IIPI | about

Board of Directors

Christian Dippon
Vice President
NERA Economic Consulting

Mr. Dippon is a Vice President in NERA’s Communications and Intellectual Property Practices. He specializes in the economics, business, and regulation of the communications and high-tech industries, and the evaluation of economic damages in intellectual property and commercial litigation disputes. Mr. Dippon has extensive testimonial experience, including expert testimonies before state court, the Federal Communications Commission and numerous state commissions. Mr. Dippon has consulted to clients in the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, China, Brazil, Singapore, Hong Kong, Spain, Israel, the Dominican Republic, Korea, and Australia.

In the communications and high-tech sectors, Mr. Dippon has worked on a wide range of issues, including class action lawsuits, the regulation of wireline and wireless services, horizontal and vertical mergers, anti-trust violations, convergence, business strategies, demand forecasting, pricing, and other dispute resolutions. In intellectual property (IP) and commercial litigation matters, Mr. Dippon advises his clients on calculating economic damages in cases of IP infringement, allegations of breach of contract, and other commercial damages claims. Most recently, Mr. Dippon calculated and justified damages in an IP infringement matter resulting in an economic damages award of $112 million for his client.

Mr. Dippon is a frequent lecturer on communications and high-tech issues and on the application of rigorous economic techniques in regulatory and litigation disputes. He has been cited by The American Lawyer and IP Law & Business for his IP work in Japan and by Business Week magazine on a recent high profile lawsuit in telecommunications. He has co-authored a number of books on IP and communications issues and published several papers and articles in industry journals.

Most recently, Mr. Dippon has authored a book with Dr. Aniruddha Banerjee on mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) and their relationship with mobile network operators (MNOs). The book discusses this relationship from theoretical, financial, strategy, and empirical perspectives. The book received wide press coverage and was cited in over 60 national and international newspapers and magazines, such as Forbes, Business Week, the Chicago Tribune, and the Sydney Morning Herald.

In addition to serving on IIPI’s Board of Directors, Mr. Dippon serves on the Board of Directors of the International Telecommunications Society (ITS) and is a member of the American Economic Association, and the Federal Communications Bar Association.

Mr. Dippon has completed substantial PhD coursework in economics and received an MA in economics, with a concentration in microeconomics and econometrics, from the University of California. Prior to joining NERA, Mr. Dippon was an analyst at BMW in Bangkok, Thailand. Mr. Dippon is bilingual German-English, fluent in French, and proficient in Thai and Spanish.

Bradford R. Huther
President & CEO
IIPI

Bradford R. Huther is the President and CEO of the International Intellectual Property Institute (IIPI), a non-partisan, not-for-profit organization, based in Washington, D.C. The Institute promotes the creation of modern intellectual property systems and the use of intellectual property rights as a mechanism for investment, technology transfer and the creation of wealth in all countries of the world.

Prior to his position with the International Intellectual Property Institute, Mr. Huther served as a distinguished member of the Senior Executive Service of the U.S. Government as a Special Advisor to the U.S. Department of Commerce. As Special Advisor, he performed management assessments of high-visibility, politically-sensitive programs in major Commerce agencies and staff offices under the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Administration. He is also served as a mentor, coach and trainer for senior executives in leadership, program analysis, business process reengineering, resource planning and project implementation. He developed transformation and tactical strategies, executing funding, staff and logistical analyses, and organizing the design of alternative business models that achieved significant gains in organizational performance and responsiveness.

From 2002-2003 Mr. Huther worked at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) as Senior Advisor to Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property James Rogan. In this capacity, Huther worked closely with Rogan, Deputy Director Jon Dudas and other members of the USPTO senior executive team. Huther provided guidance on the execution of a comprehensive review of the USPTO in support of President Bush's management and performance agenda, and provided expert advice and assistance on a broad range of key domestic and international intellectual property issues and initiatives, including guidance in developing the framework for a viable USPTO five-year business plan and exploring legislative solutions to the USPTO budget challenges.

From 1999-2002, Huther served as a Special Attaché to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the specialized UN Agency responsible for handling global intellectual property treaties. While there, Huther monitored intellectual property activities throughout the United States and performed a broad range of liaison functions with industry groups, professional associations, the public and Federal agencies.

