Zen Zhang is a seasoned lawyer and software engineer with over 11 years of experience advising startups and Fortune 100 companies on legal matters. He pursued a bachelor's degree in Computer Science with a Software Engineering option and Commerce at the University of British Columbia and earned a Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School. Throughout his career, he has represented high-profile clients such as Apple, eBay, Tencent, and Time Warner, among others, in complex commercial, technology and intellectual property transactions, and mergers and acquisitions. Zen currently leads Commercial Legal, Corporate Legal, and IP Legal teams at Plaid, a data API startup with a $13.4B valuation. Zen played a crucial role in building Plaid's legal team consisting of 24+ talented and experienced lawyers and paralegals.

Additionally, during law school, he was the Chief Risk Officer and a Director at a non-profit start-up based in New York City. He co-authored and edited the start-up's business plan, which received the third prize in the Columbia Organization of Rising Entrepreneurs Entrepreneurial Challenge.

Zen's abundant experience in the industry has been a valuable asset in scaling and building legal teams and negotiating billion-dollar deals on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley.