Board of Directors

David Burwen, Secretary, is involved in new high tech company formation and early stage investing as Managing Director of Venture Development Group. In certain cases he has led angel round investments and provided substantial strategic, operational, marketing and sales consulting. Prior to providing venture capital, Mr. Burwen was the initial sales, marketing and business development executive for start-up Aspect Development, Inc. (now part of I2) and was a key contributor to Aspect’s growth and successful IPO in 1996. Prior to Aspect he was CEO of Echelon Management Systems, CEO of Adaptive Intelligence, and a director of CIM at Integrated Automation. He has served on the board of directors of several private high tech companies. David has a BS in physics for Worcester Polytechnic Institute and a MA in physics from Brandeis University.

Through the Burwen Education Foundation, Mr. Burwen and his wife provide college scholarships to high potential high school students from economically disadvantaged families. The BEF is also supporting “bottoms up” development in rural Nepal where it is funding scholarships, built a school educating 85 students, and built a microhydroelectric power plant providing the first electricity for a remote village of 250 residents

Andrew Byrnes is a partner at Covington & Burling, an international full-service law firm, specializing in intellectual property litigation and election/political law. Mr. Byrnes's law practice has included representing some of America's most innovative companies and individuals in the software, semiconductor, telecommunications and internet sectors, in patent and complex commercial disputes, and in intellectual property transactions. In addition, he has represented pro bono a Chinese asylum applicant, an elderly victim of a predatory lender, a voter who used a DRE voting machine, and Compassion in Dying, among others.

Mr. Byrnes is also active in charitable and political causes. He is a committed volunteer for cystic fibrosis education and patient support, and organ donation and transplantation awareness. He is an Environment/Energy Circle Member of the Full Circle Fund and the immediate Past Chair of the San Mateo County Democratic Party. In 2007, Mr. Byrnes received the California Democratic Party's John F. Kennedy, Jr. Award for Outstanding Public Service. He is presently a member of the Executive Board, Finance Committee, and Finance Council of the California Democratic Party. Mr. Byrnes received his B.A., with honors and distinction, in political science from Stanford University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School magna cum laude.

Katherine A. Forrest, President, is one of the co-founders of the Commonweal Institute and currently serves as president of the Board of Directors. She is also a member of the steering committee of the Progressive Ideas Network.  Dr. Forrest is the designer and chief trainer of the Institute’s popular series of workshops, “Talking Politics with People Unlike Ourselves,” which are designed to help progressives be more effective and persuasive when talking with people who may not share their political views. She co-founded Commonweal Institute in 2001, along with her late husband, Leonard M. Salle, in an effort to change America’s political environment.

A public health physician by training, Dr. Forrest was a consultant to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and diagnostics industries for over 20 years, with a strong emphasis on marketing strategy, market research, and product safety, and to both nonprofit and governmental organizations regarding health issues. Dr. Forrest’s professional experience also includes training, psychosocial research, and clinical medicine. Her previous positions include: Principal Research Scientist, American Institutes for Research, Palo Alto; Associate Medical Director, Syntex; Medical Director of a large Planned Parenthood affiliate; and Assistant Professor of Public Health and Medical Computer Science, Yale University. She founded and was the first Director of the Office for Women in Medicine at Yale University. She holds B.A., M.D., and M.P.H. degrees from Harvard University, and is Board certified in Preventive Medicine.

 

William Salle is a personal injury attorney in the Los Angeles area. As principal of the Law Offices of William F. Salle, he and his colleagues concentrate on representation of clients (90 percent of whom are plaintiffs) in various tort claims ranging from simple negligence actions to product liability claims. He also has experience in the areas of insurance bad faith and real estate litigation. He received his Bachelors degree with High Honors from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a Juris Doctor (JD) degree from the Hastings College of Law. As the elder son of one of the Commonweal Institute co-founders, Leonard Salle (now deceased), William Salle shares his father’s passion for politics. He focuses particularly on national and international issues such as macro-economics, international trade, legal issues, elections/voting, the environment, and civil liberties.

Stephen Venuto 

Stephen Venuto, a partner in Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliff LLP, focuses on the legal representation of high growth technology and media companies, their founders and investors.  Most of Mr. Venuto's clients are in fast-growth fields related to biotechnology, clean technology, information technology, media and/or entertainment.  As a Silicon Valley startup attorney, his practice includes the formation, financing and general corporate counseling of emerging growth private and public companies; representation of venture capital firms and investment banks in private and public offerings; and other complex transactions.  Mr. Venuto received his B.A. degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, and his J.D. from Cornell Law School.