A Brand’s New World Part 2 — Conference Speakers

At the A-CAPP Center, Kari is the assistant director for education and outreach, where she works on program management and design, outreach to industry and government, professional training.  She runs the Center’s executive education programming and the country’s first professional certificate in brand protection and anti-counterfeiting and the Center’s student internship program.  Additionally, she maintains an active research agenda on legal issues pertaining to trademark counterfeiting.  She has researched U.S. state anti-counterfeiting laws and case law, e-commerce liability for trademark counterfeiting, and the impact of culture in the Middle East on intellectual property and trademark enforcement. She enjoys working at the center because of its multi-disciplinary focus, creative solutions, and cutting-edge research.  Prior to coming to the center, she spent a significant time working, traveling, and living in the Middle East, including Egypt, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Libya, Jordan, and others.  She was Deputy Chief of Party at DePaul College of Law’s Iraq office, where she managed rule of law programs; and Deputy Executive Director in the Chicago office. She is a licensed attorney in Illinois and Michigan with a J.D. from DePaul University, an M.A. in Political Science from the American University in Cairo, and a B.A. from the University of Chicago.  She is serving her second three year term on the Academic Specialist Advisory Committee at MSU, where she has been chair, vice-chair, and chair of the promotion subcommittee. She is also an adjunct professor of law at MSU’s College of Law, where she teaches Trademark Counterfeiting, Food Counterfeits, and International Intellectual Property.  Additionally, she is a member of INTA and on the anti-counterfeiting sub-committee, AIPLA, AIPPI and the ABA.

Alan Liu is the APAC Director of Global Brand Protection at Johnson and Johnson. He leads J&J’s regional -level brand protection function, with responsibility for combatting illicit trade across all J&J business segments—pharmaceutical, medical device and consumer.  Alan has spent his entire 13-year career thus far dealing with organized crime and brand protection issues in the region. His experience includes seven-plus years in law enforcement as a Senior Inspector and six years in brand protection, anti-counterfeiting enforcement, and supply chain security for multi-national companies, including DuPont, MSD and Abbott Laboratories. Alan has intensive experience on brand protection strategies and operations in Consumer/Food/Pharm/Agriculture/Chemical industry. Alan previously held the position of Vice Chairman, Best Enforcement/Practices Committee, QBPC (the Quality Brands Protection Committee) in China. Alan now is the Chairman of ASIS (American Society for Industrial Security) Shanghai Chapter and Co- Chairman for BASCAP (Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy) China, International Chamber of Commerce and Vice Chair, Personal Care Industrial Working Group, Alibaba Anti-counterfeiting Alliance. Alan manages the AP online monitoring and enforcement program to cover all the online marketplaces/e-commerce platforms/social media with a consolidated delivery of capability via an agile shared-service model to maximize business opportunities and disrupt illicit trade. Alan created AP new Online to Offline investigation model and Illicit Trade Data & Analytics platform to accommodate new risk to provide high quality intel and targets with E-commerce (Alibaba/JD/Amazon/so on) and LEAs for effective investigations. Alan worked out a holistic serialization solution with covert features to high value consumer products, including upgrade of packaging, labels, 2D barcodes, customer reward code and anti-counterfeit features. Streamlined internal report SOP and alert dashboard to capture risk from customer-end scanning more effectively. Alan participated in the Law enforcement agencies training and public awareness campaign. He was frequently invited by most influential organizations, like AACA/IACC/ Pharmaceutical Security Institute/INTA/Interpol/USPTO/DOJ/QBPC/WCO/etc. as key speaker/panelist. Alan was awarded as Top 40 IPR protection professionals under 40-year-old in China by the most influential IPR media – CHINA IPR Daily in 2019. He was also awarded as 2020 World Trademark Review 300 World Leading Corporate Trademark Professionals and 2020 World Trademark Review 2020 Inhouse Leader of the Yea.

Jack Chang, an elected Vice Chairman for 2019 and 2020 of the Quality Brands Protection Committee (“QBPC” www.qbpc.org.cn), which is an industry organization operating in China with around 200 foreign IP owners as members dedicated to improve IP environment and commercial rule of law in China based on the approach of cooperation. Jack was one of the founders of QBPC in 2000 and the China Anti-counterfeiting Coalition (QBPC’s predecessor set up in 1998). Jack was the elected QBPC Chairman from 2003 to 2013 and was appointed as the Honorary  Chairman from 2014 to June 2015. Jack was elected as a Vice Chairman in 2016 and then the Chairman of 2017 and 2018 Jack is now the Special Counsel to L Brands. He was the Corporate Senior IP Counsel for Asia for General Electric Company from 2006 to 2014. Before then, he served Johnson & Johnson (“J&J”) for 17 years. Jack was relocated to Shanghai, China, in Jan. 1998 to set up the Asia/Shanghai Office of the Corporate Law Dept. of J&J. Later he set up and led the IP Protection Office of the J&J operating companies in China in addition to his responsibility as the Corporate Assistant General Counsel. During the period from 2000 to 2018, Jack provided in person and writing many times respectively his observations on China IP environment and constructive recommendations to the China State Council leaders and staff on improving IP legal framework and enforcement, which received positive feedback from various State Council leaders. Madam Wuyi, then Vice Premier in Sept. 2004 commended QBPC as her capable assistant after listening to Jack’s briefing. Jack’s comments were adopted into the Chinese Product Quality Law, Trademark Law, Patent Law and Anti-Unfair Competition Law, etc. Jack served as a pro bono IP Advisor to the Shanghai IP Administration from 2007 to 2014. He was selected by the Managing IP as one of the world’s top 50 IP figures in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2018. In 2012, Jack was awarded the prize of Personal Achievement of The Year in Anti-Counterfeiting by the Global Anti-counterfeiting Group. In October, 2016, Jack was awarded the Annual Brand Protection Hero Award by the Anti-Counterfeit & Product Protection Center of Michigan State University. In May, 2019, Jack was selected by the World Trademark Review as the winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019.

James (Jim) Cunningham is currently Deputy Director, Global IP Enforcement and Security for Alibaba. Prior to joining Alibaba in December 2016, James was a Supervisory Special Agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) where he served as the supervisor of a Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) squad in New York City. While at the FBI, Jim conducted both criminal and counter-terrorism investigations. These investigations included a variety of domestic and international crimes including intellectual property rights violations, counterfeiting, financial crimes, smuggling, fraud, organized crime, narcotics and weapons trafficking, and terrorist bombings. During his intellectual property rights investigations, he focused on the counterfeiting and diversion of pharmaceuticals and opiates. As a Special Agent Bomb Technician, Jim was trained to locate and disable bombs and respond to the threats of hazardous materials such as chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons.  His investigations and training took him overseas on numerous occasions both in support of operations and as an instructor. Prior to his career at the FBI, he was an engineer and procurement manager at an international power company. 

Lenny Xue is the manager of OpSec online Shanghai. OpSec Online established China office back to 2012 to meet the client requirement on the rapidly growing China online market. He focuses on the Shanghai office management, local partner relationship development and business strategy in Asia. He also involved in the key account support of client’s China branch to ensure we provide customized service to meet the client requirements. With deep understanding of China online brand protection and government policy, Lenny will share the latest trends that you may very interested in.

