PIUG Board of Directors
Chair: 2010-2012: Anthony Trippe (3LP Advisors)
 Biography:
Anthony (Tony) Trippe is Director of IP Analytics at 3LP Advisors. 3LP’s approach
bridges the traditional disciplines of intellectual property, business strategy,
and investment advisory. We apply proprietary tools, methods and know-how based on
our experience over many years to design and execute transactions involving IP
assets. Before joining 3LP Tony worked at CAS helping to establish Science IP as
the premier chemical patent searching firm for the IP Law Firm community. Also at
CAS he was the lead requirements developer for STN Analyze Plus, STN AnaVist and
SubScape for SciFinder. Tony has also worked at several pharmaceutical companies.
Telephone: +1 (614) 787-5237 (US)
Email: tony @ piug.org
Vice-Chair: Denise Fobare-DePonio (Amgen Inc.)
 Biography:
Denise is currently an Information Scientist at Amgen Inc. and has been with the company for 17 years. She has an undergraduate degree in biology and a master's degree in Library and Information Science. She spent three years at Geisinger Medical Center as the medical reference librarian when recruited to join Amgen Inc as an information specialist for the research, medicinal chemistry and process development departments. Since 1999 she has been working with Amgen's patent law group doing patent, biosequence, chemical searching.
Denise has chaired the 2008 and 2009 Annual Conference Sponsorship Committee and was a member of the same committee for the 2007-2008 Annual Conferences. She received one of the 2009 PIUG Service Awards in San Antonio for her work on the Sponsorship Committee.
Telephone: +1 805-447-6618 (US)
Email: dfobare @ amgen.com
Secretary, 2010-2012: Jim Brown (FIZ Karlsruhe Inc.)
 Biography:
Jim Brown joined FIZ Karlsruhe, Inc. in 2008 as a Regional Sales manager after working at
IFI Patent Intelligence for 23 years. His current duties at FIZ Karlsruhe Inc. include customer
trainings, authoring workshop manuals and presentations, and representing FIZ at conferences
and exhibits. At IFI, Jim started as a chemical patent indexer, and then moved on to chemical
patent indexing training and chemical patent searching. He was also a special indexing project
manager and technical representative. Jim has a Bachelor's degree in Chemistry from the
University of Delaware.
Telephone: +1 (302) 376-6425 (US)
Email: Jim.Brown @ fiz-k.com
Treasurer: Ken Koubek
 Biography:
The first 13 years of Ken's professional career was spent in the laboratory, 10
years of which he worked as a pesticide residue chemist at ICI Americas. In
1985, Ken accepted a position in their corporate research information
department as a research information scientist. He worked 6 years in that
capacity until 1991 when he went to Coca-Cola to oversee the technical
information aspects of the research library. In December, 1998, Ken returned
to a searching position with Rohm and Haas Company where he was employed as a Senior Information Scientist until recently. Ken was the membership chair for PIUG from September 2001 until June 2004 when he was elected treasurer.
Email: KennethKoubek @ comcast.net
Immediate Past Chair: Cynthia S. Barcelon Yang (Bristol-Myers Squibb)
 Biography:
Cynthia S. Barcelon Yang is currently Director of the Patent Analysis
Group at Bristol-Myers Squibb, Princeton, New Jersey. She started her
career in 1980 as a medicinal bench chemist at American Critical Care,
Waukegan, IL, which was purchased by DuPont in 1986. After 8 years at the
bench, she joined DuPont Corporate Information Science unit at Wilmington,
DE where she worked as information scientist for more than 10 years. She
was also project manager/co-leader of several DuPont corporate-wide
standardization initiatives (property nomenclature, analytical test
methods and TSCA chemical inventory reporting) and was a DuPont delegate
to the Polymer Industry Advisory Council (PIAC) consortium from 1994-1997.
In 1999, Cynthia transferred to the DuPont Pharmaceuticals subsidiary, and
within a year, she was assigned as Team Leader of the Patent Information
Services Group. With the acquisition of DuPont Pharmaceuticals Company by
Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) in 2001, Cynthia was promoted to Associate
Director, Patent Analysis Group and subsequently in 2004 to her current
position. Cynthia has a B.S. degree in Chemistry (magna cum laude) from
College of the Holy Spirit, Manila, Philippines. She obtained her M.S.
degree in Physical-Organic Chemistry from Marquette University and her
M.S. degree in Library & Information Science from Drexel University.
Cynthia has been an active PIUG volunteer, both at the regional and
national levels. She was one of the recipients of the 2006 PIUG Special
Recognition Award for her dedicated service to the organization, including
co-championing the Membership Directory 2003, and co-chairing the
Membership Label Committee 2003-2005. She chaired the 2007 Sponsorship Committee
and co-chaired the 2008, 2009 and 2010 Conference Planning Committee.
Telephone: +1 (609) 818-5515 (US)
Email: Cynthia.Yang @ bms.com
Director-at-large, 2008-2012: Heidi Stone (Abbott)
 Biography:
Heidi is currently a Senior Patent and Chemical Information Analyst at
Abbott Laboratories. She has worked at Abbott her entire career. She
moved into a technical information career after 7 years in the laboratory.
In 1987, she started for a short time as just a chemical literature
searcher in the Library services search group. Within a year she added
pharmaceutical patent searching to her responsibilities and has been
searching patents for more than 20 years. She has served on several
vendor advisory committees including the Thomson Fragmentation Code
Project Team, the Thomson-Pharma Advisory, and former Derwent Advisories.
She actively advocates for the needs of the patent searching community and
her input if often requested.
Heidi PIUG volunteer activities include Vice Chair of PIUG 2006-2008,
Co-Chair of the Planning Committees of the PIUG Annual Conferences
2005-2008, initiating a workshop survey to better understand the needs of
the membership for future planning, on-site registration of the annual
meeting for four years and Hospitality Chair for the 2003 Annual Meeting.
Telephone: +1 (847) 937-2362 (US)
Email: heidi.stone @ abbott.com
Director-at-large, 2010-2014: Diane Wian (IFI Patent Intelligence,)
 Biography:
Diane has enjoyed her work in the online information industry for nearly 3 decades.
She embarked her career in 1982 as an account representative with Lexis/Nexis in New York.
In 1998 she joined Questel as an account representative where her exposure to patent
information and tools was broadened. Diane joined IFI Patent Intelligence in 2000 and
has been a sales manager for most of her 10 years at IFI. Diane has a BA in American
Studies from BGSU and a Certificate from The Institute of Paralegal Training in Philadelphia.
Telephone: +1 (703) 323-0030 (US)
Email: diane.wian @ wolterskluwer.com
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