VIEW WEBINAR
Co-sponsored by Santa Clara University
Board members (and prospective board members) looking for a new board seat will often be approached by entrepreneurs. This SVDX webinar will address entrepreneurial boards and what prospective board members should consider. What should prospective board members think about before joining a start-up / early stage board? Should he/she join in a purely advisory role? What are the benefits? At what stage during a start-ups lifecycle should he/she consider joining the board? Join our panel of experts as they demystify the start-up board, discuss their own experiences from a range of perspectives, and give advice to prospective board members.
SPEAKERS
Matt Blumberg
Matt Blumberg is a technology entrepreneur and business builder and currently the co-founder and CEO at Bolster. Matt was co-founder and chief executive officer of Return Path and wrote Startup CEO: A Field Guide to Scaling Up Your Business, a book dedicated to helping entrepreneurs navigate the transition to executive leadership. He also blogs about his experiences as a first-time CEO at Only Once.
Evan Epstein
Evan Epstein is the founding Executive Director of the Center for Business Law (“CBL“) at UC Hastings. Professor Epstein is a corporate governance expert and has advised founders, executives, directors and investors for over 15 years in Silicon Valley and internationally. He has deep experience with executive and director education, and is the former Executive Director of the Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance. He has also served as a Professor at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile Law School, and he is a former corporate lawyer with practice experience in Europe and Latin America.
Brienne Ghafourifar
Brienne Ghafourifar is a full-stack entrepreneur on a mission to build disruptive technologies that can help people live and work better. She set a world record at the age of 17 as the youngest college graduate to raise $1 million in venture funding; that figure has since grown to more than $25 million. Brienne and her brother, Alston, co-founded Entefy, an AI software and automation company. After investing 250,000 hours in advanced R&D (with more than 100 scientists and engineers contributing to its AI platform), Entefy is serving enterprise customers across a number of industries, including financial services, healthcare, retail, and manufacturing. Entefy’s customers vary in size from SMEs to $100+ Billion US and global public companies. Brienne is also a published inventor with 12 patents awarded by the USPTO and a key contributor to Entefy’s IP portfolio.
As a leader among young entrepreneurs, she has been covered by international media including Fast Company, CNN Money, Forbes, NBC, and The Huffington Post, among others. With a deep passion for entrepreneurship and courageous innovation, Brienne has been a guest lecturer at several top universities in the U.S. (including Stanford, UC Berkeley, and Wharton) as well as a frequent speaker at conferences and workshops internationally in support of entrepreneurship and STEM. She is also featured in the documentary film, “She Started It,” highlighting women tech founders around the globe.
Banafsheh Akhlaghi, moderator
Banafsheh Akhlaghi has over 20 years of experience as founder of a civil rights nonprofit, consultant to the United Nations, Regional Director with Amnesty International, and founder of an international private law practice. Her expertise includes Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG), Risk Management, Legal & Business Strategy, Diversity & Inclusion, and Public Policy. Immediate past co-chairwoman, and a member since 2010, of the Legal Services Trust Fund Commission of the State Bar of California, focusing on legal advocacy for underserved and underrepresented populations. Member of the Board of Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco focused on access to low-cost liquidity, essential financial services, and resources for affordable housing and economic development to our member banks. Member of Board of Advisors of Entefy, an advanced AI and process automation company.