Professor Stanley Griffis is the John H. McConnell Professor of Business Administration, and a Professor of Logistics in the Department of Supply Chain Management at Michigan State University. His primary teaching interests include logistics and supply chain management. Professor Griffis received his Ph.D. in Business Administration from Ohio State University with a major in Logistics and a minor in Information Systems Management. He also holds a Master of Science in Logistics Management from the Air Force Institute of Technology, and a Master of Arts in Logistics from The Ohio State University. Prior to joining academia he worked on numerous logistics system design programs for the U.S. Air Force before retiring as a Lt. Colonel in 2009. Dr. Griffis has published his research in top Logistics and Supply Chain journals.  His research focuses on a variety of issues including whether consumers truly value the set of logistics and supply chain services companies strive to differentiate upon (returns, assortment, speed).  Additionally, he researches vehicle routing through real supply chain networks, seeking to account for the variability in traffic, stop lengths, and goods/services delivered/picked up in ways that classic vehicle routing techniques ignore.  Lastly, Dr. Griffis works in the area of illicit supply chain networks where goods (e.g. counterfeit or illegal) co-mingle with legitimate supply chains, creating challenges for legitimate business operations.

Joshua S. Hopping is the Head of Investigations Services at Incopro. With over sixteen years of experience helping companies protect their intellectual property online, Joshua is an expert in dealing with trademark, copyright, and patent abuse. He is an Associate Member of the World Association of Detectives and a Professional Certified Investigator (PCI®) by ASIS International specializing in open-source intelligence (OSINT) analysis aimed at providing clients with actionable intelligence used to dismantle and disrupt counterfeit or otherwise abusive networks. Joshua is the co-creator of a patent-pending brand abuse monitoring system with infringement detection engine and graphical user interface. Prior to joining Incopro in January 2018, Joshua worked at MarkMonitor (part of Clarivate Analytics) where he was instrumental in the development of their brand protection department. While in his previous position, he designed and launched an OSINT investigative reporting service. Joshua currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Idaho chapter of InfraGard, a partnership between the FBI and members of the critical infrastructure private sector. Joshua is a published author and a Cherokee Nation citizen of Celtic-Cherokee heritage. Joshua holds an Associate of Science in Design Technology Engineering and Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from LeTourneau University (Longview, TX, USA) along with a Master of Ministry from St. Stephen University (St. Stephen, NB, CA).

Pervin is currently Legal Counsel at Whirlpool Corporation, where she is part of a global team that drives value for Whirlpool’s innovations through IP, manages IP litigation, engages in third party agreement negotiations (including development agreements and supply agreements), and strategizes IP portfolio acquisition and maintenance to best enable brand protection and anti-counterfeiting measures. She holds leadership positions in various professional organizations, including serving as Professional Development Chair of the SW Michigan Society of Women Engineers, Vice-Chair of the In-house IP Committee and the Business & Trade Division at the American Bar Association’s Section of IP Law, and Communications Chair of the Association of Corporate Counsel’s IP Network. Pervin earned her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University and her J.D. from Indiana University.

Chris Nordin works as a Forensic Analyst on IP Services’ Brand Protection Team. Since 2018, Chris has been assisting clients by disrupting the world of counterfeits and the bad actors who degrade the marketplace with fakes. After receiving a bachelor’s in English and Creative Writing from Edinboro University in 2007, Chris began a career as a patient advocate where he would champion for patient’s rights while providing oversight regarding their quality of care. Over the next decade, he fostered his ability to think on his feet and his desire to help those who are affected by the malicious acts of others. Chris made the decision to transition to IPS to continue helping people in a slightly different, but more inconspicuous way. Assisting with law enforcement efforts to halt criminal behavior and keep people safe is what drives Chris to go above and beyond for his clients. When not analyzing evidence, Chris enjoys reading horror novels and comic books. He can also be found befriending the company of dogs, cats, or any other animals that may wander into his life.

Merle Saddick is a Sales and Supply Chain Professional with 20 years of experience working within the Logistics and Consumer Products Industries.  Merle specializes in international trade, the movement of consumer products, such as Toys, high value luxury items as well as complex temperature sensitive products.  As part of the Magformers Team Merle has an extensive role covering Operations and Sales. Her strong background working with major ocean carriers, luxury retailers and leading toy manufacturers allows her to identify all the moving parts and focus on improving the bottom line.  Merle is a firm believer in employees being the greatest asset to a company and leading with respect and authenticity.  Creating strong and knowledgeable teams where sharing best practices, implementing procedures for continuous improvement leading to achieve both personal and company goals. She is inspired by the little things we can all do to make life better for all those we encounter.  Building strong relationships and trust with every link in the chain is fundamental to ensuring success in any Supply Chain and Business Partnerships.

Leah Evert-Burks is an Industry Fellow with the Michigan State University Center for Anti-Counterfeiting and Product Protection (A-CAPP Center). She is also the Editor in Chief for “The Brand Protection Professional,” an industry journal dedicated to brand protection with articles written for and by practitioners and industry experts, published by MSU. Leah previously served on the A-CAPP Industry Advisory Board. In addition to her work with A-CAPP, Leah works as an independent brand protection consultant primarily for the footwear and apparel industry and was previously associated with Foucart & Associates, a brand protection consultancy lead by former Director of the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center. Leah retired as Director of Brand Protection with Deckers Brands in 2015 where she directed all anti-counterfeit programs worldwide and managed IP litigation for the Deckers footwear brands which included the UGGâ brand. Leah began her legal career in 1984 working as a Paralegal for the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington D.C. Since that time she has worked primarily in-house for various corporations in a variety of industries. Leah served as the 2014 Co-Chair for the American Apparel and Footwear Association Brand Protection Council. As an industry member of an FBI-led Working Group relating to IP Cyber-crimes, Leah helped write and develop a set of PSAs on IP-Cybercrimes and counterfeiting which were awarded an Emmyâ in 2014. Leah has been interviewed on the subject of counterfeiting by numerous media franchises including Good Morning America, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Milken Institute Review, ABA Journal Magazine among other publications and is a frequent speaker on the issue. Leah received her BA in History from Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado.

Matthew Daum, Ph.D., is the director of the Michigan State University (MSU) School of Packaging in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (CANR). For the past twenty-five years, Daum has worked at HP Inc. (formerly Hewlett Packard) based in Boise, Idaho. Since 2016, Daum has been HP’s Director of Engineering for the LaserJet toner supplies business. He was responsible for new product research and development, current product engineering, supplies security strategy and product/package serialization strategy and implementation. Since July 2019 he also held the position of Product Marketing Director for the LaserJet supplies business. He began his career at HP as a Packaging Engineer and eventually moved into management roles including Packaging, Supply Chain and Big Data Global Analytics. Most recently he held executive manager positions in Product Marketing and Product Research and Development for the HP LaserJet supplies business. In addition, since 2007 Daum has served as adjunct associate professor at Clemson University in the Department of Food, Nutrition and Packaging Sciences where he advises graduate students. He has also guest lectured on the topics of supply chain and packaging at Clemson and the College of Idaho.

David Kellar is the Founder and Owner of Kellar Consulting LLC where he focuses on helping organizations with Brand Protection through Packaging Engineering and Traceability. He earned a BS in Packaging from Michigan State University and has over 20 years of industry experience.  David started his career working in the prepared food industry where he designed and implemented FDA approved flexible and corrugated packaging concepts.  This included both the tooling and materials used for modified atmosphere packaging in commercial food applications.  David continued his work on flexible film packaging as a member of James River Corporation’s Nestlé Value Managed Relationship team.  In this role, he completed approximately 150 packaging material qualifications and line troubleshooting in 20 Nestle production facilities nationwide. David then leveraged his experience with flexible packaging to join HP Inc. where he earned 9 patents for innovative packaging designs and held a Master Technologist role in packaging and Brand protection. David has a Proven track record for tackling broad and complex packaging related business challenges and uses metrics and business data to create clear and actionable program roadmaps. In addition, he has demonstrated expertise in the use of Blockchain technology, Smart Packaging, IOT and RFID for security and enhanced tracking. He has an established reputation for technical innovations to solve business critical issues.

