Our Leaders

Erich Spangenberg is a serial entrepreneur and industry luminary in the patent business, a pioneer and leader in patent monetization, generating over half a billion dollars in licensing, settlement, or enforcement revenues. He’s also a former investment banker (Donaldson, Lufkin, and Jenrette) and corporate lawyer (partner at Jones Day).

Leann Pinto is an expert in patent monetization, having personally generated over $150 million in revenue during her tenure at IBM as a top decision-maker in IBM’s patent business group, most recently acting as the Director of Patent Licensing. Leann’s introduction to patents and monetization started in the pharmaceutical industry, where she represented both generic and brand pharma companies, including as a patent litigator achieving notable victories for numerous international brand pharma companies. Leann earned her undergraduate degree in pharmacy and later obtained a law degree. Before IBM, she held executive positions with startup pharma companies in business development, regulatory affairs and compliance. As President, she oversees the IPwe team and its day-to-day executive management, operational growth, corporate strategy and enterprise relationships.

Brian Berman has a deep understanding of the patent ecosystem as a former Patent Examiner and previous executive positions he has held where he had extensive interaction with global patent owners and national patent offices. He has been involved in blockchain projects since 2015. Brian’s mission is to educate and inform the market on the Global Patent Registry, IPwe Analytics and the IPwe Platform.

Jonas Block leads development of IPwe’s technology and novel approaches to dissolve the existing access restrictions and open the global IP commercialization markets for everyone by leveraging a unique combination of AI, blockchain and user-experience.

Nathan Bohn has an extensive background delivering B2B eCommerce sites of complex products and pricing for Fortune 100 companies. He also works with the leadership team to set clear priorities and goals for IT management and production, balancing the long-term and immediate needs.

Michel Botbol has over thirty years of successful financial, strategic and commercial planning, information technology, operations and vendor negotiations experience for both domestic and international organizations. He has a proven track record of growing sales and EBITDA, streamlining operations through reengineering, and building highly skilled and motivated teams to deliver strong business results.

Mia Mixan directs IPwe's marketing and communications initiatives, which include brand-building and modern marketing growth tactics, with the goal of increasing engagement and revenue across IPwe's product line and reaching a global audience. She is responsible for IPwe's efforts to rethink the way intellectual property is perceived, encompassing both a design and verbal identity, using an insights-driven approach.

Harry Stacpoole, IPwe’s Senior Innovation Director, has played a key role in driving the direction of IPwe’s solutions towards the need of the consumer. Leading discussions with IPwe’s primary customers, he has worked to ensure the IPwe team is in constant touch with the client personnel, so we can deliver a solution catered to the demand of the market.

Henry Wang is a seasoned tech entrepreneur, co-founding and managing nationally recognized companies receiving substantial fundraising from top VCs. In fact, Henry has 16+ years of experience in IP monetization, localization, technology service outsourcing, and leverages his knowledge of the Chinese market to drive IP business development and sales.

Satoshi Watanabe is a seasoned IP professional with experience at a global IT company, an IP investment fund, and a patent firm on all types of IP concerns, from mining and acquisitions of inventions to patent portfolio creation and patent monetization generation. With his career and experience, he will help IPwe's Japanese customers effectively utilize their intellectual property assets to contribute to their business strategies.