David Burwen,
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,
Andrew Byrnes is a shareholder (partner) of Heller Ehrman LLP, an international full-service law firm, practicing intellectual property and commercial litigation. 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. In 2006, he was elected Chair of the San Mateo County Democratic Central Committee (DCC), then the youngest DCC chair in California. 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, M.D., is one of the co-founders of the Commonweal Institute and currently serves
as president of the Board of Directors.
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. She co-founded Commonweal Institute in 2001, along with her late husband, Leonard M. Salle, in an effort to change America’s political environment. At Commonweal, she has applied her academic and industry experience in the areas of progressive idea-marketing, strategy development, research, and training.
Dr. Forrest was conference director for the Commonweal Institute’s 2006 Progressive Roundtable. She is also 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.
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, Inc.; Medical Director of a Planned Parenthood affiliate based in San Jose, California; 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.
Kay Lee,
who chairs the Commonweal Institute’s major donor fundraising committee,
is a Senior Private Banker and Vice President at Wells Fargo Bank,
responsible for clients in the San Francisco Bay area.
Ms. Lee has a back ground in sales and marketing in the financial services industry.
She represented Bankers Trust Company in S.E. Asia and Africa for nearly a decade,
and spent another decade as a senior relationship manager for institutional investors,
family offices, private foundations and senior corporate executives.
She has been active on the Board member of the College of Marin Foundation
and in fundraising for local nonprofits in Marin County.
Ms. Lee has a Bachelor’s degree in political science from Vassar College.
Milbrey McLaughlin, Ph.D.
is the David Jacks Professor of Education and Public Policy at Stanford University. She is Co-Director of the
Center for Research on the Context of Teaching, an interdisciplinary research
center engaged in analyses of how teaching and learning are shaped by teachers’
organizational, institutional, and social-cultural contexts. Dr. McLaughlin was a
major force in founding the John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities,
a partnership between Stanford University and Bay Area communities to build new practices,
knowledge and capacity for youth development and learning both in communities and at Stanford,
and is currently Executive Director of the Gardner Center. Prior to joining the faculty at Stanford
University, she served as a senior social scientist at the Rand Corporation, where she worked
on problems of policy implementation and planned change in education. Dr. McLaughlin is the author
or co-author of numerous books, articles, and chapters on education policy issues, contexts for teaching
and learning, productive environments for youth, and community-based organizations. Dr. McLaughlin
received a B.A. degree in Philosophy from Connecticut College and her Ed.M. and Ed.D. degrees from Harvard University.
Mike Pogue
is CEO of Last Mile Research, an Internet technology research firm and
integrator of data distribution solutions for the delivery of high speed
Internet access to commercial markets. Mr. Pogue began his career
at Price Waterhouse, New York City, in the mid-1970s. He then embarked
on a career of company-building as employee #3 in charge of sales and
marketing for FactSet Data Systems, Inc., an institutional investment research
company that now has over 200 employees and is listed on the New
York Stock Exchange. He then moved from finance to the entertainment industry,
where, as President, he took Rabbit Ears Productions, Inc., from the kitchen table
to Grammy and Action for Children's Television Award winner in five years with
over 65 film productions, 4 television series, and multiple high definition, CD-I and
CD-ROM titles. In 1999, Mr. Pogue co-founded Angel Capital Network, a Sausalito,
California, based Venture Investment bank. He continues to be active in matching
early stage companies with seasoned Angel Investors in a number of western states.
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.
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