Seed-Stage Investor and Advisor; Founder and Former CEO of Newfield Wireless
Marc Bensadoun graduated from Cornell University with a B.S. in Physics in ‘83 and from UC Berkeley with a Ph.D. in Physics in 1991. A physicist by training, Marc Bensadoun splits his time between seed-stage investing with his wife Cristina Hawes-Bensadoun, board and advisory roles, and developing technology ideas. During his PhD and post-doctoral study at Berkeley he worked in experimental astrophysics for eight years at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory with Nobel Laureate George Smoot. Mr. Bensadoun then founded Newfield Wireless, initially to help mobile network...
As CEO of the San Francisco Foundation (SFF), Fred Blackwell has spearheaded a transformative journey for one of the largest community foundations in the country. His leadership, marked by a renewed commitment to social justice through an equity agenda focused on racial and economic inclusion, has inspired change and progress. Collaborating with donors, community leaders, and public and private partners, he has been instrumental in creating thriving communities throughout the Bay Area since 2014. Mr. Blackwell is highly respected as a community leader in the Bay Area. He...
Nasreen Chopra, VP Sustainability and Systems Engineering, is responsible for the Sustainability Center of Excellence (COE) at Applied Materials. Her focus is to work with internal and external partners, as well as industry consortia and customers, to accelerate development and deployment of products that reduce energy consumption and GHG emissions of semiconductor fabs. She has over 25 years of deep technical and business experience, working in diverse leadership roles, R&D, manufacturing, supply chain, and strategic deals. Ms. Chopra started her career at Applied...
Jenny Dearborn is a 4th generation Cal graduate (dad 1964, grandparents 1930 & 1932, great-grandfather 1897) who grew up summering at Lair of the Golden Bear – Go, Camp Blue! Jenny is an Alumni Scholar and participated in Cal in the Capital. She’s held executive sales and talent roles at top global technology firms, and is a board director and growth advisor to several work-tech start-ups. Jenny is the author of two best-selling business books on the intersection of data science and human capital management, Data Driven: How...
Sergio Garcia is a Bay Area-based legal and business leader with a deep passion for educational opportunity, racial equity, and economic inclusion. He is CEO of Garcia Strategic Advisors LLC, where he provides expertise to executives and boards on governance, board recruitment and composition, and strategic collaborations. Mr. Garcia has served as a chief legal officer at publicly traded technology companies, where he managed corporate governance matters, intellectual property, and strategic transactions. He has also been an equity partner at major international law...
Vice President and Chief People Officer of General Motors
Arden Hoffman was appointed senior vice president and chief people officer of General Motors in January 2023. Prior to this role, Ms. Hoffman served as Cruise’s chief people officer, driving the company’s People strategy. Her team supported Cruise’s mission to build the most advanced self-driving vehicle by creating a high-performance culture where Cruisers could do their best work. Previously, Ms. Hoffman was the vice president of People at Dropbox, where she was responsible for building and scaling the company and culture across its 12 global offices. Her leadership...
Charles Huang is co-founder of RedOctane and co-creator of Guitar Hero, which was the best-selling video game in the world in 2007 and 2008. In 2006, Mr. Huang and his brother, Kai, were listed among the top 50 producers in new media by the Producers Guild of America New Media Council. Mr. Huang currently resides in Silicon Valley with his wife, Lillian, and two daughters, both of whom are Cal students. He founded the Huang Scholars Program at UC Berkeley. He is a visiting lecturer in the College of Letters & Science, where he teaches an entrepreneurship class for...
Matt Jacobson is a managing member of Jacobs & Co., LLC, a San Francisco registered investment advisor, where he has worked since graduating from Berkeley in 1979. Jacobs & Co., LLC provides investment management and financial planning services to high-net-worth individuals, company retirement plans, and multi-employer pension plans. Prior to joining Jacobs & Co., Mr. Jacobson worked from 1971 to 1979 for the Berkeley Gazette and Richmond Independent newspapers as a copy boy and sportswriter. While working at...
Roger Kang is the vice president of Princeton BioMeditech Corporation (PBM) and president of LifeSign, which are medical diagnostic companies delivering high-quality, rapid point-of-care testing solutions worldwide. PBM, a family-owned company, specializes in point-of-care tests related to fertility, infectious disease, drugs, tumors, cardiology, and veterinary and environmental diagnostics, including: the one-step pregnancy test, rapid COVID-19/influenza A & B panel test, and the rapid 3-in-1 cardiac marker panel. In 2012, Mr. Kang established an endowment for the Kang...
Board Chair and Director of Marketing, Ravenswood Classroom Partners
Jeanette Kennedy began her career in management consulting before working at Sun Microsystems, where she held management positions in product marketing and software partner development. Her work there with startups earned her the Chairman’s Award for Innovation. Ms. Kennedy believes that education has the power to transform lives, and, after retiring from high tech, she invested time in strengthening the educational experiences of students in her community. She helped to build the nonprofit Ravenswood Classroom Partners, which is dedicated to improving the literacy...
