Allison Blais is Vice President of Business & Strategic Operations and Chief of Staff to Adobe President David Wadhwani, running day-to-day operations of Digital Media - Adobe's largest business unit. A lawyer-turned-operator, she transitioned from 15+ years in financial services and corporate law into driving strategy for Creative Cloud, Document Cloud, and Adobe Firefly, the company's generative AI platform. Her path from FINRA regulatory analyst to VP at one of the world's most influential software companies is a masterclass in reinvention.
Stacie Owen is Vice President of Corporate Relations at Microsoft, based in Burlington, Ontario, Canada. With a legal background from her time as a lawyer at Kronis, Rotszain, Margles & Cappel in Toronto, she has transitioned into a senior executive role at one of the world's most influential technology companies - overseeing corporate relations functions for the tech giant that employs over 228,000 people and generates over $281 billion in annual revenue.
Diana Frappier is the co-founder of Promise, an Oakland-based AI-powered government payment platform that helps municipalities and utilities distribute relief, recover revenue, and automate eligibility checks at scale. A UC Hastings-trained lawyer turned social entrepreneur, she co-founded the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights with Van Jones in 1996, helped launch the first Green Jobs Corps in Oakland, and then pivoted to fintech after years running operations at Green For All and Honor. At Promise, she and CEO Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins have raised over $48M and built a platform that has distributed $150M+ in government relief to hundreds of thousands of residents.
Ashley Caldwell is Partner and General Counsel at Sapphire Ventures, the Menlo Park venture capital firm with more than $11B in AUM across its Ventures, Partners, and Sport platforms. She runs legal across all three strategies — deal execution, governance, regulatory, exits — for a firm that backs growth-stage technology companies globally. A former Kirkland & Ellis private equity associate and Bluevine in-house counsel, she joined Sapphire in 2019, was elevated to General Counsel in 2021, and now wears the Partner title too.
Bill Myers is Partner and General Counsel at Norwest Venture Partners, the multi-stage investment firm based in Menlo Park. He handles deal structuring, fund administration, portfolio counsel and cross-border regulatory work for a global fund spanning North America, India and Israel. Before Norwest he was a partner at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius and earlier at Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison, where he focused on M&A, venture financings and public company transactions.
Evan Neu is Partner and General Counsel at Venrock, the storied venture capital firm born out of the Rockefeller family's investment legacy. Based in Palo Alto, he leads the firm's legal and regulatory strategy while overseeing operations and administration. Before joining Venrock in November 2022, Neu served as Managing Director and Deputy General Counsel at TPG, one of the world's leading global alternative asset managers, and earlier built his legal foundation as an Associate at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP in New York. He holds a B.S. from Cornell University and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
Jennifer Kristen Lee is the General Counsel and Operating Partner at Basis Set Ventures, the AI-native venture fund that closed a $250 million Fund IV in January 2026. A third-generation San Franciscan whose great-great-grandfather worked on the transcontinental railroad in the 1860s, Jennifer spent over 15 years advising founders and investors at global law firm DLA Piper - rising to partner and co-chairing its Corporate Venture Capital practice - before crossing over to the other side of the cap table. She brings a rare dual lens to venture: over 15 years guiding startups from formation to exit, combined with operational depth that makes her the firm's internal compass on legal strategy, deals, and governance. Named to the Silicon Valley Business Journal's 2022 40 Under 40 list, she holds a BA in Political Science from UC Berkeley and a JD/MBA from Santa Clara University.
John Delfino is Partner and General Counsel at TCV (Technology Crossover Ventures), the Menlo Park-based growth equity firm behind transformative investments in Netflix, Spotify, Airbnb, Facebook, and over 350 technology companies. Joining TCV in 2014 after nearly a decade at elite law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, Delfino sits at the intersection of law and venture capital - structuring deals, executing investments and exits, and managing the full legal and operational footprint of one of tech's most storied growth investors. With a J.D./M.B.A. from Santa Clara University and undergraduate roots at the College of the Holy Cross (including a year abroad at Oxford), he brings a rare dual lens of legal rigor and business strategy to a firm that has backed category-defining companies since 1995.
Ric Fenton is a General Partner at TCV (Technology Crossover Ventures), one of the world's leading growth-stage technology investors with over $21 billion in committed capital. Joining TCV in 2008, he oversees the firm's Legal, Capital Markets, Portfolio Talent, and Data Intelligence functions, guiding the full investment lifecycle from deal sourcing and transaction execution to portfolio value creation and exit. A Michigan Ross finance graduate and Duke Law attorney by training, Fenton spent eight years at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett advising top-tier private equity firms on M&A, leveraged buyouts, and securities transactions before crossing over to the investor side. He sits on the Board of Directors of the National Venture Capital Association and the Board of Visitors of Duke University School of Law.
Ryan Thompson is General Counsel and Partner at Felicis, a Menlo Park-based venture capital firm that has backed over 50 unicorns and raised a $900M Fund X in 2025. A lawyer-turned-operator-turned-investor, Ryan brings nearly two decades of legal and operational muscle to one of Silicon Valley's most decorated early-stage firms. Before Felicis, he served as COO and General Counsel at Unusual Ventures and as General Counsel and VP of HR at Shape Security — which sold to F5 Networks for over $1 billion. He spent nine years as a corporate attorney at Goodwin Procter and DLA Piper, working on VC financings, M&A, and IPOs before crossing the table to the operator side.
Stephan Eberle is the General Counsel and Head of Limited Partner Relations at Scale Venture Partners, a Foster City-based early-stage venture capital firm managing $2.8 billion in assets. A Berkeley- and UC Hastings-trained attorney, he spent 17 years at Silicon Valley Bank building its global legal infrastructure and founding its venture capital investing program before joining Scale VP in 2016. He now oversees fund and portfolio legal matters while serving as the primary liaison between the firm and its limited partners.
Chris Wheeler is Senior Vice President of Global Ethics & Integrity at Salesforce, where he oversees the company's ethics and compliance programs at a global scale. A trained attorney with roots in the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division and private practice at Bingham McCutchen LLP, Wheeler brings a prosecutorial sharpness to corporate ethics work. At Salesforce, he leads third-party anti-corruption programs, partners ethics compliance, and sustainability reporting mandates - helping keep one of the world's most-recognized 'ethical companies' actually earning that title.
Miriam Rivera is the Co-Founder, CEO, and Managing Director of Ulu Ventures, one of the largest Latina-led venture capital firms in the United States with ~$400M AUM. A first-generation college student born to Puerto Rican migrant farmworkers, she earned four degrees from Stanford, joined Google as its second attorney and helped scale the company from $85M to $10B in revenue, then co-founded Ulu Ventures in 2008 with husband Clint Korver. Ulu's data-driven, bias-reducing investment model has backed 10 unicorns including Palantir and Guild Education, with a portfolio where 80% of founders are women, immigrants, or from minority groups.
Wayco is a New York-based AI operator built for the medlegal industry, automating the full lifecycle of personal injury and medical-legal cases from first intake call to settlement. Founded by 19-year-old Tajikistani prodigy Iqbol Temirkhojaev - who had his first VC-backed startup at 13, his first exit (to the United Nations) at 14, and a software patent at 15 - Wayco uses voice AI and intelligent case coordination to replace the days of phone calls and paperwork that currently define medical case management. Backed by Y Combinator (W26) with $500K in seed funding, the company is positioning itself not just as a software vendor but as an AI-native law firm that expands access to justice for Americans.