Prior to assuming these duties at WIPO, he served as Deputy Director and Chief Operating Officer of the U.S. Bureau of the Census (1997-1999), where he developed strategic, financial and business plans for the nationwide 2000 decennial project.

Many of Mr. Huther's nearly 34 years of government service were spent at the USPTO. From 1994-1997, Mr. Huther had a distinguished career as a public administrator at the USPTO as Associate Commissioner and Chief Financial Officer. In 1996, Huther was named the outstanding financial executive in the Federal Government by the Association of Government Accountants. He received the prestigious Elmer Staats award for "leading the transformation of the USPTO into a financially self-sufficient organization on the cutting edge of change in personnel management practices, customer relations, business process reengineering and organizational streamlining."

Lester S. Hyman
Of Counsel
Swidler, Berlin, Shereff, Friedman, LLP

Lester Hyman, a founding partner of the prominent Washington, D.C., law firm of Swidler & Berlin, specializes in creating and implementing legislative strategies and in resolving international disputes. His clients include Fortune 500 corporations as well as countries and major companies abroad.

As a protege of John F. Kennedy, he served with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and as Secretary of Commerce and later chairman of the Democratic Party of Massachusetts.

Hyman has been an advisor to eight U.S. presidential candidates. Following his participation in the Clinton-Gore campaign, he "vetted" candidates for Vice President, the Supreme Court, and the Cabinet and prepared the latter for Senatorial confirmation hearings.

He currently serves as a member of the board of the Center for National Policy, one of the country's leading political think tanks, and is a member of the advisory board of the International Legal Studies Program of the Washington College of Law at American University. He has taught "Decision-making in Politics" at the John F. Kennedy School at Harvard University.

In 1990, he was a member of the International Observer Team, headed by former President Jimmy Carter, which monitored the first democratic election in the history of Haiti. Additionally, he has been deeply involved in peace resolution efforts in Liberia, as well as legal and governmental issues in Japan, Korea, France, Germany, England, Russia, Lebanon, and the Caribbean.

In 1994, the President of the United States, upon the personal recommendation of Hillary Rodham Clinton, appointed Hyman to the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial Commission. In 1995, he was elected to the board of trustees of the Norton Simon Museum of Art at Pasadena, California. President Clinton appointed Hyman to the eight-person United States Presidential Delegation that represented him at the historic December 29, 1996, Peace Accord signing in Guatemala, ending a 36-year civil war.

He lectures extensively throughout the country and has been described as an informative, entertaining and eloquent public speaker. Hyman has written extensively on U.S. and international issues, with his articles appearing in such publications as The Los Angeles Times and The Boston Globe. His biography appears in the current edition of Who's Who in America.

Hyman is a member of the Massachusetts and District of Columbia bars. He is admitted to the U.S. Supreme Court. Hyman received his A.B. from Brown University in 1952 and his LL.B. from Columbia University in 1955 (Phi Alpha Delta).

Honorable Bruce A. Lehman
Chairman, IIPI
Senior Counsel, Whiteford Taylor Preston

Bruce Lehman is the former President and CEO of the International Intellectual Property Institute (IIPI), a non-partisan, not-for-profit organization, based in Washington, D.C. The Institute promotes the creation of modern intellectual property systems and the use of intellectual property rights as a mechanism for investment, technology transfer and the creation of wealth in all countries of the world.

Lehman is a member of the Policy Advisory Commission to the Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the specialized United Nations agency headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. He is president of the U.S. Committee for WIPO and is a member of several corporate boards, including PLX Systems, Inc.

From August 1993 through December 1998, Lehman served as Assistant Secretary of Commerce and U.S. Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks. As the Clinton Administration's primary representative for intellectual property rights protection, he was a key player on these issues, both domestically and internationally. At the request of the President, he served concurrently in the fall of 1997 as acting chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, which fosters and recognizes the work of America's artistic and creative community.

In 1994, the National Law Journal, the largest-selling weekly publication for lawyers, named Lehman its "Lawyer of the Year." In 1997, another publication, the National Journal, a Washington-based national magazine of public policy, named Lehman one of the 100 most influential men and women in Washington. The National Journal observed, "In today's Information Age, the issue of intellectual property rights is no longer an arcane concern, but a vital part of U.S. trade policy. Since taking over his current posts in 1993, Lehman has been the Clinton Administration's outspoken voice on such matters here and abroad."

