Board of Directors

Frederic manages partnerships at Netflix as part of the Product team, working closely with global and regional partners in the media and telco space since 2018. Prior to Netflix, he was a multidisciplinary professional with 25 years experience leading Engineering, Product and Strategy teams at semiconductor companies (Synaptics, Audience) specializing in human interface technologies. Starting in Engineering, he spent several years in customer-facing roles before transitioning to Product Management and later to Corporate Development / Technology Strategy roles, driving the M&A strategy that directly led to multiple acquisitions and investments. Frederic began his career at AlliedSignal Aerospace as a Systems Engineer. In his free time, he likes spending time with his family, playing musical instruments, and volunteering in the community. Frederic is a member of the Board of Directors at the non-profit RAFT.

Kerry Chin is a technology consultant and leader at Booz Allen Hamilton. She is a founding member of Booz Allen Ventures, a $100M corporate venture capital fund focusing on early-stage investments. Kerry spearheads the artificial intelligence vertical, investing in hardware and software startups that offer a wide range of solutions for the federal sector relating to national security. Booz Allen Ventures’ portfolio companies.

Kerry formerly ran the Tech Scouting program at Booz Allen, which identifies and recommends technology investments for internal Booz Allen sectors and external federal clients. The Tech Scouting team’s primary objective is to identify emerging and viable technologies relevant to clients’ mission challenges, down select and thoroughly vet solutions, and make actionable technology recommendations to mitigate those challenges.

Prior to joining Booz Allen, Kerry worked as a firmware engineer for consumer devices at Synaptics, Inc. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from Harvey Mudd College and a Master of Science degree in Electrical & Computer Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology.

Carlos is the Deputy General Counsel for Treasure Data, Inc., a leading enterprise customer data platform provider, and is responsible for overseeing a wide range of global legal and compliance affairs. He is an experienced and versatile leader and advisor with over 16 years of legal practice experience, and excels in driving business strategy, compliance, governance, risk, product, and employee experience solutions. Carlos has held leadership roles in public and private technology companies of various sizes, enabling growth, scale, and corporate maturation.

Carlos has served as a trusted advisor for executives and other stakeholders on a variety of mission critical initiatives and crises, including litigation, investigations, cybersecurity incidents, IP development and assertion, pandemic response, ESG, and executive changes.

Carlos previously served as a member of the Advisory Board for the Katherine & George Alexander Community Law Center, which serves individuals and communities in need with pro bono legal representation and education.

Carlos earned a Juris Doctor degree from Santa Clara University School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Saint Mary’s College of California.

Yosuke is an audit partner in KPMG’s Technology practice. He has more than eighteen years of experience serving clients in all aspects of assurance, including financial statement audits, quarterly reviews, and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Yosuke has provided professional audit services to large multinational groups in accordance with PCAOB requirements and U.S. GAAP. His experience ranges from working with pre-IPO venture capital backed private companies to the successful coordination of large global audit projects on multinational Fortune 500 companies. He has a thorough understanding of SEC rules and regulations and has been involved in numerous debt and equity offerings. Yosuke has managed several complex global audits for technology clients and has extensive international experience in the software, technology, media, and telecom sectors, including a rotation to KPMG’s London, UK audit practice.

Wendy is a Sr. Associate General Counsel at Intuitive Surgical, and currently leads a team of Intellectual Property professionals in providing strategic IP counseling and services to the multi-billion dollar, da Vinci surgical robotics business. She is a versatile attorney with more than 20 years of experience in the MedTech and high tech industries. Prior to Intuitive Surgical, Wendy helped found the intellectual property department at Synaptics, and headed the department for more than fourteen years. While at Synaptics, she thoughtfully grew the IP portfolio, developed an international IP team, established IP processes, and supported a multitude of company-critical M&A and patent assertion activities.

Wendy finds great joy in giving back to the community. When the 501(c)(3) Intuitive Foundation was incorporated in 2018, Wendy was appointed to serve as its Corporate Secretary while continuing her responsibilities within Intuitive Surgical’s IP team. As Corporate Secretary, she established the private foundation’s legal function, oversaw corporate governance and compliance, handled a variety of transactional matters, and took to heart how these activities enabled Intuitive Foundation to pursue its philanthropic endeavors. Wendy served as Intuitive Foundation’s Secretary until the end of 2023.

Wendy holds a B.S. Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University, and a J.D. from Santa Clara University.

Charu is a seasoned Finance executive with over 20 years of experience in public and private companies across multiple industries. She leverages her systems, business partnership and data analytical skills to improve operational efficiencies and provide strategic guidance. She is currently managing the Research and Development as well as General Administration functions at Splunk (recently acquired by Cisco). Her previous roles include overall financial operations and reporting, product P&Ls, SEC reporting and M&As at high tech companies such as Nuance Communications (acquired by Microsoft), Pure Storage, Samsung Semiconductor and Xperi. Charu holds a Bachelor’s in Statistics and an MBA.

