Operations and Marketing Staff

Ruby develops and executes marketing strategy with the Intellectual Property Office team to bring Berkeley Lab’s cutting-edge inventions and software to the commercial sector. She has more than two decades of experience helping organizations build, enhance, and protect their brands, influence stakeholders, and promote products and ideas. In her most recent role as Communications Director at the Science Philanthropy Alliance (2016-2019), she worked with a group of more than 25 foundations and philanthropists to increase support for basic scientific research globally. From 2010 to 2016, she was the Communications Director at Climate Policy Initiative, an analytical organization that worked with policymakers in the U.S., Europe, Brazil, India, China, and Indonesia to improve climate, energy, and land use policies around the world. Previous to this, she was a Senior Vice President at Fleishman-Hillard, a global communications consultancy. At Fleishman-Hillard’s San Francisco office, she had a leadership role with the corporate communications and technology practice groups, working with teams on corporate reputation, healthcare/biotech, technology, internal communications, diversity outreach, and product communications programs. Ruby received her bachelor of arts degree in economics from Stanford University.B.A., Economics, Stanford University

Shirounda handles the billing, rebilling and collections for the Patent and Licensing Teams. She also tracks and maintains incoming IPO income from royalties and licensing agreement fees. In addition, Shirounda completes special finance reporting projects for Berkeley Lab’s Office of Chief Finance Officer.Previously, she worked as a staff accountant for the UC Alumni Association and prior to that as an accounts payable/payroll supervisor for a software company in the Peninsula.B.S., Business Administration (Accounting and Economics), California State University, East Bay

Vanessa collaborates closely with the technology and copyright commercialization, licensing, and operations teams to ensure that Berkeley Lab’s licensees remain in compliance under their respective licensing agreements with regard to reporting and financial obligations. She is responsible for maintaining compliance records in Sophia, an IPO database, for license components such as completion of technology development milestones, satisfactory submission of progress reports, and timely payment of royalty and other licensing fees. Before joining the IPO team, Vanessa worked as a law clerk, focusing on civil litigation, for a small East Bay Area law firm and as a litigation legal analyst at Chevron headquarters in San Ramon, California. B.A., Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley; J.D., Santa Clara University School of Law