Board of Directors

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  Shahan Soghikian, MBA, Chair

  Shahan Soghikian is a co-founder of Panorama Capital, a venture capital firm focused on technology, life sciences and consumer investments. He serves on the board of directors for Q-Centrix and inMarket and on the limited partner advisory committee of Samsara BioCapital. He has a bachelor’s degree from Pitzer College, for which he now serves as a trustee. He earned his master of business administration degree from the UCLA Anderson School of Management.
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  David Beier, JD

  David Beier has provided expertise in health care policy and economics to the federal government and state governments, various nonprofits, a law firm, an investment firm and biotech companies. He serves on the Commission on California State Government Organization and Economy, as well as on the boards of directors for Infinity Pharmaceuticals and the Steinberg Institute, a nonprofit focused on improving public policy related to mental health. He has a bachelor's degree in history from Colgate University and a law degree from Union University's Albany Law School.
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  Valli Benesch, JD

  Valli Benesch is co-CEO of Fritzi Realty, a real estate management and development company. Previously, she was co-CEO of Fritzi California, an apparel design and manufacturing firm. She is a member of Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) and past chair of YPO Gold Northern California. She is a Wexner Heritage Program fellow and a member of the advisory council for the Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford University. She serves on the boards of Jewish Family and Children’s Services and the Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund. She earned a bachelor’s degree at Stanford University and a law degree from the University of Chicago.
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  Angela Glover Blackwell

  Angela Glover Blackwell is founder-in-residence at PolicyLink, an organization she started in 1999 that works to advance racial and economic equity. She hosts the "Radical Imagination" podcast and is a professor of practice at the University of California, Berkeley. She is a co-author of "Uncommon Common Ground : Race and America's Future," and her articles "The Curb-Cut Effect " and "How We Achieve a Multiracial Democracy" were published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review.
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  Henry DeNero, MBA

  Henry DeNero has held executive positions at Dayton-Hudson Corporation (now Target Corporation) and First Data Corporation and was a senior partner at the management consulting firm McKinsey & Company. He has served on the boards of directors for several public companies and nonprofit organizations. He has a bachelor's degree in psychology from Amherst College and a master of business administration degree from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He served in the U.S. Navy as an officer.
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  Diane Dietz

  Diane Dietz is a former CEO of the Rodan and Fields skin care company. Previously, from 2008 to 2015, she served as chief marketing officer for Safeway. She has also held executive positions at Procter & Gamble in its health and beauty sector. She has served on Whirlpool Corporation’s board of directors since 2013 and Nuro robotic company’s board of directors since 2021. She has a bachelor’s degree in marketing and economics from Northern Illinois University.
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  Maria Echaveste, JD

  Maria Echaveste is president and CEO of the Opportunity Institute. She also serves on the board of directors of Cadiz Inc. (a natural resources company), Alliance for a Healthier Generation and Mi Familia Vota. She has built a distinguished career working as a public policy consultant, lecturer, senior White House official, community leader and corporate attorney. She has a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from Stanford University and a law degree from the UC Berkeley School of Law.
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  Dane Gehringer, MD

  Dr. Dane Gehringer is a pediatric hospitalist, associate professor of pediatrics and president of the medical staff at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland. As a pediatrician, he cares for hospitalized patients with a wide variety of complex conditions and illnesses. He earned his medical degree from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and completed a residency in pediatrics at UCSF.
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  Suresh Gunasekaran, MBA

  Suresh Gunasekaran is president and chief executive officer of UCSF Health and oversees UCSF Health's expanding network of affiliated health care organizations throughout Northern California. He leads the execution of UCSF Health's vision and the institution’s next phase of growth, revitalization and innovation, including in the area of technology. He has more than 20 years of experience in health care administration and information technology, with a focus on quality and safety, patient service, collaboration and operational excellence. His previous role was CEO of University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics and associate vice president for University of Iowa Health Care. He earned a master of business administration degree, graduating with honors, from Southern Methodist University.
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  Nicholas Holmes, MD, MBA

  Dr. Nicholas Holmes is president of UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals and senior vice president of children's services for UCSF Health. He oversees strategic direction and operations for all pediatric clinical services across the health system, including UCSF-owned and -operated sites and affiliated programs, facilities and physicians. He earned his medical degree at Georgetown University School of Medicine. He completed a residency in radiology at the Naval Medical Center in San Diego and a fellowship in pediatric urology at UCSF. He completed a business of medicine certificate program at the Johns Hopkins University. He also earned a master of business administration degree from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
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  Samir Kaul, MBA

  Samir Kaul is a founding partner and managing director at Khosla Ventures, where he focuses on investments in health, sustainability, food and advanced technology. Previously, he led the J. Craig Venter Institute's Arabidopsis Genome Initiative, whose historic genome sequencing analysis was published in the December 2000 issue of Nature. He also spent five years at Flagship Pioneering, where he started and invested in early-stage biotech companies. He has a bachelor's degree in biology from the University of Michigan, a master's degree in biochemistry from the University of Maryland and a master of business administration degree from Harvard Business School.
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  Tim Kendall, MBA

  Tim Kendall invests in early-stage technology companies. He is the former president of Pinterest, which he helped scale to hundreds of millions of users and thousands of employees. Previously, as Facebook's original director of monetization, he led development of the company's advertising business. He has an engineering degree and a master of business administration degree from Stanford University.
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  Talmadge E. King, Jr, MD