David Yingling is a Senior Manager focused on Product Security at Johnson & Johnson based in Raritan, New Jersey. His job focuses on protecting J&J brands from illicit activity and working to enhance supply chain security.

Justin Gaudio is shareholder at Greer, Burns & Crain. His legal practice focuses on overseeing GBC’s litigation program against offshore ecommerce stores that offer for sale and sell products to the United States using counterfeit trademarks.  GBC has been the top filer of U.S. trademark counterfeiting lawsuits for the past 5 years with over 900 cases filed for 50+ brands.  His efforts, including the recovery $10s of millions from China-based ecommerce stores and seizing over 250,000 domain names, have been successful at reducing and deterring online counterfeiting for brand owners.

Saleem Alhabash is an Associate Professor at Michigan State University’s Department of Advertising + Public Relations, where he also co-directs the Media and Advertising Psychology (MAP) Lab. His research focuses on the processes and effects of new and social media within the context of persuasion. More specifically, his research investigates the cognitive and emotional responses, and psychological effects associated with using new and social media. His research is geared toward understanding how new communication technologies can be used as persuasive tools, most recently in relation to marketing of alcohol as well as digital aggression across the lifespan. He also studies how new and social media can facilitate cross-cultural and international communication, with emphasis on changing attitudes and stereotypes of foreign nations. Most recently, he has engaged in collaborative research focused on understanding the effectiveness of consumer education messages related to purchase of counterfeit medications on social media. In 2014, he was named the inaugural recipient of the American Academy of Advertising’s Mary Alice Shaver Promising Professor Award, and in 2018, he received MSU’s Teacher-Scholar Award. His research won best article, top paper, and top poster awards at national and international conferences. Saleem received his Ph.D. from the University of Missouri School of Journalism. Pre-academia, he worked in a youth nonprofit organization focusing on media and well-being. 

Tim Ken Mackey is an Associate Professor of Anesthesiology and Global Public Health at UC San Diego School of Medicine, the Director of Healthcare Research and Policy at UC San Diego – Extension and is the Director of the Global Health Policy Institute (www.ghpolicy.org). He is also the CEO and Co-Founder of the NIH-funded healthcare technology startup S-3 Research LLC.  He holds a BA in Political Science-International Relations, a Masters Degree in Health Policy & Law and also earned his PhD in Global Public Health from the joint doctoral program at UC San Diego – San Diego State University.  Professor Mackey’s work has been featured in high-impact journals such as Science, JAMA, Nature Biotechnology, the Lancet, Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology, Clinical Microbiology Reviews and BMC Medicine. His research and expertise has also been featured in major news outlets such as CNN, Wired, NPR and the Wall Street Journal.  His work focuses on an array of multidisciplinary topics in global health, public policy, international relations, and technology and innovation. He also has extensive professional experience including over 10 years experience in the private sector and acting as a consultant for the World Health Organization, the US Department of State and others.  His work in anti-counterfeiting and brand protection focuses on using big data, machine learning and data visualization to detect, characterize and report illegal online sale and trafficking of health products and other commodities.

Carolina Gigua is the Director, Government & Public Affairs, Americas at The LEGO Group. Carolina is responsible for policy and regulatory issues management and public affairs across North and South America. In this role, she works internally and externally to mitigate commercial risks and create opportunities through dedicated stakeholder engagement to further support the LEGO brand reputation and corporate social responsibility efforts. Her policy focus involved intellectual property rights, responsible digital engagement and international trade. She has a Masters in International Trade and Investment Policy from the George Washington University. Carolina is originally from Brazil, but lives in New York with her husband and son. 

Nancy Merritt is the Senior Manager of Global Relationships for OpSec Opsec Online LLC, one of the largest Global Brand Protection service providers in the world. With a background in partner management, government and industry relations, and online IP enforcement and compliance, she is responsible for managing a global team who cultivates external partnerships in all sectors of the consumer protection ecosystem whose primary focus is to assist colleagues and clients with their brand enforcement efforts and advocate for consumer trust. She leads a variety of cross-functional projects and proactive outreach efforts with a focus on process improvement and creating collaborative relationships with ISPs, Registries, Marketplaces, Law Enforcement, Data Providers, Industry Associations, and Social Media platforms. Nancy holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology and a Masters in Counseling.

Zoe Martin has been in the online brand protection and anti-counterfeiting industry for 10 years, working with industry leading companies at Corsearch as a Brand Protection Consultant and in-house at a prominent consumer goods company.  She specializes in social media and building successful, innovative brand protection strategies.

At the A-CAPP Center, Kari is the assistant director for education and outreach, where she works on program management and design, outreach to industry and government, professional training.  She runs the Center’s executive education programming and the country’s first professional certificate in brand protection and anti-counterfeiting and the Center’s student internship program.  Additionally, she maintains an active research agenda on legal issues pertaining to trademark counterfeiting.  She has researched U.S. state anti-counterfeiting laws and case law, e-commerce liability for trademark counterfeiting, and the impact of culture in the Middle East on intellectual property and trademark enforcement. She enjoys working at the center because of its multi-disciplinary focus, creative solutions, and cutting-edge research.  Prior to coming to the center, she spent a significant time working, traveling, and living in the Middle East, including Egypt, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Libya, Jordan, and others.  She was Deputy Chief of Party at DePaul College of Law’s Iraq office, where she managed rule of law programs; and Deputy Executive Director in the Chicago office. She is a licensed attorney in Illinois and Michigan with a J.D. from DePaul University, an M.A. in Political Science from the American University in Cairo, and a B.A. from the University of Chicago.  She is serving her second three year term on the Academic Specialist Advisory Committee at MSU, where she has been chair, vice-chair, and chair of the promotion subcommittee. She is also an adjunct professor of law at MSU’s College of Law, where she teaches Trademark Counterfeiting, Food Counterfeits, and International Intellectual Property.  Additionally, she is a member of INTA and on the anti-counterfeiting sub-committee, AIPLA, AIPPI and the ABA.

Hernan Albamonte is the Head of Illicit Trade Prevention U.S. for Philip Morris International (PMI), based in Washington D.C. Albamonte has served in various PMI roles around the globe for over twelve years. As PMI’s Head of Illicit Trade Prevention U.S., Albamonte is charged with coordinating the company’s campaign to combat illicit trade including, training law enforcement officers across the country so illicit products can be easily spotted and removed from underground networks, cultivating and briefing the government authorities on PMI’s core initiatives and representing the company with a variety of audiences and stakeholders. Before transitioning to the company’s D.C. office in 2019, Albamonte served as PMI’s Global Government Affairs Manager in Lausanne, Switzerland. In that role, he developed a network of alliances with third party stakeholders and executed government affairs and media engagement campaigns for the Europe, Latin America, Middle East and Africa markets. In 2013, Albamonte was stationed in Costa Rica as PMI’s Corporate Affairs Manager of Central America. He expanded the region’s public-private partnerships with local and international law enforcement agents, resulting in the seizures of over $36 million of unlicensed products and the closure of five illicit enterprises. Additionally, Albamonte generated a cross-industry anti-illicit trade web app sponsored by Chambers of Commerce and Ministries of Finance in three Central American countries. Furthermore, Albamonte orchestrated anti-illicit trade operations in Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and the United States as PMI’s Latin America Regional Intelligence Coordinator in 2011, based in Mexico City. In addition to recovering $42 million of illicit goods by deploying anti-black market commercial strategies, Albamonte and his team successfully dismantled an illegal-export border route of unlicensed products through a partnership with PMI’s US and Mexico public and private stakeholders. He began his career with PMI in 2007 as a Communications Intern in his native country of Argentina, and was quickly elevated to the role of Brand Integrity Coordinator, where he launched communications campaigns to raise awareness about illicit trade in Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay. Albamonte earned a double bachelor’s degree in International Relations and Political Science from Pontificia Universidad Cathólica Argentina ‘Santa María de los Buenos Aires’ and was awarded a master’s degree in Business/Corporate Communications from Universitat de Barcelona. A native Spanish speaker, Albamonte is also fluent in English. He lives in the D.C. area with his wife Caruba, a pediatric neuropsychologist and author, and their two children.

