James A. Cardenas, MBA, BSEE

Western Regional Business Development and Compliance Director

Janice R. Greene, Ph.D.

President and CEO

Donna L. Ruff, MBA

President and CEO

Gina Grahame

Board Member

Gina Grahame is an award-winning speaker and executive communication coach.

Gina teaches Executive Presence & Influence at Google and is a communication coach and adjunct lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. In her business, she has helped thousands of high-performing professionals of different titles, disciplines, genders, and cultural backgrounds to develop their own unique executive presence, voice, and leadership style – supercharging the potential of individuals, teams, and organizations.

Gina’s UVP as a communication coach is rooted in her unique history; in B2B sales, from auto manufacturing in the Midwest to industry leading organizations in Silicon Valley and New York. Gina also worked as an actor, model, spokesperson, and entrepreneur.

Gina’s extraordinary insight into the role of gender in communication is rooted in having been male for the first 29 years of her life, and then as her authentic female self for the 25+ years since. Along the way, Gina won national and international awards for persuasive speaking; first when she was male, and then again when female. Her clients include The Google School of Leadership, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Kirkland & Ellis, Bank of America, Pacific Gas & Electric, and industry leading organizations across verticals. Gina is a member of the National Speakers Association, the National LGBTQ Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC), the GGBA - San Francisco’s LGBT Chamber of Commerce, and MENSA.

Deepti Kapur

Western Chapter Co-President

Sandhya Mukkamala

Western Chapter Co-President

Sandhya Mukkamala is a Partner and Co-Founder at ASTUTE and an accomplished CPA in the State of California. She advises clients on R&D tax incentives, technical accounting, forensic audits, as well as works closely with clients’ CFOs/Controllers to develop stronger processes and controls within the business. She has more than 15 years of experience in audit and review engagements, and complex Merger & Acquisition due diligence audits for private and public accounting sectors.

Prior to founding Astute, Sandhya has served as M&A due diligence auditor for several years in a reputed public accounting firm in Silicon Valley. She has led the audit team in planning, structuring, and performed M&A due diligence activities across all functional areas such as financial, products, operations, and technology etc. She has also served as an external Auditor for various high-tech, automotive, retail, manufacturing, and service industries nationally and globally. As an acumen auditor, she helped companies uncover millions of dollars lost due to fraudulent activities or lack of control over processes, addressed complex accounting and financial reporting challenges.

Besides Auditing and Corporate finance, Sandhya has extensive experience in R&D tax credit consulting projects, performed numerous financial and M&A due diligence audits, resolved complex Accounting for Income tax provisions, SEC Reporting, internal controls testing and fraud testing over financial reporting for a multitude of industries from early startups to Pre-IPO to public companies nationally and globally.

Her unique understanding, problem-solving skills and providing reliable solutions have benefited clients in various industry sectors.