Mala Sahai

Mala Sahai is a senior legal and business executive with more than 20 years of experience at the intersection of law, business, innovation, and institutional leadership, helping organizations navigate complexity, build resilience, and translate ideas into meaningful impact. She leads the legal and business development functions at Gladstone Institutes, an independent nonprofit biomedical research organization affiliated with the University of California, San Francisco.

Throughout her career, Mala has been drawn to environments where thoughtful leadership can help people and organizations grow stronger together. She is known for bringing clarity to ambiguity, identifying patterns early, and helping others find strategic, constructive paths forward. She believes that strength takes many forms, and that some of the most enduring leadership is expressed through perception, adaptability, resourcefulness, and the ability to elevate others while learning alongside them.

Mala cares deeply about education, equity, human potential, and the power of thoughtful partnership to expand opportunity. She believes STEM can be a powerful force for widening access and advancing equity, and is especially interested in how organizations can work across sectors, perspectives, and communities to create lasting impact. For her, leadership is at its best when it fosters trust, deepens belonging, and helps people move forward together.

Mala recently joined the Board of Team4Tech and serves on its Governance Committee. She also serves on the Board of the Association of Corporate Counsel, San Francisco Bay Area Chapter, where she is the Director of Life Sciences. Earlier in her career, she served as President of Women Lawyers of Alameda County, Co-Director of the Minority Bar Coalition, and a supervisor for the American Red Cross National Disaster Relief Call Center. Across her professional life, she has devoted substantial time to mentoring law students and early-career lawyers through legal and professional associations. She is a graduate of General Counsel University through Berkeley Law Executive Education, the 12-month General Counsel Boot Camp program through Chiefs of Intellectual Property, and the Stanford Certified Project Manager program through the Stanford Center for Professional Development.