Mallun Yen

Mallun Yen is a board director, public company officer, technology executive, founder, and global intellectual property leader who has launched and scaled businesses, transformed markets by disrupting industry conventions, and created vibrant worldwide communities. She is the founder and CEO of Operator Collective, a venture capital fund and community that aims to open the venture ecosystem to tech leaders from diverse backgrounds. Operator Collective's investors include over 150 experienced operators from companies like Salesforce, Stripe, and Zoom.

With a deep understanding of Silicon Valley innovation and a proven track record of growth, Mallun has led companies ranging from startups to Fortune 100 enterprises in developing transformational organizations, initiatives, and products using data, technology, and collaboration to shift behaviors and build new revenue streams.

Mallun spent eight years at Cisco Systems, Inc. and SaaStr, where as Vice President of Worldwide Intellectual Property, she led and built from the ground up the teams responsible for intellectual property protection of Cisco’s technology, products, and innovation globally, including actions against a major foreign competitor with strong governmental ties and containment of international and domestic data breaches. She was also a key contributor to Cisco’s renowned M&A organization, helping the company buy and integrate more than 60 companies including Linksys ($500M), Scientific-Atlanta ($6.9B), WebEx ($3.2B), Airespace ($400M), Ironport ($830M) and Tandberg ($3.3B).

While at Cisco, Mallun and fellow innovators came together to launch RPX Corporation to counter the spread of so-called patent trolls using a novel data-driven, market-based subscription model. As RPX’s EVP of corporate development and chief business and product officer, she guided the venture-backed startup to IPO in 2011 less than three years from inception and over $300 million in annual revenue. She served on the board of directors until its acquisition in 2018.

Mallun's vision for innovative, collaborative problem-solving extended into her role as founder of Operator Collective, a venture capital fund that debuted in 2019 with a $45 million fund, focusing on business-to-business technology companies. Her influential role in the Silicon Valley ecosystem saw her recruiting prominent names, such as Rachel Carlson from Guild Education, to serve as limited partners for the fund. She is also a co-founder of ChIPsNetwork.org, a global community for women in tech, law, and policy she co-founded in 2005 which, among other things, offers a free summer institute to inspire high school girls to become advocates, leaders, and innovators.

She has been an instructor or guest speaker for the Stanford Technology Ventures Program, Stanford Directors’ College, Stanford Law School, and the University of California Haas School of Business. Mallun has received numerous awards, including SF Business Times’ Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business, Forever Influential, World’s Leading Intellectual Property Strategists, and Innovators’ Award–Serial Innovator, and been featured in various publications, including The Secrets of Silicon Valley, Stiletto Network, Entrepreneur and Law.com.