  Dr. Talmadge E. King Jr. is UCSF's vice chancellor of medical affairs and dean of the UCSF School of Medicine. A pulmonologist with special expertise in interstitial lung diseases, he has published more than 300 medical papers and co-authored eight books, including the acclaimed reference manual "Interstitial Lung Disease" and "Murray & Nadel's Textbook of Respiratory Medicine." He earned his medical degree at Harvard Medical School, completed a residency in internal medicine at Emory University and completed a fellowship in pulmonary and critical care medicine at the University of Colorado Denver. He has received numerous awards, including the Trudeau Medal, the highest honor conferred by the American Thoracic Society.
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  Carolyn Klebanoff, MD

  Dr. Carolyn Klebanoff is a retired internal medicine specialist who practiced in Berkeley for 36 years. She chairs the board of trustees at Dominican University of California. She earned her bachelor’s degree in biology from Yale University and her medical degree from UCSF. She completed an internal medicine residency in the UCSF program at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center.
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  Steven Klein, MBA

  Steven Klein is the founder and CEO of Bridge Partners, a private equity real estate firm with investments throughout the United States. He is also vice president of the BASIC Fund, a privately funded organization that provides scholarships for children of low-income families in the Bay Area. An alumnus of the University of California, Davis, he now serves on the UC Davis chancellor’s board of advisors. He earned his master of business administration degree from the UCLA Anderson School of Management.
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  Melissa Knox, MBA

  Melissa Knox is the global head of software investment banking at Morgan Stanley. As a banker, she leads deal origination and execution for mergers and acquisitions, initial public offerings, and other debt and equity financing projects. As a group director, she determines how to increase revenue, allocate resources, prioritize opportunities, optimize the team and scale the business globally. Over her 19 years in investment banking, she has executed some of the most transformative transactions in software. She has a bachelor's degree in business economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara and a master of business administration degree from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
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  Chris Kwei

  Chris Kwei is the founder and president of an Oakland-based automotive dealership group, where he has served as dealer principal for more than 20 years. He is also the founder and managing principal of an Oakland-based real estate development firm specializing in urban infill developments; multifamily homes; and office, retail and hospitality properties. He serves on the boards of directors for the Lake Merritt – Uptown District Association and Downtown Oakland District Association as well as on the board of CoachArt, a nonprofit that connects children who have chronic illnesses with opportunities to learn arts and sports. He earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of California, Berkeley.
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  Sarah Wagener

  Sarah Wagener has more than 25 years of experience leading high-growth technology and biotechnology companies. The founder and CEO of Lucky 13 Advisors, she counsels people and culture leaders on how to act as an accelerator, unlock leadership skills, build confidence and rapidly expand their knowledge. Previously, she was senior director of staffing at Genentech, where she led recruiting, developed enterprise-wide people strategies and operationalized human resources solutions. She was also part of Facebook's recruiting leadership team, driving its national technical sourcing strategy; technical leadership recruiting; and diversity, equity and inclusion for engineering. As vice president of human resources at Pandora, she led global human resources strategy across the employee life cycle. She then served as chief people officer at DoorDash, where she was responsible for leading the company's people and culture strategy through exponential growth, international expansion and an initial public offering. She has a bachelor's degree in journalism from California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt.
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  Lisa Walsh, MBA

  Lisa Walsh was a partner in the San Francisco office of the Bridgespan Group, a global nonprofit that provides management consulting and other support to mission-driven leaders, organizations, philanthropists and investors. She earned her bachelor’s degree in economics and international relations from the University of California, Davis and her master of business administration degree from Harvard Business School.
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  Gregor Watson

  Gregor Watson has been an entrepreneur and investor in the real estate and financial technology industries for more than a decade, co-founding businesses that include Roofstock, Lessen, Azibo and Creative Juice. Also a pioneer in single-family rentals, he founded one of the industry’s largest lending platforms, which he sold to Blackstone. More recently, he co-founded 1Sharpe Capital, where he serves on the investment and operating committees and leads many strategic investments.
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  Carrie Wheeler

  Carrie Wheeler is CEO of Opendoor, a leading e-commerce platform for residential real estate, and serves on its board of directors. Previously, she worked for the international private investment firm TPG Global for more than two decades. She has served on the boards of numerous companies, including Dollar Tree, Neiman Marcus and Petco, and currently serves on the boards of APi Group and TKO Group. She earned a bachelor of commerce degree with honors from Queen's University in Canada.
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  Melissa Williams, MBA

  Melissa Williams is the executive producer of Second Peninsula, a production company that creates video content for PBS NewsHour and other organizations. She is co-founder and co-chair of Notes & Words, a benefit concert series for UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland that has raised more than $15 million since its inception in 2010. She has a bachelor’s degree in systems engineering from the University of Virginia and a master of business administration degree from Harvard Business School.

Lifetime Directors

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  Edward Penhoet, PhD

  Edward Penhoet is associate dean of biology at the University of California, Berkeley and professor emeritus of biochemistry and of health policy and management. He was a founder of Chiron Corporation, a pioneer in the business of biotechnology, and served as CEO from 1981 to 1998. He was president of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation from 2004 to 2008. He earned his bachelor’s degree in biology from Stanford University and his doctorate in biochemistry from the University of Washington. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, San Diego.