Brian S. Kelly, Program Co-Chair, is a partner in the Los Angeles office of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips LLP. He advises providers and consumers of technology in all aspects of strategic identification, protection, and commercialization of intellectual property assets.

Rauer L. Meyer, Program Co-Chair, a partner with Thelen Reid & Priest, covers all facets of national and international franchising in his practice. His intellectual property practice includes the protection of rights in technology, trademarks, software, copyrights, and trade secrets; licensing, distribution, transfers, and other transactions involving intellectual property.

Andrew R. Basile is a partner in the Technology Transactions practice group and a member of Cooley Godward’s Business department. He handles technology related commercial transactions including strategic alliances and joint ventures, inbound and outbound licensing of software, hardware and other technology, IT procurement and outsourcing, distribution agreements, and development and systems integration projects.

Michael C. Amiri is a founding member and President of Escrow Associates, LLC, a leader in technology protection and information management solutions. He is an internationally recognized expert on business services that protect intellectual property assets.

Lorin Brennan is a principal in the software development firm, Gray Matter LLC, which he co-founded in 1999. The firm develops automated contracting and rights management software for intellectual property licensing. As an attorney he specializes in international intellectual property licensing.

Yar R. Chaikovsky is Counsel in the IP Counseling Group at Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP where he specializes in providing legal advice to companies involved in a range of technologies, with a particular expertise in patent, trade secret, copyright, Internet and corporate legal matters. He has extensive experience in exploiting and managing intellectual property assets, developing licensing and acquisition programs, and creating worldwide intellectual property portfolios.

Dorena J. Chan is Managing Counsel at Oracle Corporation and group leader for commercial licensing of strategic accounts. In her career at Oracle, she has concentrated on licensing matters, with expertise in distribution, development, inbound, outbound and services-related licensing.

Joe Chernesky co-founded IPotential LLC, a Silicon Valley-based Intellectual Property Services Company that specializes in helping leading technology companies create and manage world-class IP strategies and execute IP-based transactions to gain optimal value from their IP assets. Previously, he served as Vice President of Boeing Management Company, responsible for its IP policy, strategies and initiatives and spent 6 years at Intel responsible for developing IP licensing strategy and managing patent and technology licensing activities.

Steve Crown is Associate General Counsel, Windows Client, Microsoft Corporation. He leads the legal team that advises Microsoft’s Windows Client Business Group, which includes the worldwide development, marketing and sales teams that produce and distribute such products as the Windows desktop operating systems, the Tablet PC operating system, and Microsoft’s various Digital Media initiatives, e.g., Microsoft Windows Media Player.

Robert M. DiGiovanni, a partner with Shaw Pittman LLP, devotes a significant portion of his practice to counseling clients on technology contracting matters and to negotiating and documenting substantial outsourcing and other complex technology transactions.

Stephen C. Durant is a partner with Morrison & Foerster LLP and head of the firm’s Electronics, Software, and Telecommunications Patent Group. He has over 20 years experience handling patent prosecution and related counseling and opinions in a wide range of high technology fields. His practice focuses on obtaining and structuring patent portfolios and counseling on patent infringement and validity in support of business strategies, litigation, and corporate finance transactions.

Stephen D. Gillespie, a partner with Fenwick & West LLP, concentrates his practice on structuring, drafting and negotiating complex transactions relating to intellectual property, including national and international technology development and distribution agreements, in-bound and outbound technology license agreements, strategic alliances and IP issues arising in mergers and acquisitions. He also has expertise in issues arising from use of “Open Source” software and U.S. export control regulations.

Mark Gorenberg, a partner at Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, has spent over 20 years in software development and been a software manager in both large corporations and entrepreneurial environments. Prior to joining Hummer Winblad, he was a Senior Software Manager in advanced product development at Sun Microsystems.

R. Mark Halligan is a principal in the Chicago intellectual property law firm of Welsh & Katz, Ltd. He also serves on the Adjunct Faculty at John Marshall Law School in Chicago where he teaches Advanced Trade Secrets Law and Trade Secrets Litigation. Mr. Halligan is recognized nationally as an expert in trade secrets law and the Economic Espionage Act of 1996 which makes the theft of trade secrets a federal criminal offense.

Dana W. Hayter, with Howard Rice Nemerovski Canady Falk & Rabkin, LLP, focuses his practice on technology, intellectual property and antitrust law. He brings years of technology industry and legal experience to his work with large and small businesses on issues related to technology creation, distribution and protection, licensing and other transfers, mergers, acquisitions, private financings and strategic alliances.

Robert Krebs, with Thelen Reid & Priest, LLP, focuses his practice on Intellectual Property litigation and prosecution of patent and trademark applications at the United States Patent & Trademark Office. He has both broad experience and current technical qualifications in telecommunications, electronics, and medical device technologies. He is one of California’s “Top Patent Lawyers,” according to California Lawyer.

Rajiv Patel, with Fenwick & West LLP, represents companies from privately held start-ups to publicly traded corporations in a variety of complex intellectual property matters. He counsels companies on patent portfolio development and management strategies, patent enforcement strategies, patent and high technology licensing agreements, and strategies. Mr. Patel also leads intellectual property audits to help companies identify key intellectual assets and evaluate protection options for such assets.

Kristie D. Prinz, of Prinz Law Offices, represents biotechnology, electrical engineering, software, telecommunications, and Web-based technology companies in a variety of domestic and international transactional matters, including technology licensing and research collaborations; supply and distributorship, purchase, and other commercial service agreements; nondisclosure agreements; mergers and acquisitions; financings; employment and severance agreements; and corporate formations.

Mark F. Radcliffe is a partner and recently stepped down as Co-Chair of the IPT Licensing Group at Gray Cary. His practice focuses on representing corporations in their intellectual property and finance matters. He has extensive experience assisting companies in the identification, protection, and exploitation of their intellectual property both domestically and internationally. In 1997, the National Law Journal named him one of the 100 Most Influential Lawyers in the United States.

Lawrence E. “Larry” Rosen is both an attorney and a computer specialist. As an attorney his specialty is technology, but he is also a skilled litigator and negotiator, and is a legal advisor to individuals and companies throughout the world. Larry is very involved in the open source community. He is the general counsel and secretary of the Open Source Initiative (OSI), and served as its executive director.

Jim Watson joined CMEA Ventures as General Partner in 2001, and is on the Board of Directors of Apriso, the world’s premier provider of plant and warehouse automation solutions for the industrial sector; iSuppli Inc., a supply chain procurement firm; Key Research, creating a new category of servers through the convergence of processor, networking and storage technology; and Teros, a web security system. Prior to joining CMEA, Mr. Watson was consultant to several professional services firms and venture capital partnerships in the areas of strategic planning and partnering, board development, and supply chain management.