She is very passionate about giving back to the community and over the past 15 years has been actively supporting various non-profit organizations. She started the Bay Area Chapter of Akshayapatra USA (world’s largest NGO school meal program), supports Second Harvest, and helped her daughter setup a STEM community program, Musicodes.org.

Charu is keen to enable young minds reach their potential by having the resources needed to succeed. She is a strong believer in the impact that STEAM can make not only in a life but in a community.

Jim Harrington is the President of Harrington Search, a global retained search company. He leads searches in the Technology, Biotech, Pharmaceutical, Medical Devices, BPO, Financial Services, Publishing, Defense, Hospitality, and Gaming industries. He differentiates his search practice with assessment approaches that emphasize the “Who” not just the “What” in candidate profiles to enhance and align the client’s organization capabilities, culture, mission, diversity, and business.

Before founding Harrington Search, Jim was the CHRO of firms including Synaptics, BroadVision, Norand, Panda Express, and Syncor International. He led and partnered in the building of strategies for talent, culture, diversity and inclusion, and alignment within entrepreneurial and emerging organizations.

Jim holds a Master of Business Administration from Pepperdine University and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration from Mt. Mercy University.

Beth Howe is the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at SiTime Corporation, responsible for all aspects of finance and financial operations. In this role, she is focused on strategic financial decisions that fuel innovation and accelerate profitable growth. Prior to joining SiTime in 2023, Beth spent 17 years at HP Inc/Hewlett Packard Company driving innovation and change in numerous finance leadership roles, most recently serving as the Chief Audit Executive from 2021 to 2023. In this role, she accelerated automation and integrated risk management leading the company’s internal audit program and oversight of enterprise risk management. During her time at HP, she held various executive positions, including business CFO for HP’s multi-billion dollar Graphics Solutions Business, and Global Head of Investor Relations. Beth is also a strong advocate for sustainability and inclusion and was the Finance Executive Sponsor for Sustainable Impact. Earlier in her career, she held leadership positions at Silicon Graphics, a high-performance computing and advanced graphics computer company. Beth holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Environmental Engineering and a Master’s degree in Engineering Economic Systems and Operations Research, all from Stanford University.

Pradeep Jotwani serves on the Board of ACCO Brands (NYSE: ACCO) where he is the Chairman of the Compensation and Human Capital Committee. He also serves as a mentor to several social enterprises that work to transform the energy system globally, and reduce energy poverty in developing countries.

Pradeep spent most of his professional career at Hewlett-Packard (HP), most recently as the Senior Vice President (SVP) responsible for the LaserJet and Enterprise Solutions business. Pradeep held several earlier roles within HP, including SVP of the Printing Supplies Business. He also founded HP’s consumer presence in 1995, and went on to be the President of HP’s $14b Consumer Business. Outside of HP, Pradeep served as President of the Consumer Business at Eastman Kodak and worked as an operating executive at Vector Capital.

After retiring from HP in 2015, Pradeep went back to school for two years as a Fellow at the Distinguished Careers Institute in Stanford University. This was a great opportunity to learn about new areas, and Pradeep spent much of his time studying at the School of Earth, Energy and Environmental Sciences.

He has also served on the Boards of several public and private companies including RealNetworks, ACCO Brands and Printronix. In addition, he has served on the Advisory Board of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, and the Board of Trustees of the Crystal Springs Uplands School. Pradeep is also a Senior Fellow at the American Leadership Forum, Silicon Valley.

Pradeep has a Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, a Master’s in Industrial Engineering from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and an MBA from Stanford University.

Loretta currently heads Future of Work, Business Incubation, and as a Service for Commercial Systems in Personal Systems. She is responsible for evaluating trends within the different types of workers, including where, how, and why they work. From these customer insights and an understanding of technology innovation trends, she develops strategies and drives business incubation opportunities and design for new services business models. Throughout her career, Loretta has worked in businesses of various sizes, but she particularly enjoys intrapreneurial opportunities to drive new category growth. Loretta started as an engineering intern and has over 30 years of experience in R&D, supply chain, marketing, operations, and strategy, including M&A.

Loretta is also a spokesperson for HP’s Future of Work thought leadership and participates in webinars and panels. She has been cited in Forbes, The Financial Times, the Innovation journal, and The Guardian. She holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Davis, and an MBA from Santa Clara University.

Loretta is based in Palo Alto, CA.

Samir Patel is Vice President of Engineering at LinkedIn and a veteran Silicon Valley technology executive with more than 35 years of leadership experience spanning engineering, operations, product development, and business strategy. Over the course of his career, he has held senior leadership roles at companies including LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Google, Apple, Sun Microsystems, Adaptec, AT&T, and IBM.

