker
Richard Parker is an expert in the art of buying businesses. Since 1990, he has purchased ten businesses and has started several more. He is the author of six comprehensive programs on buying businesses including the "How To Buy A Good Business At A Great Price(c)" series, and has had over 100 articles published. As President and founder of Diomo Corporation, his materials and live seminars have helped thousands of prospective small business buyers in over 70 countries realize their dream of business ownership. He is a monthly columnist for Florida Investor magazine, the resident featured expert for Bizquest, and the main provider of content on buying businesses to all major online business for sale databases. He is a highly successful and sought after intermediary representing both business buyers and sellers.
Randal Pinkett
Randal Pinkett, M.B.A., Ph.D., is the founder, chairman and CEO of BCT Partners, a multimillion dollar management, technology and policy consulting services firm that works with corporations, government agencies, and philanthropic organizations. BCT Partners is one of the leading consulting firms in the country with expertise in housing and community development, economic development, healthcare, human services, and education.
Dr. Pinkett was also named the winner of NBC's hit reality television show, "The Apprentice" Season 4, with Donald Trump. During his first year, he was responsible for overseeing both renovation and information technology projects for Trump Entertainment Resorts in Atlantic City, NJ. Since then, Dr. Pinkett has maintained a role with the Trump Organization as a national spokesperson for the Trump Institute, faculty member for Trump University, leader of a Youth Apprentice Program, and boardroom advisor to Donald Trump on "The Apprentice."
Dr. Pinkett has been featured on nationally televised programs such as The Today Show, Live with Regis and Kelly, and Larry King Live, and is the author of "Campus CEO: The Student Entrepreneur's Guide to Launching a Multimillion-Dollar Business." He holds five degrees including: a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Rutgers University, a Master of Science in Computer Science from the University of Oxford in England as a Rhodes Scholar; and a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering, MBA, and Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Don Sexton
Sexton, M.B.A. and Ph.D., is a teacher, researcher, and founder and president of The Arrow Group, Ltd., a consulting and training services firm. He has taught a wide variety of courses in marketing, international business, and quantitative methods. His research concerns successful global marketing and branding strategies and is based on his empirical studies as well as his considerable consulting work with major companies throughout the world. Dr. Sexton has written numerous articles for publications such as the Journal of Marketing and
John Vogel
John H. Vogel, Jr. is a professor of real estate at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business. Mr. Vogel is the author or coauthor of numerous case studies for Tuck as well as for the Harvard Business School. He is the coauthor of two books and has written chapters in several others, along with numerous articles about real estate finance, development, and investing. As a consultant, Mr. Vogel provides training courses to major banks, corporations, and community groups across the country. He also has extensive experience as an executive for real estate investment and development companies. Mr. Vogel has been teaching at graduate business schools for more than 20 years. In addition to Tuck, he has served on the faculty of the Harvard Business School, the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and the Yale School of Management. Business Week's Guide to Business Schools named him as one of Tuck's outstanding faculty.
Paul Wimer
Paul Wimer is one of the chief partners at Topspin Partners, a $213 M Venture Capital and private equity firm, where he is responsible for identifying qualified entrepreneurial ventures, negotiating financing terms, and building investment syndicate, including: other investors, making the investment, then actively assisting the venture as it matures. Paul works closely with management teams at each venture to shape the company, whether through strategic planning, recruiting new team members, refining business, and financial models, or assisting in the operation of the enterprise. Prior to joining Topspin, Paul was in charge of the manufacturing practice at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture). In that capacity he managed a substantial consulting staff and gained a broad understanding of the process necessary to operate a successful manufacturing business. Paul also served as a manufacturing manager at Procter and Gamble. Paul received his BS in Chemical Engineering from Yale University and his MBA from Harvard Business School.
Sean Yazbeck
As winner of The Apprentice (2006), Sean Yazbeck was selected by Donald Trump to oversee development of the 5 star hotel condominium, Trump SoHo, in New York City. In this role, Sean has been using his extensive sales expertise to negotiate everything from Trump Soho's acquiring of haute couture designed furniture to the provision of the hotel's computer system network. And since acquiring his New York real estate license, Sean is now also the Director of Sales for this $500 million project.
Sean was awarded the EB1 Green Card for "persons of extraordinary ability" in 2005 for his 11-years sales experience brokering multimillion-dollar deals with Fortune 500 companies in over 20 countries. He has experienced similar academic success graduating top of his year with a First Class Honors from Southampton Solent University.
Sean is currently appearing as a Boardroom Advisor to Mr. Trump on The Apprentice: Los Angeles and is the national TV and Radio spokesperson for Trump Institute.
Dolf de Roos
It was a study of the rich that led Trump University faculty member, Dolf de Roos to change his focus from electrical engineering to real estate investing. Although he earned his PhD in Engineering from the University of Canterbury, Dolf began investing in property as an undergraduate student.
Since that time, Dolf has taught his powerhouse real estate investing strategies at public seminars throughout Australia, New Zealand, Asia, North America, and Europe, trained real estate agents, written and published ten best-selling property books including the New York Times Best-Seller, Real Estate Riches, as well as introduced software to both analyze and manage investment property.
In the late 1990s, Dolf launched the public company "Property Ventures Limited," of which he is still the chairman. Presently the company is building an entire city, a $2.2 billion development. Dolf is also the founding director of Best Choice Properties, his US-based investment vehicle.
And in 2003, Dolf was appointed Visiting Professor of Real Estate at the University of North Texas.
