Leadership
Dr. Melissa Lim,
CMO & Co-Founder
Dr. Lim the is the Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer of Somnology, Inc. She is a board-certified sleep specialist with her own busy private practice in Redwood City, CA. She is the Medical Director of Redwood Pulmonary Medical Associates and Redwood Sleep Center, Inc. She is the clinical architect of the internet-based sleep center management software now hosted in many sleep labs across the globe, called Sleep Workflow. She attended Ohio State University College of Medicine, completed her internship and residency at Boston City Hospital/Boston University, and conducted her fellowship training at Johns Hopkins Hospitals and the University of California, San Francisco. Realizing the magnitude of sleep problems worldwide, she created the first version of MobileSleepDoc Pro mobile app in 2012 as a tool to help not only her own patients, but anyone with a smartphone who has trouble sleeping. A brand new version of the app was released in 2014, with continuous upgrades in store. She joined forces with business leader Patrick Yam in 2015 to create Somnology, Inc.
Patrick J. Yam,
Co-Founder
Patrick Yam is the Co-Founder of Somnology, Inc. He joined founder Dr. Melissa Lim in early 2015 to build a premier medical enterprise focused on providing a comprehensive digital healthcare program for the remediation of sleep disorders. Sleep disorders, declared by the CDC in 2018 as an epidemic, affect a global population of 1B people. Prior to teaming with Dr. Lim he was the CEO of Sensei Partners LLC, a Menlo Park, CA based private investment firm. His career includes responsibilities as a macro-economist, financial and technology executive, investment banker, and Institutional Investor with significant experience in company-building—his main passion. He has been a senior advisor to two sovereign nations on innovation and, entrepreneurship. A professional speaker and published author, he teaches and lectures on entrepreneurship at Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business, where he is a SCU Regent. Previously, he served as the first Dean’s Executive Professor of Entrepreneurship and was a former faculty member of the Venture Capital Institute. He is associated with the University of California, Santa Barbara, where, as a UC Trustee, he was a founding member of the endowment investment committee as well as a senior director of the Economic Forecast Project and a senior adviser to Beacon Economics, a national economic consulting firm. In 2019, Mr. Yam was appointed as an advisor to UCSF’s Innovation Catalyst Program to focus on digital healthcare and medical devices and in April 2020, was appointed by UCSF Health Hub as a ‘Chief Business Mentor”. In 2022, he was acknowledged as one of top five global entrepreneurs by Enterprise World. He has been responsible as the Chief Executive Officer in building and operating enterprises in the investment, financial, technology, and medical sectors. He received his MBA with distinction from Santa Clara University.
Council of Advisors
Lenny Mendonca is a director emeritus (retired senior partner) from the Washington D.C. and San Francisco offices of McKinsey & Company, a global management consulting firm. He is a senior fellow at the Presidio Institute. He is also an advisor to several entrepreneurs. Lenny founded McKinsey’s U.S. state and local public sector practice. For many years Lenny led their knowledge development efforts overseeing the McKinsey Global Institute and the Firm’s communications, including the McKinsey Quarterly. He served for a decade on the McKinsey Shareholder Council (its board of directors). Over the course of his career he helped dozens of government, corporate, and nonprofit clients solve their most difficult management challenges.
Lenny is the Chair of Children Now, co-Chair of California Forward, and co-founder and Chair of Fusecorps. He is the Chair Emeritus of the Bay Area Council and their Economic Institute, and was vice-chair of the Stanford Graduate School of Business Advisory Council. He serves on the boards of Fidelity Charitable,New America,Western Governors University,The Committee for Economic Development, Common Cause, the Bay Area Science and Innovation Consortium, The Campaign for Business & Educational Excellence,The Educational Results Partnership,The College Futures Foundation,California Competes,The Opportunity Institute, Commonwealth Club and the Super Bowl 50 Fund. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Board of Trustees for Junior Statesmen of America and the Advisory Boards of QB3 and The Public Policy Institute of California. He received his MBA and certificate in public management from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He holds an AB, magna cum laude, in economics from Harvard College.
Ms. Bueno, a former official in the Clinton Administration, was Special Assistant to the President in the White House Chief of Staff’s Office and on the Domestic Policy Council. Prior to her White House posts, Ms. Bueno was a Deputy Assistant Secretary for Legislation at the United States Department of Health and Human Services. She served as a Legislative Assistant for Senator Alan Cranston (D-CA) and Congressman Edward Roybal (D-CA).
Ms. Bueno is a leader in the Asian Pacific Islander American community. She has served as a Board member of the Asian Pacific American Institute of Congressional Studies (APAICS); the former Executive Director and a current Board Member of the Asian American Action (AAA) Fund, a political empowerment organization; and a former member of the District of Columbia Commission on Asian Pacific Americans.