At LinkedIn, Samir has supported large-scale engineering organizations focused on innovation, operational excellence, and global impact. Prior to LinkedIn, he helped lead engineering initiatives at Instagram and Facebook focused on user growth, trust, safety, integrity, privacy, and user well-being. Earlier in his career, he held leadership positions at Google, where he led initiatives across commerce, localization, and digital platforms, and at Apple, where he contributed to strategic technology initiatives during a transformative period in the company’s history.

Samir earned both his Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science and Mathematics and his Master of Engineering in Computer Science from Cornell University.

Vidya Phalke is technologist at heart with over 25 years of experience in Enterprise Software, Cloud and Distributed Computing, Security and Risk Technologies. As the Chief Innovation and InfoSec Officer of MetricStream, he currently leads MetricStream’s GRC Lab which is shaping next generation innovation in Governance, Risk, and Compliance for Enterprises and Global organizations. He received Silicon Valley’s Bay Area CIO of the year award in 2017. He holds a Doctorate from Rutgers and Management degree from MIT.

Liliana Rojas was born and raised in Bogota, Colombia. She studied Industrial Engineering at Universidad de Los Andes and came to the US with HP. She worked for 12 years in Consumer and Enterprise marketing in companies like Unilever, Hewlett Packard, Intel and Symantec.

Liliana worked for Apple for 7 years in various Operational roles supporting Apple Retail as well as the Whole Sale Channel. She currently works for Google where she has spent the last 10 years building Operational implementations from the ground up to support Customers, App and Video developers at scale.

Liliana has an MBA degree and speaks Spanish and French. She lives in Sunnyvale, California, with her husband and two children.

Sundi Sundaresh has more than 30 years of experience in leading high-growth businesses in the tech industry. Before becoming a board member of GridGain (sold to MariaDB), SandForce (sold to LSI) and Sureline Systems (sold to Persistent Systems), Sundi was the president and CEO of Adaptec, Inc (Nasdaq: ADPT, sold to PMC-Sierra, now part of MicroChip). During the course of his career, Sundi has also led multiple startups including Cinarra Systems, Inc. (location-based audience targeting, analytics and attribution, sold to Softbank Corp), Xangati, Inc. (IT Operations Analytics, sold to Virtana), Candera Inc. (the industry’s first network storage controller), and Jetstream Communications (market-leading voice over broadband solution, sold to Paradyne, now part of Zhone). During a previous tenure at Adaptec, Sundi served in a number of positions, including corporate Vice-President and General Manager for the Personal I/O division and corporate Vice President of worldwide marketing. He has also held various positions at Hewlett-Packard and National Semiconductor.

Sundi also serves on the non-profit Boards of the IIT Madras Foundation and Pratham USA SF Bay Area chapter.

Sundi holds a Bachelor of Technology degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, a Master of Engineering degree in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University, and an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Priya Venkat is an executive leader with more than 25 years of business and legal experience overseeing corporate matters, strategic software licensing, IP portfolio management, structuring and executing complex multi-year enterprise deals, and worldwide regulatory compliance. Her business-focused legal advice helped public companies and technology startups rapidly scale global footprints, launch new business models, and recognize profitable revenue growth. She has navigated complex satellite and telecommunications regulations around the world to guide market access entry points in Europe, Asia, and the Americas.

In addition to building and managing high-performing teams and overseeing legal department operations, she is valued for her strategic business advice as General Counsel. Her exceptional ability to streamline complex information and processes into practical workflows allows her to create operational efficiencies across multiple business units.

As a member of the executive leadership team, she is a trusted advisor for CEOs, Board Members, and senior management. Priya has led several M&As, both from the buy-side and sell-side. She is an effective negotiator and adept at understanding the intensely competitive, technical, and business environments of high-growth companies.

Priya’s experience as a corporate attorney and technology product counsel spans across Denver, Boston, Washington, D.C., Chicago, and San Francisco. She has held attorney leadership roles at Capgemini, King & Spalding, The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Nextel Communications, Ribbon Communications, Edgewater Networks, and Skylo Technologies. For the past decade, she has also served as an Advisory Board Member to bitWise Academy. Priya has been a frequent conference speaker and panel moderator on the topics of trade secrets, IP corporate strategy, and strategic business counseling. She received her J.D. from Case Western Reserve School of Law and her B.A. with Honors in Political Science from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Priya was also an LL.M Honors Candidate in Information Technology & Privacy Law at The John Marshall Law School.

