As director of Business Development at the University of California, San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering, Jan Dehesh brings more than 20 years of executive-level experience in all aspects of the wireless telecommunications and information technology industry.
The former Qualcomm executive who earned a bachelor’s degree from UCSD remains grateful for the education she secured at Miramar College.
“I went to UCSD full time and was working full time and raising two children,” she said. “With all of that weight on my shoulders the one thing I never worried about was the validity of my education from the community college system. I felt that Miramar had prepared me with an excellent base education, I knew I would be able to handle whatever was thrown my way from my UCSD classes. And I was correct.
Prior to joining the UCSD team Dehesh was the founder and chief executive officer of Dehesh International, a consulting company working to build bridges between technologists, investors and telecom companies. She assisted emerging wireless industry companies around the world and investment banks in San Diego and New York. Before that, she served in several executive roles at Qualcomm Inc., including chief information officer/vice president of information technology, and vice president of business development.
Dehesh hasn’t forgotten her roots at the community college level, and she has long been involved with the Foundation for California Community Colleges.
“My involvement with this organization is very important to me,” she said. “I know that I would not have been able to complete my education without the availability of the community college system. My education from (Miramar College) gave me the confidence to go forward with not only my education but also my career. I continually tout the importance of the community college system and how important it is to the citizens of California. We all need to support our higher education organizations in any way that we can.”