Emilio Daireaux leads the Brand Protection program in Latin America at Under Armour. Emilio is responsible for the regional intellectual property protection strategy focusing on different areas such as production, supply chain, border measures and enforcement activities to name a few. Prior experiences include responsibilities for Dolby Laboratories IP Protection strategy in the Americas including the management of global programs and the initial development of Cisco’s Brand Protection Program in Latin America.

Wael Adhami is heading Global Brand Protection for Johnson & Johnson in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa region, across the company’s Medical Devices, Pharmaceutical and Consumer Healthcare sectors. Wael is based in Dubai, UAE. In his role, Wael provides strategic direction on brand protection matters in the EMEA region and works closely with the company’s executive leadership teams to protect patients, consumers and all Johnson & Johnson brands from counterfeiting, diversion / parallel import and product tampering. Wael has an extensive international security and investigations background. Prior to joining Johnson & Johnson in December 2016, Wael spent over ten years in highly volatile environments across the Middle East & Africa region conducting sensitive investigations targeting transnational criminal networks and in various places of detention across the region. He has been heading security and brand protection functions in leading multinational corporations since 2011 and is currently serving as Board Member in different Brand Protection organizations across the region. Wael is fluent in 5 languages and a published author on international security and brand protection matters. Wael is utilizing his leadership experience to shape the healthcare environment for J&J in the EMEA region, particularly in patient safety aspects related to risks from illicit trade.   

Bruce M. Foucart is an intellectual property rights enforcement professional with 31 years of U.S. federal law enforcement experience.  Since transitioning to industry in 2017, he has worked as an anti-counterfeiting and IP protection consultant for several companies and coalitions.   Bruce regularly provides advice to contractors seeking government contracts as well as investigative training internationally.  He is the Deputy Director of Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy (BASCAP), part of the International Chamber of Commerce.  Prior to this, Mr. Foucart was the Director of the U.S. National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center from 2014-2016.

Leah Evert-Burks is an Industry Fellow with the Michigan State University Center for Anti-Counterfeiting and Product Protection (A-CAPP Center). She is also the Editor in Chief for “The Brand Protection Professional,” an industry journal dedicated to brand protection with articles written for and by practitioners and industry experts, published by MSU. Leah previously served on the A-CAPP Industry Advisory Board. In addition to her work with A-CAPP, Leah works as an independent brand protection consultant primarily for the footwear and apparel industry and was previously associated with Foucart & Associates, a brand protection consultancy lead by former Director of the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center. Leah retired as Director of Brand Protection with Deckers Brands in 2015 where she directed all anti-counterfeit programs worldwide and managed IP litigation for the Deckers footwear brands which included the UGGâ brand. Leah began her legal career in 1984 working as a Paralegal for the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington D.C. Since that time she has worked primarily in-house for various corporations in a variety of industries. Leah served as the 2014 Co-Chair for the American Apparel and Footwear Association Brand Protection Council. As an industry member of an FBI-led Working Group relating to IP Cyber-crimes, Leah helped write and develop a set of PSAs on IP-Cybercrimes and counterfeiting which were awarded an Emmyâ in 2014. Leah has been interviewed on the subject of counterfeiting by numerous media franchises including Good Morning America, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Milken Institute Review, ABA Journal Magazine among other publications and is a frequent speaker on the issue. Leah received her BA in History from Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado.

Susan Liu is the Senior Manager of Market Monitoring in Johnson & Johnson’s Global Brand Protection team.  Susan is responsible to develop and execute online and offline global market monitoring activities across pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and consumer products.  These activities and strategies line up to support the first line of Johnson & Johnson’s Credo putting patients, doctors, and nurses at the center of everything they do.  She resides in the California Bay Area with her husband and two children.  

James Kryskowiak spent just shy of 12 years with the city of Raleigh Police Department in Raleigh NC, leaving as a supervisor in field operations. During his time as a law enforcement officer, James was a member of the North Carolina Anti-counterfeit Trademark Task Force, in this capacity James was recognized by the NC Secretary of State with the Trademark Protector Award for investigations and an Exemplary Performance Award for his IP related training and outreach.  James developed and taught an IP crimes investigations course that was hosted by the NC Community College Systems Law Enforcement Program.  James is also a prior A-CAPP Brand Protection Hero Award winner, 2017.  James has authored and co-authored articles for the Brand Protection Professional regarding the use of local law enforcement in brand protection.  More recently James has teamed up with North Carolina State University’s Global Luxury And Management Master’s Program in an effort to educate future luxury Brand Managers and entrepreneurs regarding the counterfeit issues in their industry.  James is currently the Brand Protection Manager for Church & Dwight Co., Inc.

Melissa Silverstein is an Assistant General Counsel at Helen of Troy, a publicly-trade consumer goods company with brands such as OXO, Hydro Flask, PUR, Vicks, Honeywell, Drybar, Revlon, and Hot Tools.  Melissa manages Helen of Troy’s patent and trademark portfolios, along with the company’s brand protection and enforcement initiatives.  Melissa is a registered patent lawyer with 14 years of experience in intellectual property law and technology commercialization in both academic technology transfer and private practice. As former Director of the University of Texas at El Paso’s Office of Technology Commercialization, she managed UTEP’s patent portfolio, including protecting, marketing, and licensing UTEP’s inventions. Prior to joining UTEP, she practiced as a patent lawyer with a boutique intellectual property law firm, where she drafted and prosecuted patent applications for clients including Honeywell, Xerox, IBM, Clear Channel, Los Alamos National Labs, Fermilab, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Coast Guard. Melissa drafted and prosecuted patents in diverse technology areas in the chemical, biological, nanotechnology, mechanical, electrical, computer hardware and software realms.  She is a native El Pasoan and a big fan of cooking, hanging with her kids, yoga, travelling, and chasing counterfeiters all around the globe!

Michael LeMieux currently serves as an independent consultant and advisor to industry and government. Michael retired from the FBI as a Supervisory Special Agent at the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center, where he managed FBI investigations involving theft of trade secrets; counterfeit goods; and copyright/trademark infringement. During his 24-year federal law enforcement career, Michael also specialized in complex investigations involving financial crimes, corruption, Indian Country, tribal gaming, and antitrust. He also served as a supervisory instructor at the FBI Academy. Michael’s private sector experience includes his work as a Certified Fraud Examiner, as a consultant for an industry-leading online brand protection provider, as a consultant to the International Chamber of Commerce’s Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy (BASCAP), and he continues to serve as a Law Enforcement Fellow with Michigan State University’s Center for Anti-Counterfeiting and Product Protection (A-CAPP).

Dr. Jay P. Kennedy is an assistant professor jointly appointed to the School of Criminal Justice and the Center for Anti-Counterfeiting and Product Protection. In this role he is actively involved in research, education, and outreach efforts that focus on external partners including corporations, industry associations, and law enforcement agencies. His current research explores managerial and organizational responses to employee theft within small and medium enterprises, the incarceration and post-incarceration experiences of white-collar offenders, the sale of counterfeit goods on the Internet, and the structure of occupational pharmaceutical counterfeiting schemes. Jay’s work is interdisciplinary in nature, and his published research has appeared in a number of outlets, including American Behavioral Scientist, Criminal Justice Review, Journal of Crime and Justice, Journal of Financial Crime, Security Journal, and Victims and Offenders.

