Team & Co-Founders
Who are our Co-Founders?
Torsten Kolind is the Co-Founder and Board Member of YouNoodle in San Francisco, California. A bioinformatics engineer by training, Torsten co-founded YouNoodle, a technology platform to source, select and engage the most promising startups in the world. He has judged startup programs at Stanford University, MIT, and Imperial College, and has written opinion pieces for both Wall Street Journal and Entrepreneur Magazine. Torsten is an advisor to a number of startups, and an investor in two venture funds. He is a frequent speaker on corporate innovation, and on how governments can spur ecosystem growth through global startup engagement.
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Torsten Kolind
Co-Founder, Board Member
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Rebeca is a venture capital investor who has collected experiences as innovator and inventor, founder and entrepreneur, social entrepreneur, educator, and ecosystem builder. Rebeca co-founded Kalei Ventures, Rivet Ventures, YouNoodle, Cleantech Open, Startup Malaysia, and Startup Nations Summit. She also serves on the Global Board of Kauffman's GEN, Imagine H2O, TEDx Rio de la Plata Accelerator, and was a member of the WEF's Global Council on the Future of Migrations, as well as co-lead the Access to Capital committee of the Mexico-U.S. Entrepreneurship and Innovation Council. Rebeca was born in Seoul, raised in Argentina, and educated at MIT and Stanford, and has been recognized as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, and as one of the top 35 under 35 Global Innovators by MIT Tech Review and was a TED speaker in Vancouver, in TED en Español in NYC, as well as TEDx Cordoba in 2018.
Rebeca Hwang
Co-Founder
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Who are our Noodlers?
Diana Iruegas is YouNoodle’s CEO. From her base in Mexico City, she oversees YouNoodle's global operation and always wants to make sure everyone is happy. Her International Trade Major and MBA allows her to have a global vision of things with close attention to details. She has an entrepreneurial soul and understands startups. She believes in the disruptive energy of startups and does think the world will change thanks to them. She is committed to giving solutions, not problems.
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Reliable, Passionate, Committed
Diana Iruegas
CEO
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Happy Nerd
Lorena Charolet is our key account manager based in Mexico. She is driven by kindness, teamwork, and dedication. She believes these are most valuable to create & maintain strong customer relationships. Lorena brings her enthusiasm and proactivity to YouNoodle to continue connecting with global audiences. Out of the office you can find Lorena reading a good book, practicing a sport, exercising and also in the theater.
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Kind, Curious, Sociable
Lorena Charolet
Head of Programs
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Books Nerd
Antonio Rios is YouNoodle’s Program Partner Lead. Originally from Mexico, Antonio develops strong and long-term relationships along with YouNoodle, by communicating and carefully listening to client needs. Antonio is a versatile, analytical, and highly passionate professional. He is an industrial engineer with an MBA and a strong background in sales and operations. He has experience in manufacturing, consumer goods, telecom, and hospitality. Antonio loves to travel, getting to know new people and all kinds of sports.
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Trustworthy, Goal-Oriented, Team Player
Antonio Ríos
Business Developer
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Networking Nerd
Natalia Lavalle is YouNoodle's Product Manager based in Mexico. With her expertise as a Neuropsychologist and a deep passion for understanding cognitive abilities and human behavior, she supports YouNoodle's goal of removing bias from entrepreneurs' evaluation and selection process. Natalia wants to generate a change with her knowledge and experience by developing technology products and assessments; Nat wishes to achieve this in an innovative, reliable, and valid way to help clients make objective decisions and entrepreneurs go through a fair application process. She loves doing water and team sports, exercise, travel, research, and learning about neuropsychology topics, psychometrics, and technology products..
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Empathic, purpose-driven, energetic
Natalia Lavalle
Product Manager
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Neuropsychology Nerd
Aarón Cervantes is a Software Engineer at YouNoodle. He loves running and swimming every morning. Aarón has a passion for front-end web stuff, but he recently joined the “dark side” (back-end world). He loves to learn through contribution At YouNoodle he supports the engineering team with solving issues, resolving bugs, and solving engineering problems both big and small. He also loves to dance as much as he loves to learn to code.
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Passionate, Autodidactic, Empathic
Aaron Cervantes
Software Engineer
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Dance Nerd
Pernille Knapmann is Younoodle’s Enterprise Account Manager based in Mexico. Even though her passport says Denmark, she considers herself more of a global citizen. With a background in marketing, and from commercial teams, she is very passionate about helping organizations succeed with their projects and reach their goals. Pernille brings her project management skills and organized self to YouNoodle to help companies, governments, and entrepreneurs connect and create positive change around the world.
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Proactive, Creative, Goal-oriented
Pernille Knapmann
Head of Marketing and Growth
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Yoga Nerd
Rafael Hernandez is YouNoodle's Senior Software Engineer, based in Mexico. With a background in computer science, Rafael works on the back-end side of our platform. His professional path has enabled him to work with bootstrap, VC-backed startups, and international organizations. He is passionate about developing solutions that make people's lives easier. Rafael uses his experience to create light, sustainable and scalable solutions.
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Effective, Resourceful, Easygoing
Rafael Hernández
Senior Software Engineer
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Creator Nerd
Eunice Gonzalez is our marketing story teller! She was born and raised in Mexico City with a wanderlust soul. With her bachelor's degree in communications, and over ten years of experience in digital marketing, social media strategies, & community management, she brings to YouNoodle her rich & dynamic expertise as we power the global startup revolution. What she enjoys most about marketing is bringing communities together because, for her, marketing is more about people & establishing emotional connections all around.
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Organized, Creative, Responsible
Eunice González
Marketing Operations Manager
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Food Nerd
Ana Paola Tamés is YouNoodle’s Sales and Business Operations Lead based in Mexico. Her Industrial Engineering background motivates her to streamline YouNoodle’s global operations. Ana loves YouNoodle’s worldwide social impact, and she is convinced that alongside YouNoodle she is one step closer to making the world a better place.
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Kind, Loyal, Passionate
Ana Paola Tamés
Sales and Business Operations Lead
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Good Vibes Nerd
Jorge Evaristo is YouNoodle's Program Manager based in Mexico. He developed a passion for International Business while studying it, exploring the issues plaguing our world and, more importantly, the solutions accompanying them. He has an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and is driven to explore the latest technologies and platforms. Jorge also holds himself to the highest standards of respect and integrity, valuing those qualities in others. When he's not at work, he enjoys watching sports, walking his dogs, and spending time with his family.
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Committed, Empathic, Supportive
Jorge Evaristo
Program Manager
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Comics Nerd
Join Us
YouNoodle is built on diversity, equality, and transparency. Co-founded with a 50/50 gender split, we live and breathe these values every day.