The following three directors are proposed:

Eric Victory, Director

Eric is VP, Global Strategic Marketing at Aurinia Pharmaceuticals in Rockville, MD. Previously, Eric worked at AstraZeneca’s MedImmune unit as VP, Partnering & Strategy – Head for Cardiovascular, Metabolic, & Infectious Disease, leading licensing activities for two of the company’s therapeutic areas. In this role, Eric successfully closed the acquisitions of Spirogen and Amplimmune, brought on Sanofi Pasteur as a partner in developing MedImmune’s MEDI8897 (nirsevimab) next-generation RSV antibody, and led negotiations for multiple other key agreements across the pipeline. Before that he managed MedImmune’s US Government pandemic influenza contracting, and held other roles in business development and marketing. Eric served over 5 years as a commissioned officer in the US Navy Nuclear Propulsion Program, and he holds bachelors degrees in physics and political science from Stanford University, and an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

 

Efrat Kasznik, Director

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Efrat Kasznik is President of Foresight Valuation Group and a Lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Ms. Kasznik is a Silicon-Valley based IP valuation and strategy expert with over 25 years of consulting experience, focused on assisting IP holders across industries with the valuation, commercialization, and monetization of their intangible assets. She helps clients, ranging in size from Fortune 100 companies to start-ups, with IP and business valuations in support of licensing deals, IP and technology acquisitions, M&A transactions, financial reporting, strategic planning, and fundraising. She frequently serves as a testifying expert in disputes involving IP and startup valuations and damages.

Ms. Kasznik served as Chair of the High-Tech Sector (2019-2020), and is currently serving as Chair of the Valuation Committee of LES USA-Canada. She is also a member of the Board of the LES Silicon Valley Chapter. Ms. Kasznik has been recognized as one of the top IP strategists in the world by IAM 300 every year since 2013. Throughout her career, Ms. Kasznik has also served as co-founder and adviser to several Silicon Valley start-ups, and held the position as CFO at a telecom start-up. She currently serves on the advisory boards of several start-ups, accelerators and venture funds in the United States, Europe, Asia and Israel. 

 

Ms. Kasznik holds an MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley and a BA in accounting and economics from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem.

 

Proposed for President-Elect & Chair- Elect

Karthika Perumual, President-Elect & Chair-Elect

Karthika Perumal, an LES member for over 15 years, has served most recently as a Co-Chair for the 2020 LES (U.S.A. and Canada) Annual Meeting and Chair for the LES Life Sciences Sector Executive Committee.

Karthika is currently a partner at Womble Bond Dickinson (U.S.) LLP where she specializes in protection and commercialization of intellectual property assets including patents, copyrights, data rights, and trademarks in the technology space. Her IP transactions practice includes: technology licensing and other commercialization agreements; multiparty collaboration and joint venture agreements; product manufacturing, supply, and distribution agreements; and software development/support and service agreements, among others. Karthika works with clients in the healthcare and energy sectors to protect, defend and monetize their innovations and to develop strategic IP portfolios. In addition to her significant technology transfer practice, Karthika also has experience in the prosecution of patents and trademarks for large corporate entities, research institutions and independent inventors. She has been recognized by Texas Super Lawyers® as a Rising Star in Intellectual Property (2018-2021).

She previously was an Associate Director for Technology Development at the Univ. of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB). In that role, she developed commercialization strategies for various technologies, and led numerous successful technology commercialization deals, including helping to structure six life sciences start-up companies.

Karthika is a Certified Licensing Professional (CLP) and received her J.D. from University of Houston Law Center and her Ph.D in Pharmacology from Baylor College of Medicine.