HONOREE
Patrick Joseph Monaghan
Chief Legal Officer & General Counsel
SADA
University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School
Patrick Monaghan is a creative, pragmatic problem solver who has dedicated his professional life to service to others, exploration of new frontiers and leveraging technology to solve human problems.
After earning his bachelor's degree in finance and management from the University of Virginia, Monaghan served with distinction as an intelligence officer in the United States Navy, including tours of duty with the Navy SEALs, the Pentagon's Joint Staff and the United Nations/Combined Forces Command in Seoul, Korea. He served as an air defense analyst during Operation DESERT FOX in 1998, supporting coalition aircraft successfully conducting airstrikes in the no-fly zone over Iraq.
Returning to the U.S., Monaghan continued his education at the University of Pennsylvania, earning his J.D. at Penn Law School and his MBA at the Wharton School of Business. Following graduation, he was an investment banker at Citigroup in New York, closing over a dozen high-yield bond offerings for Wall Street's number one underwrite and consummating five M&A buy and sell side transactions, realizing over $50 billion in transaction volume. He moved to Seoul, Korea in 2006 and began a 12-year overseas odyssey, ending as a corporate law partner in Korea's largest corporate law firm, Kim & Chang.
In 2018, Monaghan realized a lifelong dream of living in sunny Southern California after accepting the role of chief legal officer at SADA, a privately held, second-generation family-owned company. Boosted by his guidance, creativity and savvy, SADA grew its enterprise value over 100 times over the past four years, and its employee headcount nearly 6 times. Monaghan helped SADA close over $500 million in new SaaS licensing and professional services deals and establish affiliates in Armenia, India and Ireland, earning Global Partner of the Year honors at Google in three consecutive years and named a Best Place to Work in Tech. He is particularly proud of building a diverse, business-focused and multi-talented legal, privacy and compliance team at SADA, affectionately nicknamed the "Beagles.”
PRIVATE COMPANY: 501-1000 EMPLOYEES FINALISTS
Camilla Eng
General Counsel
LaserAway
UC Hastings College of the Law
Camilla Eng is the general counsel of LaserAway, the nation’s leading medical spa specializing in aesthetics services in 40+ locations across the country. She advises on corporate legal strategy and implementation, and guides the company's legal department in managing a range of issues, from patent and employment law matters, to contracts, claims, and real estate to insurance and risk management matters, and compliance. Recently Eng helped her company work on a partnership with private equity group Ares Management.
The strategic investment made by Ares Management will help fuel LaserAway’s continued nationwide expansion, drive loyalty through its rewards program LaserLove and advance its proprietary skin care products line LA Beauty. Previously, Eng served as EVP of sales & marketing at JM Eagle, the world’s largest plastic pipe manufacturer. She built and led the company's legal department, and in addition, led a 65+ sales team in executing growth initiatives.
Irene Liu
Chief Legal Officer
Hopin
UC Berkeley School of Law
Irene Liu is an operator who has successfully built and scaled hypergrowth technology companies through successful M&A deals, financings and investments to achieve multi-billion dollar valuation. She is known for her pragmatism and ability to find solutions to move the business forward, regardless of the obstacle.
Liu spurred Hopin’s growth through the execution of six M&A acquisitions and two financings which last valued Hopin, a two-year-old start-up, at $7.8 billion. Within her first-year at Hopin, Liu helped scale the company from one product to a multi-product business through strategic M&A transactions, and from 250 to 1000+ employees across 45+ countries. She led the organization’s global entity strategy, employment and equity strategy, and expansion strategy for Hopin’s vast global footprint. Prior to Hopin, Liu helped Checkr scale its data business by executing four M&A transactions and integrations and two financings, which then valued Checkr at $2.2 billion.
Vanessa Wu
General Counsel 
Rippling
UCLA School of Law
Vanessa Wu has a proven track record as a leader on privacy and helping Californians throughout her career. At Latham & Watkins, Wu worked on matters at the intersection of privacy & antitrust. She served on the Pro Bono Committee building partnerships and funneling free legal services to various organizations, including East Bay Community Law Clinic, ACLU, Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, and Legal Services for Children.
At Rippling, Wu has led critical initiatives brining data management and data protection into the hands of employers and employees. She led the partnership with Truework’s Payroll Network, an initiative focused on putting millions of consumers in control over how their sensitive data is shared with third parties, such as banks and prospective employers. She also led the work at Rippling to help California employers stay on top of the privacy standards by automating CCPA notices.