Jason Kosofsky is a senior global brand protection investigator for Ford Motor Company. He has over 18 years of experience in combating automotive counterfeiting and intellectual property. These cases are In such areas as copyright, design patent, trademark, parallel import,  and trade secret cases. He is an executive board member of the Automotive Anti-Counterfeiting Council (known as “A2C2)”, a collaboration of 10 automotive manufacturers focusing joint efforts to eliminate counterfeit automotive parts posing a safety risk to consumers.

Kebharu Smith is a Senior Corporate Counsel with Amazon’s Counterfeit Crimes Unit (CCU) where he works with a team of lawyers, investigators, and analysts to target bad actors who sell counterfeit goods on the Amazon store. The CCU’s mission is to target counterfeiters, by using external enforcement efforts, such as joint criminal referrals and civil lawsuits against infringers. These efforts are often conducted jointly with rights owners, however the CCU will also pursue action unilaterally when called for. Prior to joining Amazon, Kebharu Smith worked as a Senior Trial Attorney with the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS) of the United States Department of Justice.  At CCIPS, he worked with Assistant United States Attorneys (AUSA) from across the country and prosecuted trademark and copyright infringers and trade secret thieves, using federal criminal statutes. He also trained both domestic and foreign law enforcement on IP enforcement techniques, evidence collection, and use of electronic evidence at trial. Before he joined CCIPS, Kebharu worked at the Justice Department’s Executive Office for United States Attorneys, both in the General Counsel’s Office and then the Office for Legal and Victim Programs (OLVP), serving as the White Collar Coordinator.  Kebharu began his DOJ career in 2008 with the Southern District of Texas – Houston Division, where he worked as an AUSA for six years prosecuting bank robberies, health care fraud, and civil rights and intellectual property violations, among others. Prior to joining the Department, Kebharu worked as an Assistant District Attorney for seven years in Houston, Texas where he prosecuted a range of state crimes, up to and including non-death capital murder.  Kebharu graduated from Texas Southern University – Thurgood Marshall School of Law in 2001 and received his bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of North Texas in 1998.  In December 2019, Kebharu co-authored Using Africa as a Dumping Ground: Implications of Counterfeiting and Intellectual Property Infringement for Africa and in March 2018, he co-authored, Where Can Brand Owners Find the Undiscovered Leaks of their Trade Secrets?  It’s Academic, both in the Michigan State University Brand Protection Professional. 

Alan Swayne is Associate Vice President of the Office of Brand Protection for L Brands, a Columbus-based global company encompassing the Victoria’s Secret, PINK and Bath & Body Works brands. Since 2008, Alan has been responsible for growing L Brand’s geo-dispersed Brand Protection team. His team conducts investigations of brand protection matters, including suspicion of counterfeit products in the marketplace, “diversions” of genuine products and alleged violations of the company’s intellectual property rights. Prior to joining L Brands, Alan was an Investigator at JP Morgan Chase & Co. in Columbus, Ohio. Alan received his Master of Science in Criminal Justice from Xavier University and his Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from the University of Dayton. He has been a Certified Forensic Interviewer since 2004, and is a current member of the International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition, along with being newly appointed to the Michigan State University Anti-Counterfeiting and Product Protection Board of Directors. Alan and his wife Amber have two sons and reside in Marysville, Ohio.

Nicolas Waldmann is Walmart’s Vice President of Trust and Safety and Compliance, a role in which he oversees online risk and fraud management on Walmart’s Global Marketplaces. He began his career as a risk research consultant in Europe, spending ten years in the areas of corporate fraud investigations, due diligence and risk assessments. This path led him to eBay’s global trust and safety team where he served as Senior Global Policy Manager for anti-counterfeits, identity management and seller performance during which he designed and implemented several programs to reduce consumer and seller fraud and streamline identity verification across buyer and seller’s application flows. Prior to joining Walmart in 2003, he was TaskRabbit’s Director of Trust and Safety and Customer Success. He is a graduate of Kedge Business School and holds a MBA from Aston University.

John B. Hertig, PharmD, MS, CPPS, FASHP is Vice-Chair and an Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice in the Butler University College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. Dr. Hertig has lectured and published on a variety of leadership, administration, patient safety, and health policy topics, and is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board for The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety.  He holds various national and international appointments, including with the International Pharmaceutical Federation, where he is Vice President of the Americas for the Hospital Pharmacy Section, and as President of the Board of Directors for the Alliance for Safe Online Pharmacies – Global (ASOP), where he leads efforts to reduce the patient safety impact of illegal and counterfeit online drug distribution worldwide.  He was awarded the ASOP Global Patient Safety Champion Award in 2018.  Dr. Hertig received his Bachelor of Science in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Doctor of Pharmacy degrees from Purdue University. He completed a PGY1 pharmacy practice and PGY2 health-system pharmacy administration residency at The Ohio State University Medical Center while also obtaining a Masters degree in Health-System Pharmacy Administration from The Ohio State University. 

Chris Trent is the Director of Global Brand Protection for Pharmaceuticals at Johnson & Johnson. In this role he is responsible for developing, implementing and supporting brand protection strategies designed to protect our patients, brands and business from the risks associated with illicit trade.  Chris has been with Johnson & Johnson for 17 years, working in brand protection, package engineering and procurement roles in the medical device and pharmaceutical sectors of J&J. Chris joined the J&J Global Brand Protection team in 2013. He has also spent four years working as Healthcare & Life Sciences Program Manager for Authentix, a brand protection technology company based in Texas. Chris is a native of Dallas, TX and holds a B.A. from The University of Texas at Austin.

Angel M. Melendez currently serves as Pfizer’s Senior Director for the Americas and Global Security Operations Center. He joined Pfizer after a 20+ year career with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), where he retired as the Special Agent in Charge for the New York Office. In his current role, Mr. Melendez is responsible for protecting Pfizer’s assets and colleagues throughout the western hemisphere. He oversees investigations on a wide variety of threats to those assets, including product integrity investigations to safeguard patient health and safety. He provides strategic guidance to Pfizer’s Global Security Operations Center, executive protection, crisis management and facilities security programs. As the Special Agent in Charge for the HSI New York office, he directed the activities of the largest HSI operation in the U.S. focused on transnational crimes and national security. He previously served as the Special Agent in Charge for the HSI San Juan, Puerto Rico Office. He was a national pioneer for HSI’s community outreach efforts by instituting the first HSI Citizens Academy and Law Enforcement Explorer Program. A native New Yorker, he holds a bachelor’s in business administration from the University of Puerto Rico and attended the Senior Managers in Government Executive Program at Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government. He is a retired member of the U.S. Government Senior Executive Service and is a Gulf War Veteran.

Sean O’Hearen is the Managing Consultant and Brand Protection SME at Excellis Health Solutions. After dedicating 20-plus years of his career to building brands, Sean joined the Global Brand Protection team of a multi-national healthcare company and shifted his energy and skills toward protecting brands from the increasing global threat of counterfeiting, gray market, and tampered products (a.k.a. illicit trade). Since 2015, Sean has been engaged in the fight against illicit trade, working primarily across the pharmaceutical, medical devices, and consumer health and personal care industries. His expertise includes strategy, business planning, operations, communication and cross-functional collaboration for Brand Protection. In 2019, he joined Excellis Health Solutions as a Managing Consultant and Brand Protection subject matter expert to help companies, both large and small, understand, mitigate, and manage risk related to illicit trade.

Matt Rubin assists clients across various sectors of the health care industry on strategic engagements, state and federal government relations, and public policy development and implementation. Matt drives public policy strategies and solutions for nonprofit patient advocacy groups, coalitions, integrated health systems, domestic and international biopharmaceutical companies, and various other health care policy stakeholders. Areas of emphasis within Matt’s practice include internet pharmacy and pharmaceutical supply chain security, digital health and telemedicine, product coverage and reimbursement, issues related to opioid use and substance use disorder and broad internet governance issues related primarily to healthcare delivery. Within his practice, Matt actively collaborates with key domestic and international policymakers and regulators on issues foundationally based in public health and patient safety and includes partners such as the U.S. Congress, Executive Office of the President, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Justice and the Department of State. His background in clinical research and biological sciences gives him an insider’s perspective on the challenges and objectives of many of his clients. Prior to joining Faegre Drinker in September 2015, he spent several years conducting clinical drug and novel therapeutic development and biomarker discovery in the oncology space. Matt graduated from the University of Maryland with a B.S. in Neurobiology and Physiology and from the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law with a Master of Science in Law, with honors.

Dr. Jay P. Kennedy is an assistant professor jointly appointed to the School of Criminal Justice and the Center for Anti-Counterfeiting and Product Protection. In this role he is actively involved in research, education, and outreach efforts that focus on external partners including corporations, industry associations, and law enforcement agencies. His current research explores managerial and organizational responses to employee theft within small and medium enterprises, the incarceration and post-incarceration experiences of white-collar offenders, the sale of counterfeit goods on the Internet, and the structure of occupational pharmaceutical counterfeiting schemes. Jay’s work is interdisciplinary in nature, and his published research has appeared in a number of outlets, including American Behavioral Scientist, Criminal Justice Review, Journal of Crime and Justice, Journal of Financial Crime, Security Journal, and Victims and Offenders.

Dr. Ahmet H. Kirca is an Associate Professor of International Business and Marketing at the Department of Marketing, Broad College of Business. He received his Ph.D. degree in International Business from the University of South Carolina, Columbia. Prior to joining MSU in 2006, he worked at George Washington University in Washington, DC. Professor Kirca serves as the Director of International Business Center and MSU-CIBER. Also, he is the Director of the Doctoral Program in the Department of Marketing.  His research focuses on international business and marketing strategy with a special emphasis on firm  internationalization, innovation, organizational culture and applied meta-analysis. He has published articles in major academic journals including the Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Marketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Management, Journal of Retailing, International Journal of Research in Marketing and Journal of World Business, among others. Kirca teaches international business/marketing, marketing research and marketing strategy in undergraduate, MBA and Ph.D. level courses. He also offers workshops and seminars on applied meta-analytic techniques.   Kirca had extensive industry experience in textile and tourism industries in Turkey before joining the academia. A native of Turkey, Kirca fluently speaks English, French, and Italian languages. He also has working knowledge of Spanish and Japanese.

Marco Dugato is Senior Researcher at Transcrime (www.transcrime.it) since 2009 and Adjunct Professor of Methods and Techniques for Criminological Research at the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore. From the a.y. 2010/11 to the a.y. 2012/13 he has been Adjunct Professor of Crime Statistics at the Faculty of Sociology of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano. He is Transcrime delegate at ISTAT (Italian National Institute of Statistics) to CUIS (Commission of the users of statistical information) and in the working group for the implementation of the UNODC International Classification of Crime for Statistical Purposes (ICCS) in Italy. He is a founding partner and administrator of Crime&tech, spin-off company of Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore-Transcrime. He graduated in Sociology (MA) at the Università degli Studi di Milano Bicocca. His main research fields are spatial analysis of crime; predictive policing and risk assessment models; crime and criminal justice statistics; organized crime and illicit markets. He has coordinated several national and international research projects.

Alexandria Reid is a Research Fellow in the Organised Crime and Policing team at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), the world’s oldest security and defence think tank. Her research focusses on environmental security and illicit trade. She is the Deputy Chair of the Strategic Hub for Organised Crime Research (SHOC), a network bringing 200+ policymakers, academics and practitioners.   Since 2017, she has run a project dedicated to the use of financial investigations in countering illegal wildlife trade (IWT), delivering training to 26 government agencies and 43 financial institutions in Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia. She currently leads projects in West Africa and Southeast Asia on the financial disruption of IWT and a study of organised crime and digital piracy, funded by a public-private partnership between the Alliance of Intellectual Property and the UK Intellectual Property Office. She has presented her findings to the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and European Parliament. She is co-author of ‘Improving Governance and Tackling Crime in Free-Trade Zones’ (2020), ‘Turning the Tide: Learning from Responses of IUU Fishing in Five Countries’ (2019) and ‘E-Commerce, Delivery Services and the Illicit Tobacco Trade’ (2018), among others. She is a Guest Lecturer at the Marjan Centre for the Study of Conflict and the Environment at King’s College London, where she lectures on gender, conflict and natural resources.

Dr. Patricia Huddleston is a Professor of Retailing in the Department of Advertising + Public Relations. She teaches undergraduate courses in Consumer Behavior and Retail Strategy and Consumer Behavior, International Consumer Behavior and Strategic Brand Communication at the graduate level. From 1991-2007 her research analyzed the retail systems in the transition economies of Russia and Poland. She was present at a pivotal moment in Russian history, witnessing the failed coup of August 1991. She and Dr. Linda K. Good published work on Russian and Polish worker morale, Price-Quality product perceptions of Russian and Polish consumers and Ethnocentric tendencies in Russian and Polish consumers. In 1996, Dr. Huddleston spent a sabbatical in St. Petersburg, Russia, teaching the first marketing course at Leningrad Oblast University. From 1998-2007, she pioneered a study abroad program to Russia and Poland which focuses on Retail Distribution. This intensive, short term program provided the opportunity for students to gain knowledge of retailing in post-transition economies. Dr. Huddleston’s research interests include customer loyalty, with a focus on food stores. A recent study drew comparisons between traditional (e.g. Kroger’s) and specialty (e.g. Whole Foods) food store shoppers and found that specialty store food shoppers are more loyal than conventional store shoppers. In 2004, Dr. Huddleston spent six months in Australia at Monash University, interviewing retail CEOs for a book chapter on Retailing in Australia. As a result of the time spent in Australia, she collaborated with Dr. Stella Minahan from Deakin University on a book entitled Consumer Behavior: Women and Shopping, which was published in January 2011. Her newest research project uses eye tracking technology to identify what consumers focus on when they view retail displays and how eye movement relates to purchase behavior. She is collaborating with Dr. Bridget Behe and Dr. Thomas Fernandez from the Department of Horticulture (MSU) and Dr. Stella Minahan from Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia.

Jeff is the director of the Center Anti-Counterfeiting and Product Protection and associate professor in the School of Criminal Justice and at Michigan State University. As director he is responsible for the strategic development and engagement in the center’s research, education and outreach efforts. This includes building relationships with industry and law enforcement partners to foster research and education efforts related to anti-counterfeiting and product protection and creating multidisciplinary collaborations with scholars from diverse disciplines from Michigan State University and other institutions. He received his doctor of philosophy in criminology and criminal justice from the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Prior to joining MSU, Jeff was the director of the Center for Law and Human Behavior and the University of Texas at El Paso, where is research career focused around partnering with the law enforcement community. He has received more than $3 million in research funding from federal, state, and local agencies as a principal and co-principal investigator to examine topics that include police practitioner-researcher partnerships, intelligence led-policing, violent crime, law enforcement response to disasters, officer decision-making, officer safety and police training.

Garrett Wright is the Chief for CBP’s Office of Trade, Trade Policy and Programs Directorate, E-Commerce Branch. Mr. Wright had over 8 years’ experience with CBP where he has led numerous high-profile, broad impact initiatives within the Office of Trade, Office of Field Operations, and Enterprise Services. Notably, Mr. Wright has helped implement and mature CBP’s public-private partnership capabilities, expanded these capabilities in support of CBP’s trade mission, and is currently spearheading ongoing efforts to modernize the agency’s e-commerce enforcement and facilitation posture

Bill Ross currently serves as a senior advisor to the director of the National IPR Center in Arlington, VA. In this role, Mr. Ross provides technical and strategic guidance to IPR Center senior managers and staff on questions relating to IPRC operations, partner engagement and strategic planning. Mr. Ross retired from government service in December 2018 as the HSI Deputy Director at the National IPR Center after over 31 years investigative and management experience with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and its legacy agency U.S. Customs Service. Prior to that assignment, Mr. Ross served in several senior management positions for HSI in the areas of information management, asset forfeiture and technical operations. Mr. Ross’ first assignment at HSI Headquarters was as a unit chief at the National IPR Center overseeing both the IP and global outreach and training units. Prior to his assignment to HSI Headquarters, Mr. Ross served for four years as a section chief at the ICE Academy at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Brunswick, Georgia with oversight of the basic training program of all HSI Special Agents. Mr. Ross began his career as a US Customs Service Special Agent, serving for twenty years in the Charleston, SC area conducting criminal investigations involving intellectual property, commercial fraud, money laundering, narcotics smuggling, counter-proliferation and anti-terrorism.

Cari Berdut is a Senior Counsel for OPIA’s Enforcement Team.  As the managing Senior Counsel, she supervises seven attorneys and one trade advisor focusing on both domestic and international IP enforcement issues.  The USPTO Enforcement Team assists countries in the improvement of the legal framework for the enforcement of IPRs and assist in the improvement of on-the-ground enforcement efforts and the capacity to combat commercial scale counterfeiting and piracy.  Additionally, the team provides policy and technical comments on legislation impacting civil, criminal, border and trade related IP and enforcement laws and initiatives.   Cari joined the USPTO as an attorney advisor.  In that capacity, Cari served as a member of the U.S. delegations negotiating several free trade agreements undertaken by the United States and has provided intellectual property enforcement training and technical assistance to law enforcement officials in Latin America, Egypt and South Africa, among other countries. Prior to joining the USPTO, she was an associate with the law firm of Adduci, Mastriani & Schaumberg in Washington, D.C., where she specialized in customs matters as well as 337 litigation.  Cari was also an attorney-advisor at the Office of Regulations and Rulings, U.S. Customs and Border Protection specializing on IP border enforcement matters as well as entry procedures, among other areas.  Cari holds a B.S. degree from Florida International University, and a J.D. from The American University, Washington College of Law, Washington, D.C.  She is fluent in Spanish and is licensed to practice law in the State of Florida.

Christopher Merriam is the Deputy Chief for Intellectual Property with the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section of the United States Department of Justice.  Mr. Merriam leads a group of 12 attorneys dedicated to intellectual property prosecutions and related issues.  During his 17 years at CCIPS, Chris has prosecuted cases of copyright and trade secret theft, and acted as the national contact for trade secret theft cases arising under the Economic Espionage Act of 1996.  He has also worked directly with law enforcement colleagues in more than twenty nations to help improve criminal enforcement of intellectual property laws, and served as the U.S. Co-chair of the IP Criminal Enforcement Working Group of the U.S.-China Joint Liaison Group of Law Enforcement.

Jeff is the director of the Center Anti-Counterfeiting and Product Protection and associate professor in the School of Criminal Justice and at Michigan State University. As director he is responsible for the strategic development and engagement in the center’s research, education and outreach efforts. This includes building relationships with industry and law enforcement partners to foster research and education efforts related to anti-counterfeiting and product protection and creating multidisciplinary collaborations with scholars from diverse disciplines from Michigan State University and other institutions. He received his doctor of philosophy in criminology and criminal justice from the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Prior to joining MSU, Jeff was the director of the Center for Law and Human Behavior and the University of Texas at El Paso, where is research career focused around partnering with the law enforcement community. He has received more than $3 million in research funding from federal, state, and local agencies as a principal and co-principal investigator to examine topics that include police practitioner-researcher partnerships, intelligence led-policing, violent crime, law enforcement response to disasters, officer decision-making, officer safety and police training.

Aimee is Senior Legal Counsel in the Intellectual Property Law Department of the BMW Group.  Based in Munich, Germany, she is responsible for all trademark prosecution and enforcement matters of the BMW Group in North America for all four main vehicle brands of the company, namely, BMW, MINI, Rolls-Royce and BMW Motorrad.  Her other areas of expertise include design patents, IP licensing, copyright, as well as domain names. She provides legal advice and support for social media and e-commerce activities of the BMW Group and is actively involved in enforcement activities against counterfeiters on and offline. Aimee, a Canadian citizen, is an Attorney-at-Law in the State of New York, USA. She is also admitted to practice law as a Solicitor of England and Wales and is a foreign member of the Munich Chamber of Attorneys. She represents BMW in trademark matters before the USPTO, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office and the European Union Intellectual Property Office. Aimee is a 20-year veteran of the BMW IP team, which has been nominated by the World Trademark Review Industry Awards consistently in the past decade, winning in the Vehicles and Transport or the European Region categories in 2009, 2012, 2014, 2015, and 2017. Aimee was also nominated in the category of best in-house counsel for Intellectual Property Law at the 2018 European Counsel Awards.

Greg Leimone is the Head Corporate Security, North America at Syngenta, a Global agriculture company and a leader in crop protection products and seeds based in Basel, Switzerland. Among other responsibilities for people, site and asset security, the team drives the brand protection effort through investigations of counterfeit, theft, diversion and illicit trade of Syngenta pesticides and professional solutions products throughout the United States and Canada. Additionally, he serves as the Global lead for the company’s germplasm and seeds end to end security program inclusive of physical security, insider threat/trade secret theft, online monitoring as well as investigations of plant variety patent infringement and counterfeit seeds. Prior to Syngenta, Greg had a diverse 20 years of experience inclusive of nine years as a sworn law enforcement officer, owner of a security consulting and investigations firm and related experience in security technology. Before entering the industry, he worked for a Global software company in human resources/employee relations and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice. Greg is an active member of numerous organizations dedicated to security, intelligence, threat assessment and risk management.

Special Agent Jennifer L. French graduated from Boston College Law School in 1990 and practiced banking and bankruptcy law in the Boston area for 6 years, primarily for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.  She joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation as a Special Agent in 1996 and was stationed in the Chicago Division for over 20 years.  During those 20+ years, SA French primarily worked on cases involving bank fraud, money laundering, investment fraud, mortgage fraud and intellectual property violations. From 2016-2018, SA French was assigned to a national security squad that investigated both individual and state-sponsored theft of trade secrets (Economic Espionage) as well as criminal IPR violations.  In January of 2018, SA French returned to her white collar roots and once again investigated bank and bankruptcy fraud, mortgage fraud, copyright and trademark infringement and theft of trade secrets.  Most recently, in June of 2019, SA French was selected to join the FBI’s National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center as a Supervisory Special Agent, which is her current assignment. In addition to her investigative responsibilities, SA French served as a Firearms Instructor for 15 years and is certified as Adjunct Faculty and a Legal Advisor for the FBI. 