Serving as the leader of the U.S. delegation to WIPO's December 1996 Diplomatic Conference on Certain Copyright and Neighboring Rights Questions, he successfully concluded negotiations which resulted in the adoption of two treaties: the WIPO Copyright Treaty and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty. These treaties, by updating international copyright law for the digital age, will greatly facilitate the growth of on-line digital commerce over the Internet. Likewise, Lehman's guidance on the development of the intellectual property provisions of the Uruguay Round Agreement, now known as TRIPS (Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property), has enabled American creators and inventors to more easily protect their creations from piracy throughout the world.

Lehman engaged in streamlining the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) to be more responsive and customer-focused. His efforts were recognized by Vice President Gore's National Performance Review as a success story for government reinvention. As Commissioner, he held a series of public hearings throughout the country to solicit the views and concerns of PTO customers. Feedback led PTO to develop new guidelines for patents in the biotechnology field and establish partnership libraries in Sunnyvale, California and Detroit, Michigan, to provide better public access to PTO information and services. Lehman also chaired the Working Group on Intellectual Property Rights of the National Information Infrastructure Task Force. In September of 1995, the Working Group released Intellectual Property and the National Information Infrastructure, which examines the role of copyright law in cyberspace and makes recommendations to fortify copyright protection of intellectual property in the networked environment of the information superhighway.

For ten years prior to joining the Clinton administration, Lehman was a partner in the Washington, D.C., law firm of Swidler & Berlin. There he represented individuals, companies, and trade associations in the areas of intellectual property rights. His clients were drawn from the motion picture, telecommunications, pharmaceutical, computer software and broadcasting industries.

Prior to entering private practice, Lehman worked for nine years in the U.S. House of Representatives as counsel to the Committee on the Judiciary and chief counsel to the Subcommittee on Courts, Civil Liberties, and the Administration of Justice. Lehman was the Committee's principal legal adviser in the drafting of the 1976 Copyright Act, the 1980 Computer Software Amendments, and 1982 Amendments to the Patent Laws.

Early in his career, Lehman served as legal counsel to the Wisconsin State Legislature, as an attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, and as an officer in the U.S. Army. He was born on September 19, 1945, and attended the University of Wisconsin -- earning a B.A. in 1967, and a J.D. in 1970. He is a member of the bar in the District of Columbia.

Honorable Ralph Oman

Register of Copyrights, 1985-1993
Counsel
Dechert

Ralph Oman is the Pravel Professorial Lecturer at the George Washington University Law School. Prior to his move to academia, Oman served as counsel for 15 years at Dechert LLP, an international law firm with more than 700 lawyers. He has more than 30 years of international experience in patent, copyright, and trademark law.

Before entering private practice in 1993, Oman was Register of Copyrights of the United States (1985-1993), the chief government official charged with administering the national copyright law. During his tenure as register, he helped move the United States into the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, the oldest and most prestigious international copyright convention, a goal sought by U.S. registers for 100 years. Before becoming register, he served in several other government positions including chief counsel for the Subcommittee on Patents, Copyrights, and Trademarks of the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, and staff director (and later chief counsel) for the Subcommittee on Criminal Law. Oman continues to participate in the ongoing effort to increase the level of intellectual property protection worldwide. In 2002, he received the Jefferson Medal in recognition of his many contributions to intellectual property protection.

A former Foreign Service Officer and Naval Flight Officer, Oman is a graduate of Hamilton College (A.B., 1962) and Georgetown University Law Center (J.D., 1973), where he served as executive editor of the Georgetown International Law Journal.

John A. Squires
Vice-President, Chief Patent Counsel
and Associate General Counsel
Goldman Sachs & Co.

Mr. Squires is Vice-President, Chief Patent Counsel and Associate General Counsel for Goldman, Sachs & Co. Mr. Squires joined the firm in March 2000 and his responsibilities include the initiation, direction and management of global intellectual property value capture and monetization efforts for all firm operations and franchises, including technology, e-commerce and client-facing portals, producing business areas such as broker-dealer, specialist, asset management and proprietary trading activities and investment and merchant banking, new ventures and risk management.

