The 31th Annual Great Lakes Biomedical Conference

The Speaker Biographies :
Exploring Patent Protection: A Discussion of Business Rationales for  Pursuing Patent Coverage on Innovations by Jonathan M. Fritz, J.D., M.S,. B.S. Jonathan M. Fritz, J.D., M.S. is a patent attorney in the Madison office of Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek S.C.  Mr. Fritz counsels clients in all areas of intellectual property law with a particular expertise of patent prosecution at the intersection of life sciences and information technology. He received a B.S. in Biology from Marquette University, an  M.S. in Bioinformatics jointly from Marquette University and the Medical College of Wisconsin and his J.D. from Hamline University School of Law. Mr. Fritz has provided technical and strategic support for patent litigation relating to computer software, biotechnology, and PCR related technologies.  Mr. Fritz is also experienced in providing offensive and defensive patent opinion strategies.
Operating Systems for Innovation:  What Roles do they Play in Technology Management and How Do They Increase the Value of Intellectual Assets? by Zion Bar-El and Valery Prushinsky Zion Bar-El, Chief Executive Officer, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Founder of Ideation International Mr. Bar-El performs multiple functions including those involving Sales and Marketing Administration. Mr. Bar-El manages pre-sales activities and negotiates exclusive agreements with potential clients, both nationally and internationally. He has been involved in overseeing all Ideation activities since January of 1996. In 2001, Mr. Bar-El organized an IP Summit in Japan, which resulted in the formation of Intellectual Property Business International (IPBI), a company specializing in increasing intellectual property by providing services such as Invention Analysis and Patent Deconstruction and by helping companies that are involved in infringement lawsuits. Education • 1969, BSEE, Heald’s Engineering College, San Francisco, California • Served as an officer/engineer in the Israeli army for three years Background and Experience Bowmer Technology Instrument Corporation – specialized in the technology of conductive plastics, and worked on the Apollo 14 steering system, and was part of a team that developed the first calculator (Bowmer Brain)………. Mr. Bar-El has also been responsible for building sales networks around the world, establishing reliable customer bases, and successfully generating large sales volumes and profits. Valery Prushinsky has an M.S. in Civil Engineering and holds the title of Director of Analytical Services Mr. Prushinsky’s primary function is to oversee the activities of Ideation’s analytical services, including, but not limited to healthcare projects. Mr. Prushinsky has been certified as a TRIZ Specialist since 1987. He has been engaged in many projects related to various engineering disciplines. In the past six years he has focused on healthcare related projects and was personally involved in many inventions and breakthroughs in the areas of endoscopic surgical tools and procedures, drug delivery devices, cast and immobilizing devices, and dental implant products. Mr. Prushinsky is the author of the book “HYBRIDIZATION – The New Warfare in the Battle for the Market” and numerous technical articles. He is designated Ideation speaker for Healthcare/Biotech conferences
Business Plans for Technology Spinouts – Telling the Story Through Pictures, Numbers and Words by Brian Thompson Brian Thompson, President of the UWM Research Foundation will discuss business plans for technology spinouts and look at MatriLab, Inc., winner of the 2006 Wisconsin Governor’s Business Plan Competition. The Research Foundation was created to foster research and innovation at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee through scholarships and grants, leveraging of intellectual property, corporate partnerships and spinout of technology.  The BTA established a collaborative grant program with support from the State of Wisconsin that helped bring together researchers from Marquette University, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee School of Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and University of Wisconsin-Parkside.     His technology background includes managing software development projects and designing and launching communications satellites as a system engineer at Hughes Space and Communications.    He holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in mechanical engineering from Purdue University and an MBA from UCLA. He also worked with startups in biomedical imaging, medical devices and therapeutics.
Knowledge-Enabled Innovation: The Integration of Inventive Problem Solving with Semantic Concept Retrieval by Stephen Brown Steve Brown holds Invention Machine’s position of Vice President of Product Marketing. Steve is responsible for product marketing activities including the positioning and future evolution of the company’s market strategy. Prior to Invention Machine, he spent 10 years at Vality Technology, the industry’s leading supplier of data quality software for the ERP, CRM, and business intelligence markets where he served as Vice President of Product Strategy until its acquisition by Ascential Software in April 2002. At Ascential, he served as Executive Director, leading Product Management and Marketing functions for Ascential’s suite of data-integration products. Previously Steve had served 20 years in technology management and development capacities at Legent Corporation, Cullinet Software and Honeywell. He is a graduate of Harvard University.
Ideation and Invention: A moderated discussion by John. Gassert John D. Gassert is currently a Professor and Biomedical Engineering Program Director at Milwaukee School of Engineering.  He received his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering in 1995 and his MS degree in Electrical Engineering in 1974 both from Marquette University. Gassert is an AIMBE Fellow, a Senior Member of the IEEE, and an ABET EAC program evaluator for Biomedical Engineering. He has developed and taught courses at both the graduate and undergraduate level in Biomedical Engineering, Medical Informatics, Perfusion, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, and Electrical Engineering Technology. Prior to arriving at MSOE, Gassert spent seventeen years in industry in positions as a design engineer, a clinical engineer and a consultant.
Customer Intimacy for Customer-Centric Engineering and Development by Kate Foss Kate Foss is a Market Segment Manager at CCH, a Wolters Kluwer business. Kate drives company innovation and growth within the corporate market by identifying portfolio gaps between customer needs and existing product offerings. She is the business unit champion for the global Wolters Kluwer customer intimacy program, and leads program deployment throughout North America and Australia. Kate holds advanced degrees in Business and Curriculum & Instruction. She drives segment and portfolio strategy, and is a practitioner in the Contextual Inquiry and Design method used to drive product requirements.
Developing Products for Global Markets: New Products and Product Adaptation, Can your product be sold internationally?  by George Tesar George Tesar is the Professor of Marketing and International Business Emeritus at the Umeå School of Business, Umeå University, Sweden. He is also Professor Emeritus in the University of Wisconsin System. He started his career as a mechanical engineer, holds an MBA degree from Michigan State University and a Ph.D. in Marketing from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has extensive international lecturing and consulting experience, and is the author of over twenty academic articles, eighty scientific papers, and five books. Scientific Technology Management: Building Bridges between Sciences, Engineering, and Business Management is the latest book he has edited with colleagues in the sciences and management. He is a charter member of the PDMA.
Lessons from the Global Healthcare Marketplace by Dr. David Deaven Dave Deaven has worked as a research physicist at the Naval Research Laboratory, Penn State University, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, UC Berkeley, Ames Laboratory and Iowa State University, where he worked in theoretical physics and materials chemistry. He joined GE in 1995 as a software engineer, where he designed and developed software for medical diagnostic scanners and workstations. He is currently Chief Engineer in Clinical Software Engineering at GE Healthcare. Dave holds a Ph.D. in Physics from UC Berkeley, and a B.S. in Physics and Math from Penn State. Title: “Sensors in Medical Imaging Healthcare” An overview of how sensors for diagnostic imaging have evolved – and where they are likely to go. It all began with X-ray, and rapidly grew to include Magnetic Resonance (MR), Computed Tomography (CT), and Ultrasound imaging. Today we do “functional imaging” with many modalities, and multi-modality imaging can integrate the functional, material, and anatomical aspects all at once. Tomorrow’s world will likely include routine use of sensors used to probe function at the cellular level, and continue the trend of multichannel data integration.