Beth is a twice National Board Certified Math Teacher and alumni of the Stanford Graduate School of Education. Her 35-year body of work in Educational Reform includes 10 years mentoring Stanford student teachers across dozens of Bay Area high schools, 10 years as a high school Math teacher at Stanford’s lab high school in East Palo Alto, 4 years teaching Mathematics at Castilleja, and 18 seasons of coaching. She excels at building programs from the ground up, whether that means the first winning season in the history of Barstow Girls Basketball, the first AP Statistics course at East Palo Alto Academy, or a complete remodel for Trigonometry or World Literature courses. Most notable was breaking ground for three Bay Area Charter High Schools. She finished the full-time classroom teaching chapter of her life in 7th grade Math and Science at North Star Academy. NSA is a magnet school in the Redwood City School District regularly ranked in the top 5 California schools by US News. Her work as an advocate for academic excellence, inclusiveness, transparency, sustainability, and student voice has taken her across the country and around the world. RAFT is an ideal place to continue her passion for building communities that thrive and guide their children toward their best selves. Beth is also a certified UC Master Gardener and raises butterflies.

Joo Tanaka is an accomplished and dedicated Talent Acquisition Leader with over 20 years of experience spanning diverse industries, including High Technology, Advanced Composites, Consumer/Professional Products, and Beverage Industries. She possesses a proven track record of enhancing global talent acquisition, fostering diversity and inclusion, and building high-performance teams. As a business and culture-driven professional, Joo demonstrates a fervor for creating diverse and inclusive environments. Her expertise lies in talent attraction, workforce planning, branding, and crafting world-class, high-performance organizations. Her geographical experience includes North America, Europe, Africa, and Asia, and she has worked across various organizational stages, from early-stage to Fortune 500 companies.

Joo served as the Vice President - Global Recruitment, Diversity, and Inclusion at Hexcel Corporation, where she played a pivotal role in increasing global employee headcount, streamlining recruitment processes, and implementing diversity and inclusion initiatives. Notable among her achievements is the establishment of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Council, where she served as a founding leader, setting the roadmap for this critical position and excelling in her role as a catalyst for positive change within the organization. Prior to her role at Hexcel, Joo held positions at Synaptics Inc, Diageo, Plc, Google, and The Clorox Company.

Joo is a graduate of the University of California at Santa Barbara, holding a Bachelor of Arts in Business Economics with an emphasis in accounting. Fluent in Korean, she brings a unique cultural perspective to her professional endeavors.

Grace Wong was born and raised in Hong Kong, China. After graduating from San Jose State University with her degree in Business Administration - Information Technology and minor in Computer Science, Grace worked for various Fortune 500 corporations in Silicon Valley holding technical & management positions in support of their worldwide IT infrastructure.

Her decade-long experience in financial and manufacturing system development and deployment, strategic planning and managerial responsibility on team’s multimillions budget pathed way to her next endeavor in career as she pursued entrepreneurship the past two decades in an After School Enrichment business in Fremont, California.

Grace is passionate about education for young children and inspiring their passion in lifelong learning since the birth of her only child. She is also devoted to animal rescue outside of work.

Grace indeed has been a longtime patron of RAFT since the beginning of her education business in 2006. She is elated to the opportunity joining the board to bring further education resources and raising awareness of RAFT’s mission in the community.

Kajari is a global public health executive with more than 25 years of experience leading international health initiatives, managing federal grant portfolios, and strengthening public health systems across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the United States.

Most recently, she served as Manager of Leadership Programs at the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL), modernizing the flagship Emerging Leader Program and launching leadership initiatives in Uganda and Lesotho. Previously, as APHL’s Director of Global Health, she managed multimillion-dollar CDC and USAID grant portfolios, strengthening laboratory systems, disease surveillance, and TB and HIV/AIDS programs worldwide.

Kajari’s expertise spans global health strategy, federal grant management, workforce development, and cross-cultural collaboration. She holds an MPH from Drexel University, a Certificate in Reproductive Health Research from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and a BA in Molecular, Cellular, & Developmental Biology from the University of Colorado Boulder.

Huibert Verhoeven grew up in the Netherlands, where a Philips build-your-own radio kit sparked an early fascination with electronics and ultimately led him to pursue a career in electrical engineering and technology.

Over more than 25 years, Huibert has built and led global businesses and product organizations across the semiconductor, consumer electronics, and automotive industries. Most recently, he served as Senior Vice President of Intelligent Cockpit at HARMAN. Earlier in his career, he held senior leadership roles at Western Digital and Synaptics, working across automotive, mobile, IoT, and human-interface technologies.

That childhood experience of learning by building has stayed with Huibert throughout his career. Engineering has also remained a family passion: he met his wife, also an engineer, while in graduate school in the Netherlands, and their son is now pursuing engineering as well.

Huibert believes every young person, regardless of background or circumstances, should have the opportunity to experience STEAM through engaging, hands-on learning. He is passionate about making those opportunities accessible across all communities and giving students the chance to discover interests and talents they might not otherwise know they have. That personal connection to hands-on learning is what drew him to RAFT.