In addition to his intellectual property responsibilities, Mr. Squires managed the formation and launch of Regulatory DataCorp Int'l LLC ("RDC"), a for-profit, database and interdiction software venture, now owned by twenty of the world's leading financial institutions, which aggregates and leverages publicly available information around the globe for anti-terrorist financing and anti-money laundering due diligence applications. He presently serves as corporate secretary to RDC's Board of Directors.

Mr. Squires is also Chairman of the Securities Industry Association Patent Subcommittee, which has responsibility for representing broker-dealer industry intellectual property interests to government, agency, legislative and regulatory bodies. He is also a member of the BITS Financial Services Roundtable, and services as an advisory board member for the Intellectual Property Adivisory Committee for Chief Legal Executive.

Prior to joining Goldman Sachs, he held successive in-house counsel positions at AlliedSignal and was ultimately named General Counsel and Chief Intellectual Property Counsel for its Advanced Technologies division where his responsibilities included licensing, joint ventures formation and technology transfers management to businesses in China, Japan and India.

Prior to AlliedSignal, Mr. Squires was in private practice with Rogers & Wells, specializing in IP litigation and prior to Rogers & Wells, began his legal career with Morgan & Finnegan. Mr. Squires received his J.D. degree magna cum laude from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law where he was a member of the Law Review and Order of the Coif.

Mr. Squires began his career as an account representative with IBM in mid-range and large system and software marketing. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from Bucknell University. He is a member of the New York Bar and is licensed to practice in the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Board of Advisors

Prof. Prabuddha Ganguli
CEO
VISION-IPR

Beginning his career as a Research Scientist in Basic and Industrial Research he has been involved in Technology Assessment, Forecasting and Transfer including Factory Management and Business Planning at Hindustan Lever Ltd for two decades. From 1991 to 1996 he was the Head of Information Services and Patents at the Hindustan Lever Research Centre. His last assignment at HLL involved Corporate Information Risk & Security Management and Knowledge Management. He is a qualified and a leading Patent Agent in India and an expert in IPR and Information Management.

His consulting group “VISION-IPR” offers services in management of IPR, information security and knowledge management. His clients include leading Pharmaceutical, Chemical and Engineering Industries, Educational institutions such as IIT Bombay, Public Sector Undertakings and several Entrepreneurs.

M.Sc. in Chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology (Kanpur) and Ph.D. from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai in Chemical Physics, he completed his Post Doctoral Research in Germany and Canada. He was a Visiting Scientist at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in 1981 before joining Hindustan Lever Ltd. as a Research Scientist.

An elected Fellow of the Maharastra Academy of Sciences, a recipient of the National Science Talent Scholarship (NSTS) and an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Fellow (Germany) he has 45 publications in Chemical Physics, Chemical Processes, Specialty Materials. He also has over 50 publications, Books including researches papers in the field of IPR and is an invited contributor to international journals such as “The World Patent Information” & Business Briefings published from the UK.

Jack Granowitz
Senior Technical Advisor
Science and Technology Ventures
Columbia University

Jack Granowitz is Senior Technical Advisor to the Executive Director of STV, with special focus on STV Partnerships, an expanding technology transfer consortium of academic centers to enhance the impact and speed the use of university-generated discoveries. Mr. Granowitz joined Columbia University's technology transfer office, Columbia Innovation Enterprise, in 1983, and served as Executive Director from 1988 through 2000. Under his leadership, the office was built and staffed with more than thirty people. Revenue from intellectual property and support for research and development grew to more than $167 million per year. As a result, Columbia University leads U.S. universities and research centers in revenues from the transformation of knowledge products to public use. Columbia University now has equity interest in over forty startup companies, several of which have gone public. As Executive Director, Mr. Granowitz directed several significant collaborative academic deals, most notably including a major research and licensing collaboration with Oxford University, Pasteur, and Eli Lilly corporation; formation of publicly-held Pharmacopeia, Inc. in conjunction with Cold Springs Harbor Laboratories; and establishment of MPEG LA, LLC., which pools MPEG II patents from Columbia and seven industrial partners. He led development of numerous major licensing and research collaborations, including the licensing of technologies for co-transformation, chimeric antibodies and diagnostic kits. Prior to joining Columbia University, Mr. Granowitz worked in the corporate health care industry. He was Vice-President and General Manager of the International Division of IPCO Corporation and before that was an executive with American Cyanamid Company and Pfizer, Inc. He was involved with the development and marketing of medical and pharmaceutical products including the first surgical scrub sponge and the first total hip prosthesis. He holds several patents related to medical and surgical devices. Mr. Granowitz received his BA and MS in Chemical Engineering from New York University and his MBA from Iona College.

