Board of Directors

(a-b-c order)

Alok Vasudeva

As Director of Sponsorship, Alok is responsible for community relations among the product management and product marketing community through exposure and participation with SVPMA, Silicon Valley’s first and original product management community created back in 2000. A technology research expert, Alok founded IMEX Technology Insights to offer services combining product marketing, product management, and competitive intelligence disciplines. His previous titles include director of marketing, product marketing manager, product manager, marketing programs manager, marketing manager, and industry analyst. A Silicon Valley native, he often attends lectures at the Computer History Museum and reminisces about the glory days of Atari. Alok graduated with a BS from the University of California, Davis. 

Debashish Niyogi

As Director of Programs, Debashish is responsible for organizing SVPMA’s monthly events and managing the speaker and topic pipeline. Debashish is a versatile product management leader with extensive experience in successfully bringing enterprise content management and related clinical software products to market in the life sciences industry. He is currently Director of Product Management at Anju Software, and has held senior level product management roles at companies such as Medidata, Veeva, and Bioclinica. He has also been a consultant to several global bio-pharma companies such as Gilead Sciences, Genentech, and Otsuka. Early in his career he was a research scientist using artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques to solve problems in document image analysis. Debashish has a PhD in Computer Science from the University at Buffalo, State University of New York.

John Wang

As Director of Special Events, John is responsible for managing SVPMA’s job fair and social networking events.  John is a product manager at Oportun, focusing on building digital payments and pricing solutions.  Before Oportun, he served as a product manager at Visa and has spent over ten years as a software engineer at firms ranging from startups to Fortune 100 companies.  When he’s not wrestling with product issues, he enjoys watching movies, reading good sci-fi and history books, and fighting an ongoing battle with weeds in his family garden.  John has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences from UC Berkeley and a MBA from Santa Clara University.

Mayla Clark

As Director of Workshops, Mayla is responsible for developing and managing SVPMA’s esteemed workshop series.  She is principal of MC Training specializing in presentation skills coaching and training. She works with accomplished professionals to increase their effectiveness in high stakes communication situations.  She was Adjunct Professor for ten years in the Engineering Management Program at Santa Clara University and provides private coaching to senior leaders at Stanford University and Medical School.  Many of her clients are Product Managers who work for companies such as Cisco Systems, eBay, Intuit, and NetApp.  Mayla is a graduate of University of California, Los Angeles and holds a Master’s degree from California State University, San Jose.

Sam Lee

As Director of Finance, Sam is responsible for financial oversight of SVPMA.  He is a finance and accounting professional with over 25 years experience working with start-ups and public international companies. He also co-owns and operates his own consulting and marketing business. Sam has served as Controller, Director of Finance, Chief Administration Officer / Business Manager, and CFO in different industries.  Sam’s wide industry experiences include professional services – law, engineering, mass communications, environmental services, construction, real estate, internet technology, nonprofits, and government / defense contractors.  Sam graduated with a BS in Finance and an MBA in international Finance from Saint John’s University.

Theresa Lina

As an advisor to the SVPMA board, Theresa provides support across programs. She is the author of the bestselling book, Be the Go-To: How to Own Your Competitive Market, Charge More, and Have Customers Love You for It. She also leads Lina Group, Inc., which specializes in market dominance strategy, and has been involved at Stanford University since 2006. She has served as chief strategy and marketing officer for several technology startups, has advised hundreds of companies, and began her career at Accenture, where she helped found, lead, and grow what is now a multibillion-dollar business unit. Theresa is a frequent speaker and workshop leader on strategy, market leadership, innovation, and technology topics.

Tom Gilheany

As President, Tom is responsible for leading and supporting SVPMA board members in their roles. Tom’s diverse experience in startups through Fortune 100 companies includes 6 years in product management, 12 years in technical marketing, 14 years in IT/Operations, and over forty successful product family launches.  Tom is an expert in CyberSecurity (CISSP), Networking, and Telecommunications, and has an MBA and BS from Santa Clara University.

Vrajesh Dave

As Co-Director of Programs, Vrajesh coordinates the monthly events for SVPMA. Vrajesh is Director of Product Management for Autonomous Systems at Omnicell. He is responsible for the creation and execution of Omnicell’s strategy to realize the Autonomous Pharmacy vision.  Before Omnicell, Vrajesh served as Head of Product Management at Omron Robotics & Safety Technologies leading a team of Product Managers.  Vrajesh successfully developed and realized the vision and roadmap for the Mobile Robot product line at Omron, where he expanded Omron’s Mobile Robot portfolio and successfully pivoted the business model from a traditional hardware business to a SaaS business model. Over the last 16 years, Vrajesh held a number of product management and development roles in technology companies.  His experience spans various industries, including Test & Measurement, Telecoms, and Industrial Automation. Vrajesh has a B.S. in Computer Sciences & Engineering from The University of Texas at Arlington and MBA from Columbia University.