Gail Kan is Branch Chief of the Entry Process and Duty Refunds Branch under the Commercial and Trade Facilitation Division in Regulations and Rulings, Office of Trade, at U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).  Ms. Kan is responsible for issuing prospective rulings and reviewing administrative appeals decisions, conducting training, and providing litigation support on various customs matters concerning entry procedures; duty deferral programs, such as foreign trade zones and bonded warehouses; drawback; trade remedies, including antidumping and countervailing duties; bonds; and broker compliance.  In addition, Ms. Kan provides advice to USTR on Customs matters in trade agreement negotiations.  Finally, Ms. Kan is a World Customs Organization Mercator Programme Advisor.  Prior to joining CBP, Ms. Kan served as law clerk to the Honorable Kaye K. Christian, Superior Court of the District of Columbia.  Ms. Kan received her law degree from Georgetown University Law Center, and holds a bachelor’s degree in International Relations and in Psychology from Wellesley College.  Ms. Kan is admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia. 

Jim Swanson is currently serving as the Director, Cargo Security and Controls division for CBP’s Office of Field Operations.  In that capacity, he has responsibility for cargo release, bonded facilities, ACE liaison, as well as all cargo export oversight.  He has previously served as a Customs Inspector, Area Port Director, Baltimore, MD and as a program manager and Branch Chief over cargo issues as well as a program manager on the ACE project with responsibilities over requirements, testing and deployment of ACE programming.

Kasie Brill is the Vice President of Brand Protection and Strategic Initiatives at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Innovation Policy Center (GIPC) and the Executive Director of the Global Brand Council. Kasie advocates for the protection of IP rights both online and in physical markets with a special focus on designing public policy solutions to combat counterfeit goods. Prior to joining the Global Innovation Policy Center, Kasie served as an advisor to private sector clients fighting illegal online pharmacies. She also served as law clerk to The Honorable C. Ray Mullins, Chief Judge for the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Atlanta Division. Kasie is a graduate of both Michigan State University and the Indiana University Maurer School of Law. During law school, Kasie served as President of the Student Bar Association, on the Executive Board of the Sherman Minton Moot Court, Law Alumni Board, and Admissions Committee. She also worked as a research assistant on issues of globalization with a specialization on the global impact of counterfeit luxury goods. Kasie has a wide-range of expertise in multiple disciplines.  She worked for a national advertising agency, and in a variety of federal government positions including work on Capitol Hill, at the United States Supreme Court, and at the Federal Judicial Center.

Kristina Montanaro Schrader joined Adams and Reese in 2015 and serves as the Anti-Counterfeiting Team Leader.  In that role, Kristina crafts modern brand and content protection strategies for a wide range of multinational businesses in various industries, including fashion and luxury goods, food and beverage, software, electronics, pharmaceuticals, consumer products, sports, music and entertainment. In addition to fighting counterfeit sales, Kristina also works to protect celebrity clients from reputational damage caused by online imposters, fake endorsements and other deceptive marketing scams. Kristina takes a collaborative approach to IP enforcement and frequently draws from an extensive network of brand, law enforcement, and online platform contacts to resolve cases of infringement quickly and effectively. Kristina previously served as an executive at the International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition (IACC), a Washington, D.C.-based trade association devoted to combating product counterfeiting and copyright piracy. There, she executed strategic brand and content protection initiatives on behalf of hundreds of rights-holders and spearheaded collaborative efforts to address infringement on multi-seller platforms, including Taobao, Tmall, AliExpress, Etsy, Amazon, eBay and others. In this role, Kristina represented rights-holder interests before various international organizations and government bodies, such as EUIPO (formerly OHIM) and the U.S. White House. Prior to joining the IACC, Kristina also worked in-house at Gucci America and Dolce & Gabbana USA. Kristina received her LL.M. in Intellectual Property Law, with highest honors, from George Washington University Law School, and her J.D. from Vanderbilt University Law School.  Kristina earned her B.A., magna cum laude, from the College of Charleston.  She is licensed to practice law in New York, Tennessee, and the District of Colombia. 

John H. Zacharia is the Founder of Zacharia Law PLLC, a law firm dedicated to helping clients combat cyber theft and protect and enforce their intellectual property rights. Previously, as the Assistant Deputy Chief for Litigation of the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS) of the United States Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, John was responsible for supervising all of the intellectual property and cybercrime prosecutions by the Section’s 40 attorneys. In his 12 years at CCIPS, John became one of the most experienced federal prosecutors of intellectual property (IP) crime in the country. Notably, John prosecuted and obtained jury verdicts in one of the largest counterfeit goods prosecutions in U.S. history, and he successfully argued and defended the convictions before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. John also secured a number of “first of its kind” convictions, including the first- ever conviction and sentencing of a cyberlocker operator, and the first-ever prosecution and conviction for criminal copyright infringement of mobile device applications (“apps”). John is a globally recognized expert in intellectual property law and policy, having worked directly with and trained law enforcement officials from over sixty countries and presented to a variety of international fora across the globe, including the European Union, Interpol, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conferences, Association of Southeast Asian (ASEAN) conferences, and the World Intellectual Property Organization. Before joining CCIPS, John was a trial attorney with the Federal Programs Branch of the Justice Department’s Civil Division, where he personally handled several significant IP cases of first impression, including cases in which he successfully defended against challenges to the constitutionality of the Copyright Act and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. In 2020, John co-authored two articles related to the sale of counterfeit goods in e-commerce: “How Congress Proposes to Protect Consumers from Online Counterfeits: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,” which was published in the Brand Protection Professional, and “Congress’s Proposed E-Commerce Legislation for Regulation of Third-Party Sellers: Why It’s Needed and How Congress Should Make It Better,” which has been accepted for publication by the University of California-Davis Business Law Journal. John currently teaches Intellectual Property Criminal Law at the George Washington University School of Law.

Joseph Cammiso is a past President of the Automotive Anti-Counterfeiting Council (A2C2) and Brand Protection Manager at Toyota Motor North America, headquartered in Plano, TX.  His responsibilities include developing strategies to combat the harmful impact of counterfeit automotive parts.  In 2015, Mr. Cammiso was instrumental in the formation of A2C2 and is a champion of the council’s mission to promote cooperation among automakers to eliminate the sale of counterfeit parts that can be dangerous to U.S. consumers, and threaten public health and safety.  A2C2 is comprised of 10 U.S. automakers who make up over 90% of the nation’s auto industry.  Its members are the front-line managers and analysts who battle counterfeits daily.  In his current role, Mr. Cammiso has worked with Homeland Security Investigations, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and other law enforcement agencies to help stop the flow of counterfeit parts into the U.S.  He has engaged on-line marketplaces to increase awareness of the risks of counterfeits, promote consumer safety and enhance efforts to keep counterfeit parts, especially counterfeit airbag parts, off marketplaces entirely.  Mr. Cammiso earned his master’s degree in Business Administration and Management from California State University-Long Beach and has nearly 25 years of automotive operations and supply chain experience.  

Michael Hanson is RILA’s Senior Executive Vice President of Public Affairs, overseeing the Association’s government affairs and communications arms. Hanson is responsible for identifying the industry’s top public policy challenges and working with both leading retailers and key stakeholders to elevate the industry in Washington, DC and across the country. Hanson most recently served as chief public policy officer at Sabre, a leading travel technology company, where he led legislative and regulatory strategy at the local, state and federal level. Prior to joining Sabre, he served as vice president for government affairs at JCPenney, where he was a leading contributor in shaping RILA’s top public policy priorities.  Earlier in his career, Hanson was a partner with the D.C.-based government consulting firm, C2 Group and also served as chief of staff to U.S. Representative Sam Johnson, Texas.