Dr. GAO Lulin
Chairman
East IP

Dr. Gao is an uncommonly qualified expert in the field of intellectual property. He worked for more than 14 years in public office in the field of intellectual property protection in China and, although he has since retired from public duty, he is still active in the area as a consultant, panelist and professor in a number of private non-governmental organizations and universities. During the course of his career he has held the positions of Commissioner of the Chinese Patent Office and Commissioner of State Intellectual Property Office (China). He was a senior advisor to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) for roughly two years and is currently the Honorary Chairman of the China Intellectual Property Society, Vice Chairman of the China Internet Society and a Member of the Steering Committee of the China Internet Network Information Center.

Dr. Gao has headed numerous delegations for the Chinese government at many international forums and diplomatic conferences on intellectual property. He has also held the Chair of the Paris Union Assembly and the WIPO General Assembly. In 1995, he was given the Grand Star Cross by the German government for his remarkable contributions to the field of IP protection and international cooperation and in that same year, the European Patent Office awarded him the International Cooperation Medal for his contributions to the field. He frequently gives lectures on intellectual property at the Peking University's Law School and has published numerous works on patent prosecution and litigation, licensing, IPR protection, TRIPS Agreement and domain names. His publications include "How Do Foreigners Seek Patent Protection for Their Technology" in China Law; "Patent System and Market Economy" published in Reform and Its Theory, Tentative Ideas for Further Improvement of the Chinese Patent System (Chinese and English); "China and the TRIPS Agreement" (Chinese and English) which was presented at the APEC Industrial Property Symposium of The Development of Industrial Property Systems Towards the 21st Century in August 1996 in Tokyo, Japan; and "China's Accession to the WTO and Protection of Intellectual Property" (Chinese and English), published in China Patents and Trademarks.

Dr. Gao is not only an intellectual property expert, but also has strong technology backgrounds. His first degree, a Bachelors of Science, was in prospecting technology and he earned a Ph.D in the area from one of the top schools in the former Soviet Union. For many years, he worked in research institutes, ministries, at the State Planning Commission and the State Economic Planning Commission as a technology specialist and although in later years the major thrust of his career shifted to intellectual property issues, he has remained active in the field. He is currently a Fellow at the Russian International Academy of Engineering. Dr. Gao speaks Chinese (native), English and Russian.

Mr. Ian Harvey
Founding Chairman
United Kingdom Intellectual Property Advisory Committee

Ian Harvey has an MA in Mechanical Sciences from Cambridge University and an MBA from Harvard University. He was with Vickers and Laporte Industries for ten years before seven years at the World Bank. He joined BTG in 1985 as Chief Executive Officer. Between 1988 and 1993 he served as a member of the Prime Minister's Advisory Council on Science and Technology. He is a fellow of Nottingham University (1994), has been a member of the Advisory Panel for "SPRU" (Science and Technology Policy Research Unit of Sussex University) from 1989-2003; became a Director of the Intellectual Property Institute in 1998 and was appointed as Institute Chairman in July 1999. He is a director of Primaxis Technology Ventures Inc. and a member of the Appointments Committee of the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council. He is a Companion of the British Institute of Management and sits on the Companions' Board, and is a member of Air Products & Chemicals Inc European Advisory Council. In 2001 he was appointed the founding Chairman of the UK Government's Intellectual Property Advisory Committee.

