From Classroom to Boardroom

​From Classroom to Boardroom
From first job to first board seat, four Cal leaders on how it happened.

​Nobody graduates knowing how to run a board meeting. That part comes later, somewhere along a path that looks a lot cleaner on paper than it does in real life.

​The milestones read simply enough: First Job, First Promotion, First Big Bet, First Exit. The path between them rarely does. What are the decisions, relationships, and turning points that carry a career from one chapter to the next?

​On September 8, four Cal leaders who made that climb will tell you how it actually happened. Expect straight talk about the moves that mattered, the ones that did not, and what it takes to build something that outlasts you.

​Our Speakers:

​Gordon C. Rausser
Robert Gordon Sproul Distinguished Professor Emeritus, UC Berkeley
Gordon Rausser spent four decades at Berkeley, served as Dean of the College of Natural Resources, and negotiated the first campus-based public-private research partnership in the country. He has also sat on more than 20 corporate boards, co-founded two companies that went public, and made the $50 million gift that named Rausser College.

​Jenny Dearborn
Chief People & Enterprise Excellence Officer, Greenfield Global
Jenny Dearborn went from struggling in school to the C-suite at Sun Microsystems, SuccessFactors, SAP, and Klaviyo. She is a Cal alumna, a three-time bestselling author on data and workforce performance, and now a board director, advisor, and investor.

​Eliot Sun
Venture Partner, Ironfire Ventures
Founder and CEO, Kloudless (acquired by Netskope)
Eliot Sun graduated from Berkeley with degrees in Mathematics and Economics plus three minors, then founded three startups and sold two. His most recent, Kloudless, served over 25,000 developers and companies including Autodesk, GE, Dropbox, and Proofpoint before its acquisition by Netskope.

​Corey Goodman
Co-founder and Managing Partner, venBio Partners
Dr. Goodman was a Professor of Neurobiology at Berkeley and Stanford for 25 years, is an elected member of the US National Academy of Sciences, and won many prestigious scientific awards in his academic days.  He co-founded nine biotech companies (3 have been acquired and three have done IPOs), took one public and sold it as CEO, and was President of Biotherapeutics and a member of Pfizer's executive leadership team.  While Chairing six biotech boards, and continuing to make new investments, he remains an active member of Berkeley's entrepreneurship community.  He has also advised the Federal and State government in science policy, having Chaired the National Research Council’s Board on Life Sciences and the California Council on Science and Technology.

​Christopher Lee
Senior Partner, Farron, Augustine & Alexander LLC
Chris is a senior partner at Farron, Augustine & Alexander and serves as an independent director for the Matthews Asia fund complex, including 11 ETFs listed on the NYSE. He spent 18 years in investment banking as a Managing Director and divisional head at Deutsche Bank, UBS, and Merrill Lynch, and is an NACD-certified director. He also served on the UC Berkeley Haas Dean's Advisory Circle (2010-2021).

​Seats are limited. We encourage early registration.