Our Leaders
With a long-term vision, the IPwe Team, which is charting a new course for intellectual property management using blockchain, is led by President Leann Pinto.
Erich Spangenberg
Founder
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 M. Pinto
President
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
Co-Founder
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
Head of Product Management
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
Chief Technology Officer
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
Chief Financial Officer
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
VP - Marketing and Communications
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
Senior Innovation Director
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
President of IPwe China
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
Managing Director - Japan
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.
Scott Armanini
Analytics Advisor
Scott Armanini is an Angel Investor with Bloomlife Inc. He was previously the Global Lead of Accenture Ventures, the Sales Director at GLIDR and RocketSpace, the Product Manager of HP Software and Cisco Systems, and Co-Founder and Global Development Manager of Microsoft Corp.
Raimondo Galli
Patent Advisory Board Member
Raimondo Galli is an attorney and founder of Law Firm Galli in Milan, Italy. He is a Patent and IP Specialist with over 30+ years of experience. Also, he was the former Vice Secretary and Member of Presidency at the International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property, Italy Group, for 8 years.
Jon Wood
Patent Advisory Board Member
Jon Wood was Chief IP Counsel for over 10+ years at Bridgestone Americas and has over 20+ years of experiencing practicing IP Law in both corporate and law firm settings. Moreover, he is consistently listed in the IAM Strategy 300 – The World's Leading IP Strategists. He also has an MS in Organic Chemistry.