Susan Mann
Federal Government Affairs Manager
Microsoft

Susan Mann serves as a Federal Government Affairs Manager at Microsoft. Prior to joining Microsoft, Susan worked for 9 years as a principal in the lobby firm of Griffin, Johnson, Dover, & Stewart, where she represented clients in the music and film industries. Susan has also served as Administrator for the Office of Legislative and International Affairs at the Patent and Trademark Office, U.S. Department of Commerce, and as Attorney-Advisor in the same office. While at the Department, she participated in numerous multilateral and bilateral intellectual property negotiations and also served as an advisor on legislative and policy initiatives affecting the trade aspects of, and the protection of, intellectual property rights. Ms. Mann has focused on legislative and copyright matters as an associate of the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison in Washington, DC. She has also served as a legislative/regulatory analyst with a trade association and as a congressional staffer.

Jacques Michel
Former Vice President
European Patent Office

Dr. Jacques Michel, the former Vice President of the European Patent Office (EPO), has contributed greatly to the patent world. He has served as a policy maker, politician, and diplomat. He held various positions in the French Secretariat of State for Research and the Ministry of Industry, related to problems of scientific and technological information issues. Dr. Michel also served as Assistant and then Senior Assistant at the Science Faculty of Paris-Orsay. Prior to that, he was appointed Science Attaché to the French Embassy to the United States of America where he monitored the fields of chemistry, materials, environment, nuclear technology, and other science and technological information. Dr. Michel has a doctorate in Physical Science.

Shinjiro Ono
Yuasa and Hara

Mr. Shinjiro Ono graduated from Tokyo Metropolitan University, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Industrial Chemistry (B.S.). In April 1970, he joined the Japan Patent Office where he initially conducted patent examinations in the Polymer Division. From1978 - 79, Mr. Ono studied abroad in the United States (Chemical Abstracts Service, American Chemical Society), and from 1982-85, he was First Secretary of the Permanent Mission of Japan, Geneva. Subsequently, Mr. Ono held several high positions in the Japan Patent Office (JPO). From 1998 to 2001, he was Director-General of the Fourth (Chemical) Examination Department, then from 2001 to 2002, Director-General of Appeals Department. Mr. Ono was appointed Deputy Commissioner in June 2002 and served as his post until October 2005. During his tenure as Deputy Commissioner, he engaged in significantly strengthening the examination system in order to achieve timely high quality patent examination, which is essential to transform Japan into an intellectual property-based nation, and vigorously advanced Trilateral (EPO, USPTO, JPO) Cooperation in patent examination and the international harmonization of IP systems to globally support the acquisition of rights. He has taken initiative in establishing examination policies and in conducting comparative studies among trilateral Offices in fields of cutting-edge technologies, such as gene-related inventions and medical treatment, including medical inventions.

S teve Pinkos

Steve Pinkos recently founded a consulting enterprise that provides strategic policy and legal advice with a particular focus on intellectual property (IP) issues. Pinkos has offices in Texas and Washington, DC, where he represents clients on legislative issues before the U.S. Congress and the Executive Branch; provides expert IP legal and regulatory advice on matters involving IP litigation, the USPTO, WIPO, and international IP offices; and consults on international business development issues.

From August, 2004 until April, 2007, Steve served as Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Deputy Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). As Deputy Under Secretary, Steve advised the Secretary of Commerce, the White House and Administration agencies on intellectual property matters. As Deputy Director of the USPTO, he was responsible for administering the laws relevant to granting patents and trademarks, and the day-to-day management of the agency.

As a leading intellectual property policy-maker, Steve developed and articulated Administration policy positions on all patent, trademark and copyright issues, both foreign and domestic. He devised strategies to promote the global intellectual property interests of U.S. businesses and to thwart the counterfeiting of U.S. products around the globe. To carry-out these responsibilities, Steve led intellectual property delegations to Geneva, China, Japan, Germany, Brazil and Vietnam. He also participated in the development of the Administration's position on intellectual property cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.

From 1998-2004, Steve worked for the House Committee on the Judiciary, serving as Staff Director and Deputy General Counsel from 2001-2004. In this position, in addition to managing its staff and budget, Steve coordinated a legislative and oversight agenda among the most ambitious in Congress. He was deeply involved with intellectual property issues, legal reform, trade agreements, immigration and bankruptcy law changes and law enforcement oversight and legislation, including anti-terrorism laws.

Steve graduated from Miami University with a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and received his JD from DePaul University College of Law. He is a member of the Virginia State Bar and a founding member of the Foundation for Community Betterment.