Ms. Bueno is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley and the Hastings College of Law. She is a member of the California and District of Columbia Bars. Among her many accomplishments she was selected to participate in the Coro Foundation Fellows Program in Public Affairs, a leadership program.
Charles T. (Chris) Compton is a technology lawyer, based in Palo Alto, California. An early partner of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, P.C. he is globally recognized for his knowledge and experience on antitrust and alternative dispute resolution. While at Silicon Valley’s Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, P.C., Chris was a litigator and senior antitrust partner representing hundreds of technology companies, their employees and investors in state and federal courts, as well as arbitral tribunals, for over 30 years. He is a founding board member of the Silicon Valley Arbitration & Mediation Center. Chris is listed in Northern California Super Lawyers and has been named in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business and Best Lawyers in America. He has published in the Antitrust Law Journal, Corporate Counsel Outlook, and the International Business Lawyer, and taught at both the UC Hastings College of the Law and the Santa Clara University School of Law. Earning a J.D. from New York University School of Law, Chris was managing editor of the Law Review and a Root-Tilden-Snow Scholar. He graduated with a B.S. degree from the U.S. Air Force Academy and served as a Military Judge in the JAG Corps.
A CPA at Ernst, Evelyn spent the first 17 years of her career in the audit and finance function as Controller for a bank and for Charles Schwab and as CFO and Chief Administrative Officer for U.S. Trust, a wealth management firm. She was given the opportunity to hone her skills in marketing, business development, strategy, M&A and product development, culminating in the role of EVP of Charles Schwab, member of the Management Committee and President and CEO of Charles Schwab Investment Management, responsible for over $200 Billion in assets and over $1 Billion in revenue.
Recognized in the community for her leadership, she has received San Francisco Business Times “100 Most Influential Woman” award, 2003-2009, and SF Business Times “Outstanding Director”, 2014. In 2016, she received an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Cal State University East Bay.
Evelyn has served on several public and private boards and currently serves as Audit or Compensation Committee Chair on public company boards Tempur Sealy (TPX) and Health Equity (HQY); large private companies Blue Shield of CA, global consulting firm Protiviti, a private REIT and leadership roles in several non-profit boards, including as Vice-Chair of The Commonwealth Club and the Blue Shield Foundation, Co-Chair of Women Corporate Directors Advisory Board and board member of the NACD NorCal chapter. She formerly served on the boards of Long Drugs, Tamalpais Bancorp, Aeropostale (teen specialty clothing) and High Mark Funds. She is a graduate of CSU East Bay and the Stanford Senior Executive Program.
Casey McGlynn is a Partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. In 1990 Casey McGlynn formed the Life Sciences Group at the firm and today has one of the largest practices in the country focused on Medtech, Healthtech and Biotech companies.
Mr. McGlynn has formed, represented, sold and taken public many of the most important Medical Device, Healthtech and Diagnostic companies started during the last 30 years.
Mr. McGlynn has extensive hands on experience in helping entrepreneurs form, build, fund and sell their companies. He has formed, participated with the boards of and invested in companies in all of the major Medical Device fields. Over the last 30 years he has built close working relationships with an unparalleled list of entrepreneurs, doctors, investors, engineers, and managers in this industry. Through his portfolio of companies he has met with and negotiated with the leaders of all of the major Medtech acquirers.
Over much of his career, Mr. McGlynn participated in forming and managing several small funds all of which have been top quartile performers. In 2005 Mr McGlynn founded Life Science Angels, an angel organization focused on investing in Medtech, Healthtech and Biotech companies. Since formation, LSA has invested over $50 million in more than 100 companies which have received an additional $600+ million in follow-on funding from VCs. Mr McGlynn has been on the Investment Committee of WS Investments for over a decade and became Chair of the Investment Committee in 2019.
Mr. McGlynn is a member of the board of directors of the Fogarty Institute for Innovation and Medical Device Manufacturers Association and was a founding board member of the Emerging Business Committee of BIO.
Donald J. Polden is Dean Emeritus and Professor of Law at Santa Clara University School of Law. A long- time leader in legal education and the legal profession, he teaches Santa Clara law and business students, researches and publishes on issues of law and public policy, and serves in leadership roles with the American Bar Association and Association of American Law Schools. Prior to joining the faculty at Santa Clara’s law school where he served as Dean from 2003 to 2013, Don served as dean of the University of Memphis School of Law for ten years.
