OUR PEOPLE
Dr. Chris Donegan, President
Dr. Donegan has 35 years of experience in business strategy, investment management and intellectual property. He has worked extensively with multinational corporations and SME's, in a wide range of IP strategy assignments, including licensing and valuation, pricing strategy and infringement diligence and enforcement. During his career, he has managed over $3B in structured financial transactions and investments.
Notable achievements and ongoing projects include advising on the creation of a $1B life science patent acquisition and commercialization venture, the private equity spin-out of a cybersecurity business from ARM and the private equity acquisition of a global domain registry management business, the latter of these serving as Group Chairman. He is also Senior Advisor to the Calyx Venture Fund, a private investment fund that allocates capital to intellectual property-rich growth companies in a wide range of sectors and geographies.
Dr. Donegan is a graduate of The University of Leeds where he gained a BSc. (Hons) in Biochemistry and Industrial Microbiology and he holds a Ph.D. from Imperial College London in Molecular Neurobiology. He sits on the Boards of various growth companies and is a Member of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment ("CISI").
John Garland, Chief Licensing Officer
Mr. Garland has 31 years of experience as a Licensing Executive with worldwide transaction experience, including patent licensing, technology acquisition and licensing, joint ventures, strategic alliances and spin-offs. He has significant experience in assisting clients on IP strategy, as well as strategic patent acquisitions and divestitures. He has worked in large corporations and the start-up environment as an IP professional.
Ongoing and recent notable accomplishments include licensing globally within the cybersecurity industry (generating >$160MM in negotiated deals over 4 years); implementing and leading a licensing campaign for advanced image and video stabilization techniques versus smartphone and (DSC) camera/camcorder manufacturers; and serving as licensing agent for a leading corporation (3G, 4G, 5G, WIFI and video compression standards, etc.) for smartphones, consumer electronic devices, connected cars and OTT streaming services. Additionally, he worked with several IP Holding companies in executing licenses involving smart home automation systems and e-commerce (including, retail/targeted advertising, cloud storage, and network/application security).
Mr. Garland received his Bachelor of Science (BSEE) in Electrical Engineering from Lafayette College and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from Lehigh University.
Donald E. Hockmuth, Jr. Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Hockmuth, Jr. has 40 years of knowledge and experience vis-a-vis international business, operations, sales, finance and banking. He possesses robust skills in corporate credit analysis and has an extensive background in global trade, investment, capital flows and the transatlantic economy.
Mr. Hockmuth, Jr. founded an advisory firm providing analytical and strategic consulting services to global corporations operating in private equity, asset management, finance, law, technology and real estate as well as to members of the British government. He has served as Chief Financial Officer and Gérant of the preëminent U. S. materials science firm and its French corporate partner specializing in atomistic modeling. Both in the U. S. and internationally, he led a diverse team of scientists and industry professionals engaged in achieving significant patented technology results for the company’s Fortune 500 clients.
He also founded and directed an eponymous financial advisory firm specializing in complex project financing, highly leveraged transactions, government contracting, acquisitions and restructurings.
Early in his career, he participated in debt negotiation talks between major world banks and the countries of Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. Concomitant with his doctoral studies, he performed economic and political risk analysis focusing on economic development, national sovereignty over natural resources, protection of alien property, nationalization and evolving norms of international economics and trade.
Mr. Hockmuth, Jr. was educated at New York University (B.A., 1985, Economics, Journalism and Political Science), Boston College and Fordham University (M.A., 1988, magna cum laude, International Political Economics and Development; doctoral coursework completed, 1990).
BOARD OF MANAGERS' BIOGRAPHIES
Adam Allgood
Mr. Allgood is a technology strategist with global experience across a wide spectrum of top consumer and technology segments. A former financial services software engineer, Mr. Allgood has a proven track record of leadership and providing creative solutions to complex problems with a focus on strategy, data management/analysis, team collaboration, and results-driven methodologies.
Mr. Allgood is a prolific writer on technical matters and the law. He has published numerous articles, been cited by publications such as Law.com, and is a frequent speaker at conferences regarding such issues as legal ethics, technology use, and international litigation strategies.
Mr. Allgood graduated from the University of Oklahoma as a National Merit Scholar and Comfort Law Scholar, with additional studies at Brasenose College at the University of Oxford and the Program on Negotiation with Harvard Law School Executive Education.
Robert W. Busby
Mr. Busby has over twenty-five years of experience with patents and licensing negotiations. As an associate at a major law firm, he prepared and prosecuted a wide range of patent applications in several areas of technology before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
As a former partner in one of the world’s largest law firms, Mr. Busby represented international clients in all aspects of patent litigation and licensing negotiations. He was the lead attorney in ITC proceedings.  He led teams of attorneys to conduct discovery globally, taking and defending dozens of depositions in the U.S., Europe, Taiwan, and Japan.  Mr. Busby frequently lectured on various IP topics.Â
Mr. Busby graduated with honors from the George Washington University Law School in the top 10% of his class in 1997.  He is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia, Virginia, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
Prior to practicing law, Mr. Busby served with distinction in the U.S. Navy as an electronics technician.  Subsequently, he received a commission, graduating with merit from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1989 with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering.  He served as an officer on two nuclear submarines.  He received extensive practical engineering experience while serving as a submarine engineering officer. He served as an engineer-in-charge throughout a year-long submarine nuclear plant defueling operation in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.  On that assignment, he earned a Navy Achievement medal.Â
Michael Connell
Mr. Connell is an accomplished event-driven and distressed investment manager as well as a restructuring advisor.
Mr. Connell spent the earlier part of his career as an advisor and restructuring professional at Zolfo Cooper LLC and Arthur Andersen LLP, where he focused on providing middle market company side advisory services in support and replacement of management teams experiencing financial and operational stress and distress.  In this capacity, he crafted creative solutions for his clients within the frameworks of both in and out-of-court restructurings.  He performed the full array of restructuring advisory services to companies across multiple industries and has effectuated sale processes and crafted and executed plans of reorganization through heavily negotiated agreements with creditors and other parties in interest. Â
Mr. Connell subsequently turned his attention to principal investing, predominately in distressed and other event driven situations.   Initially as a senior analyst at Strategic Value Partners and then as a portfolio manager, chief investment officer and partner/founding partner for asset management firms Dickstein Partners and Normandy Hill Capital, he spearheaded long and short investments in the debt, equity, derivative and other financial instruments of corporate, sovereign, and other issuers.  Mr. Connell took both passive and active roles as an institutional investor and he has served on many creditor committees in both official and unofficial capacities.
More recently Mr. Connell chose to invest for his personal account and still actively maintains a diverse pool of investments in real estate, operating businesses, registered securities, commodities and alternatives. Additionally, Mr. Connell has recently served as the chair of the Official Equity Committee of a biopharmaceutical company.
Mr. Connell is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame from which he received his Bachelor's degree in Business Administration.
William Olshan
Mr. Olshan is the General Counsel of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., which is in the final stages of its wind down in connection with its historic bankruptcy filing in September 2008. Mr. Olshan joined Lehman in July of 1990, after working as a litigation associate at Cadwalader Wickersham and Taft and then Willkie Farr and Gallagher.
He has handled a broad array of commercial litigation matters, including as counsel in numerous arbitrations and mediations and by managing some of the top law firms across the globe. He has been responsible for multibillion-dollar litigations involving highly complex novel claims between sophisticated counterparties. The subject matter of these disputes includes derivatives valuation, contract construction and intellectual property rights, among other things.
Mr. Olshan graduated from Boston University, Magna Cum Laude, with a BA in philosophy and from Boston University Law School as a G. Joseph Tauro scholar.