Silicon Valley Shakespeare’s Board serves a vital role in the development and management of our company. Providing governance and financial guidance, our Board actively participates in and manages the various committees that help our company run smoothly. They are members of our community who generously give of their time and energy to help our company grow, and ensure a healthy economic and organizational future. Our Board works closely with the Executive and Artistic Directors to oversee the business affairs of the organization.
We are currently seeking strategic new members of our Board of Directors, to expand our numbers, hear more voices and ideas, and further distribute board functions. We are open to anyone with interest, and particularly seek someone with financial expertise. If you are interested, or want more information, contact Executive Director Doug Brook.
Michelle Galloway – Board of Directors Chair
michelle.galloway@svshakespeare.org
Michelle Greer Galloway is Of Counsel with Cooley LLP in the firm’s Palo Alto, California office. She is a member of the IP litigation group (patents) and teaches at Stanford Law School and Santa Clara University School of Law. Ms. Galloway also advises clients, and lectures in the areas of risk management, compliance, and ethics. Ms. Galloway received a J.D. in 1989 from Stanford Law School and a bachelor’s degree, with distinction, from Stanford University in 1986. She has been a long time supporter of Stanford and serves on the Dean’s Advisory Council and as Co-Chair of the Law Fund. She resides in Los Altos, CA.
Sasha Abrams – Immediate Past Board Chair
sasha.abrams@svshakespeare.org
Sasha Abrams is the General Counsel and Secretary to the Board at the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, one of the largest private foundations in the United States. Sasha’s practice focuses on the tax laws affecting private foundations, program-related investments, and complex legal issues in grant making. Previously, Sasha worked at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, where she represented public agencies in municipal bond financing. Sasha holds a bachelor’s degree with honors from Stanford University and a J.D. from the Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. She is admitted to practice law in California, and resides in San Mateo, CA.
Kim Pfahnl – Board of Directors Vice Chair / Secretary
kim.pfahnl@svshakespeare.org
Kim received her degree in Theatre Arts from San José State University. After graduation, she worked in children’s and adult theatre throughout the Bay Area as a designer, stage manager, and actor, and ran her own graphic design and staging business. She resides in San José, CA.
Vivian Keys – Board of Directors Treasurer
Vivian works in finance at Symantec, the leading cyber security company. Prior to that she worked for other technology companies in the valley, such as Netflix, Yahoo, BEA, and Seagate, in various accounting, finance, and operations roles. As an English student in China, Vivian translated Shakespeare’s sonnets to Chinese to supplement her classroom studies. After 20 years working in technology fields, today Vivian studies Shakespeare plays to enhance her linguistic intelligence and creative life. Vivian looks forward to sharing her passion in literature and world culture with everyone. She resides in Los Gatos.
Tom Flynn – Board of Directors Member
tom.flynn@svshakespeare.org
Tom Flynn serves as the CEO of Connect Address, Inc., a leader in e-commerce technology. Prior to his current position, Tom co-founded two successful startups Lavante, Inc and AuditSolutions, Inc. Professionally, Tom has earned awards and commendations for economic development, job creation, technology innovation, and marketing achievements. He is a frequent contributor to various professional publications and an active member of the Association of Corporate Growth and the Institute of Financial Operations, as well as a mentor with Spartups Accelerator and the UCLA Alumni Association. Prior to making his jump to the world of technology, Tom whiled away his twenties as a playwright and running Shoulder and Necktie Arts, a small theatre company in Los Angeles. He resides in San José, CA.
Robert Peterson – Board of Directors Member
robert.peterson@svshakespeare.org
Bob Peterson teaches law at the University of Santa Clara School of Law. He studied law at Stanford and Oxford Universities. Although his undergraduate study was in mathematics and physics, he also took a course in Shakespeare and was hooked. Since then, he has been an unabashed Bardophile and has published articles on Shakespeare and the Law. He says that his article “The Bard and the Bench: An Opinion and Brief Writer’s Guide to Shakespeare” has been read by fewer judges and lawyers than it deserves! To keep the wolf from the door, he has taught courses in Torts, Evidence, Civil Procedure, Products Liability, and Insurance. He resides in Los Gatos, CA.
Ken Arora – Board of Directors Member
ken.arora@svshakespeare.org
Ken has been a long-time patron of Silicon Valley Shakespeare, starting with their first season at Sanborn Park, and has enjoyed watching them grow into the multi-venue, multi-production company they have matured into. His most memorable Shakespeare experience was working with high school students to help develop Brutus’ legal defense strategy at a post-Julius Caesar mock trial. When he is not busy designing cybersecurity products at F5 Networks or experiencing live theatre, Ken also enjoys participating in sports, photography, volunteering with local schools, and developing scenarios for role playing games. He resides in Saratoga, CA.
Susan Rojo – Board of Directors Member
Susan is Digital Marketing Manager for Arcadia Data, a big data visualization company. She worked earlier at Stanford University Libraries researching preservation of digital artifacts like video games. Prior to this, she managed projects in engineering, sales, marketing, and education at Novell and various start ups. Susan has her Masters in Library and Information Services and a BS degree in Business Administration. She’s seen Shakespeare in three of 24 countries, and five of 32 states she’s visited, and is always planning her next travel adventure. She resides in Campbell, CA.
Ariel Siner – Board of Directors Member
Ariel is an attorney at Hoge Fenton Jones & Appel, Inc. working on a variety of trusts and estates matters, including estate planning, trust administration, estate litigation, and accompanying real estate and corporate issues. She received her J.D. from Santa Clara University School of Law, where she served as Editor-in-Chief of Santa Clara Law Review and President of Women & Law. Ariel’s youth was spent on stage singing and acting at every opportunity, which began her lifelong love of musical performance and, of course, Shakespeare. She resides in San Jose, California.
Leonora Castillo – Board of Directors Member
Leonora has a long career as hardware engineer, with numerous high tech corporations, most recently Intel. Most recently she transitioned to a brand new company called Charity Bridge, that helps partner corporate donors and non-profits to grow their revenues. Throughout her career in the high tech industry, Ms. Castillo has been a youth leader at her church, mentoring middle and high school kids. She has her own non-profit, 56united, which raises money for emergency shelter for survivors of human trafficking. Leonora resides in San José, California.
Akshaya Aradhya – Board of Directors Member
Akshaya works as an Engineering Manager for LiveRamp in San Francisco, CA. She has gained extensive experience in cross-functional team management, incubating new businesses, software development, technology partnerships and thought leadership during the course of her career at LiveRamp, McKinsey & Company, Intuit and Accenture. She received a Master’s degree in Computer Science from Southern Methodist University with a specialization in Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. She also contributed to projects at National Aerospace Labs prior to receiving her undergraduate degree in Computer Science from Bangalore, India. Akshaya learned Indian classical music for 13 years and she loves theatre and arts. She resides in Fremont, CA