Don is a graduate of The George Washington University and Indiana University (McKinney) School of Law and, following a federal judicial clerkship, he practiced antitrust, corporate and securities law in Iowa, including representing clients in several antitrust jury trials, securities fraud cases, and legal advising for physicians and small corporate clients. Don also has been retained to serve as an expert witness in litigation involving high tech and entertainment company litigation in California. He has published books and articles on employment law, antitrust and federal securities law, and on legal education. Recently, he has pioneered the curriculum for leadership development and training for law students and lawyers, including teaching at the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s leadership program for officer-lawyers, and serves as the Chair of the Section on Leadership of the AALS, a national organization of more than 10,000 law professors and law school administrators.
Don is an Army “brat” and was raised in a handful of states and Germany prior to attending law school. He now resides in San Jose, California.
Managing Partner Digital Health, Life Science Angels
Don Ross has worked in healthcare for over 35 years and has significant operating experience in software development, healthcare publishing, and diagnostics. In digital health, Don pioneered software for psychological testing and anxiety interventions, health risk appraisal, health behavior change, and blood pressure monitoring. Don subsequently co-founded a healthcare publishing company, funded it internally, and managed it for 15 years until acquisition. Specialty areas included allergy and asthma, skin care, psychopharmacology, and kidney health.
Don is co-author of two widely adopted textbooks (Nutrition and Discovering Nutrition), now in their 6th editions, and Coping with Tests, a software-based test anxiety intervention program. He also developed Travels with Cholesterol, which was recommended by NIH for patient education. Don has written and edited numerous articles that address an array of health topics, including nutrition, metabolism, psychopharmacology, and circadian rhythms.
Don is Board Director and Managing Partner Digital Health at Life Sciences Angels. He also is member and co-founder HealthTech Capital, member and former board director Sand Hill Angels, and member Sierra Angels. Don serves on several company boards, and his personal investments include digital health, social networks, diagnostics, medical devices, and software companies. He is an honors graduate from UC Berkeley (architecture).
Jack is a financial executive, industry leader and serial entrepreneur. He is a partner of The Portola Company and previously acquired or founded several platform companies. His companies include:
• Flextronics: A global supplier of Electronic Manufacturing Services
• Portola Packaging: A leading international supplier of food and beverage closures
• Blue Mountain Minerals: The largest supplier of industrial limestone and dolomite in Northern California
He graduated with a BS in Industrial Engineering from Oklahoma State University, an MBA from Stanford University and, Doctorate in Archaeology from Oxford University.
Dr. Zenooz is the Chief Executive Officer of Commure. She was previously GM & Chief Medical Officer at Salesforce. Former Chief Medical Officer – Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) overseeing the national EHR modernization program. She was responsible for organizational change management, business process redesign, and implementation of a new digital health platform in order to drive improved care quality, greater system efficiency and better patient outcomes.
Prior to this, she has held senior policy development and operational roles including serving as Deputy for VA Health Policy and Services, Legislative Fellow with U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal, Committee Staff on U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs, and Chief of Imaging Services.
Dr. Zenooz graduated with summa cum laude distinction in undergraduate studies and continued on to receive an MD in the Medical Honors Program at the University of Florida. She completed radiology residency at the Henry Ford Health System and an Abdominal Imaging fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Zenooz is board certified in radiology and continues to practice medicine actively today.
Emeritus Advisors
David Gossack currently serves as Senior Commercial Officer and Commercial Minister at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, Korea leading commercial and trade development in America’s 6th largest export market since September 2014. He is a career member of the U.S. Senior Foreign Service.
Previously, he was Senior Commercial Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, from July 2011 to July 2014. David was a leader of US commercial engagement in China for 7 years from 2003 to 2010 where he was Principal Commercial Officer at the U.S. Consulate General in Shanghai and in Beijing. His other assignments included 7 years of work at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, Japan and 4 years in Bangkok, Thailand. He has frequently advised US firms on market access strategy in these countries and is recognized as an expert on U.S. Asia trade relations and doing business in Asia.
Earlier in his career, David served as Legislative Counsel to U.S. Senator Spark Matsunaga of Hawaii during his Chairmanship of the Senate Finance Committee’s Subcommittee on International Trade. An attorney, David subsequently practiced international trade and business law in a Washington, DC firm for several years. He also held positions at the Department of State and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in Washington.
He is the recipient of numerous awards from the Department of Commerce including its Gold Medal Award, the agency’s highest award in recognition of professional achievement for his work in advancing market access for American healthcare firms in the Japanese market. He also was recognized by the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan for his work. In Korea he has organized and chaired two US-Korea Healthcare Industry Dialogues. In China, he created and organized China’s first International Food Safety Conference in 2007 and was frequently engaged with the Chinese government and with Chinese healthcare firms to discuss market access, reimbursement and business development matters.
David is a graduate of Stanford University and the School of Law at the University of Washington and is a member of the Washington State Bar Association. He is a native of San Jose, California. He speaks, with varying degrees of fluency, Indonesian, Chinese, Japanese, French and Spanish.