Author

Tom Smith

SaaS Unicorn Infoblox Appoints Wei Chen as General Counsel

by Tom Smith June 2, 2022

Infoblox Inc., the leader in cloud-first DNS management and security, announces the appointment of veteran SaaS legal executive Wei Chen as Executive Vice President and General Counsel. Reporting to CEO Jesper Andersen, Chen will lead the global legal team to strengthen the company’s compliance, risk management, and governance programs for the next phase of growth.

“We’re delighted to add Wei to the executive team,” said Jesper Andersen, CEO and President of Infoblox. “Our cloud-first networking and security businesses are booming as organizations around the world extend their IT infrastructure beyond corporate campuses. This shift to hybrid work continues to open up new opportunities for our team to help our customers and partners thrive. Wei’s deep legal expertise in the enterprise SaaS industry will be invaluable as we scale up our business to meet increasing customer needs.”

“I’m excited to join Infoblox at this pivotal moment,” said Chen. “I am deeply committed to Infoblox’s mission of keeping businesses connected and secure in the hybrid work world. I look forward to working with Jesper and the entire organization to drive growth, delight our customers and maintain the highest standards of integrity, corporate governance and compliance.”

Chen brings over 20 years of legal experience scaling operations, strengthening compliance, building strong teams and championing innovations. She joins Infoblox from Salesforce, where she served as Senior Vice President and Associate General Counsel of Strategic Transactions. Over her 12-year tenure with Salesforce, Wei built the company’s legal function in M&A, venture investment, real estate and other strategic transactions. Prior to Salesforce, she served as Assistant General Counsel at Sun Microsystems, Inc. and was a corporate associate at Cooley LLP and Skadden.

Vinson & Elkins Appoints Deborah Martin Owens as Director of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

by Tom Smith June 2, 2022

Vinson & Elkins announced that Deborah Martin Owens has joined the firm as its global Director of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I). Working closely with firm leadership, Martin Owens will further develop and implement firmwide DE&I initiatives, as well as serve as a strategic advisor on the retention and promotion of underrepresented lawyers. She is based in New York.

“Bringing Deborah on board is integral to creating an even more inclusive culture for everyone at Vinson & Elkins, particularly our diverse and women colleagues,” said David Oelman, lead talent partner and member of the firm’s Management Committee and Diversity Executive Committee. “Her experience as a lawyer as well as a leader in developing effective DE&I strategies and support in the workplace is unique, and we have no doubt she will be invaluable in guiding the firm toward long-term success in this area.”

“Vinson & Elkins’ energy and openness to innovation surrounding its DE&I structure has been front and center in all of my conversations with the firm,” said Martin Owens. “I am equally energized by how the firm wants to grow, placing culture and people at the core, and I look forward to applying my experience advising on DE&I issues to its global platform.”

Martin Owens most recently served as East Coast Diversity Director for Sidley Austin, where she developed and implemented programs, policies and initiatives to support Sidley’s strategic diversity and inclusion goals for its Boston, New York and Washington, D.C. offices. Prior to that, she guided inclusion initiatives for the legal profession through engagement with law firms, corporate legal departments, nonprofits, government agencies and academia as the Executive Director of the Office of Diversity & Inclusion at the New York City Bar Association.

“Deborah is one of a handful of people on this planet whose grit, enthusiasm and sense of purpose give me hope that DE&I efforts in the legal community will flourish,” said Oscar Saunders, Deputy Chief Legal Officer for MGG Investment Group and past participant in the New York City Bar’s 2019 Associate Leadership Institute facilitated by Martin Owens. “Deborah is a beacon for all of us who strive to make the legal industry more inclusive, and I could not be happier to hear about her move to Vinson & Elkins.”

After receiving her J.D. from Hofstra University School of Law, Martin Owens spent nearly 12 years as an attorney for Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan. While in law school, Martin Owens was a judicial intern for the Honorable Sonia Sotomayor in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Martin Owens has also volunteered countless hours to organizations furthering DE&I initiatives in the legal profession and beyond. She currently serves as board chair of Women Creating Change, an organization dedicated to creating a more just and equitable New York City where all women are civically engaged, and is a member of the Association of Law Firm Diversity Professionals, National Association of Law Placement and Corporate Counsel Women of Color, among others.

“Our core principles pertaining to DE&I are central to our ability to attract and retain the best and brightest lawyers and business professionals to serve our clients,” said Hy Pomerance, Vinson & Elkins’ Chief Talent Officer. “By defining clear goals and transparent metrics, Deborah and our recently expanded DE&I-focused professional team will further align the firm’s business objectives with our mission to build on our inclusive culture where everyone has an opportunity to thrive.”

Databricks Appoints Trâm Phi as Senior Vice President and General Counsel

by Tom Smith May 23, 2022

Databricks, the Data and AI company and pioneer of the data lakehouse paradigm, today announced the appointment of Trâm Phi as Senior Vice President and General Counsel. In this role, Phi will pull from her decades of experience scaling high-growth companies, both public and private, to lead and grow the legal function at Databricks. She will join the company’s executive leadership team.

“Trâm’s depth of experience and focus on operational excellence in scaling impactful legal and regulatory functions across enterprise software is critical to our continued success as a company,” said Ali Ghodsi, CEO and Co-Founder of Databricks. “Her leadership and expertise across both public and private markets will prove invaluable to Databricks in a time of high-growth and transition. We are excited to welcome Trâm to the company and look forward to having her as an important member of our executive team.”

Phi joins Databricks from DocuSign, where she most recently served as SVP, General Counsel helping to scale the legal function and leading the transition of DocuSign to a mature public company. Prior to DocuSign, Phi was the Chief Legal Officer and Chief of Staff at Imperva for nearly eight years and was the Vice President, General Counsel of ArcSight, leading each of the cyber security software providers’ legal teams as they navigated the transition from private to public markets. She has led an impressive range of strategic transactions in these prior roles.

“The innovative spirit at Databricks is inspiring and I am thrilled to be joining a pioneering company that’s addressing the challenges and opportunities stemming from the proliferation of data,” said Phi. “Being part of this team as we help our customers harness data in a meaningful way – not only for businesses but for the world around us – is the opportunity of a lifetime and I look forward to what lies ahead.”

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