Cheryl Milone is the founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Article One Partners, the world's largest patent validation community.  Article One is a global online community reaching over one million that researches the validity of patents.  Ms. Milone created the community to add a crucial level of review to the US patent system - strengthening legitimate patents and reducing unjust patent monopolies.  Early success, including 15 Fortune 100 clients, 45 of the Global Fortune 2000 and premier law firms among 75+ clients and 100% community growth in 2010, led to an invitation in January 2010 to join President Obama as one of the top 50 most innovative CEOs in the nation to participate in a forum hosted by the White House on Modernizing Government.

Article One presents research requests on behalf of its clients on its website as well as the platforms of international affiliate websites and provides compensation to its community for responding with high-quality prior art.  Article One has been described as social media for patents with researchers from 147 countries.  Projects are translated into eight languages to trigger foreign language research in key geographies.  The success of the company led Marshall Phelps (former head of IP and licensing at IBM and Microsoft) to join Article One’s Board of Directors, and resulted in client feedback that in 57% of research projects, Article One provided new and valuable evidence compared to traditional research.

Ms. Milone also was recognized as the 2009 Startup of the Year by Business Insider - chosen by an elite judging panel of venture capitalists and top technology industry leaders.  In December 2009, Ms. Milone was included in the Silicon Alley 100 list of New York's digital business community leaders who are driving the most interesting and important work.

Prior to founding Article One Partners, Ms. Milone practiced as a patent attorney and advocated before the US Patent and Trademark Office with Darby & Darby (until 2005), Clifford Chance and Kenyon & Kenyon.  Ms. Milone is an inventor and patent holder.  She is co-inventor of US Patent No 6,074,339, Gambale et al entitled "Expandable Braid Device and Method for Radiation Treatment," and has one allowed and numerous pending patent applications for Article One.  She earned her JD in 1992 from Georgetown University Law Center and holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering.

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Vice President, Product and Technology

Eric is responsible for product development and internal IT. He has over 15 years of web-based software development experience in roles from development to product management.

Most recently, Eric was Director, Product Management at PowerSteering Software. There he led the Lean Six Sigma product and worked closely with leading enterprise clients such as J&J, Praxair, Seagate and United Airlines.

Prior to PowerSteering, Eric worked at BMG, a leading Six Sigma training and consulting company. There he led the development of a market leading web-based project portfolio management product later acquired by PowerSteering. At GE, Eric worked in web development, six sigma and led major B2B web projects.

Eric holds a BA in Finance from the University of Iowa and an MBA from the University of Oregon.

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Marshall Phelps

Former Corp. VP, IP Policy & Strategy, Microsoft, and VP, IP & Licensing, IBM

Marshall Phelps is a leading figure in the field of intellectual property management and performance, pioneering many of its leading strategies, generating unprecedented results and heading IP business and related activities at IBM and Microsoft. As Executive Advisor and Board Member of Article One Partners, he is actively engaged in helping businesses and governments improve patent quality and improve the Patent System. Mr. Phelps served as Vice President at IBM in the 1990s, responsible for overseeing standards, telecommunications policy, industry relations, licensing, intellectual property law and management of a worldwide intellectual property portfolio of more than 35,000 patents and 8,500 trademarks. By actively licensing these and other IP rights, such as trade secrets and copyrights, he transformed a function that had previously been costly overhead to a $2 Billion annual profit center. Prior to heading IP business, he served IBM as Director of Government Relations in Washington and as Vice President of Asia Pacific operations in Tokyo.

From 2002-2010 Mr. Phelps was Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel for Intellectual Property and Licensing, Microsoft Corporation. At Microsoft, his duties entailed worldwide management of the company’s intellectual property portfolio, patent prosecution, licensing, standards and business development. He facilitated Microsoft’s emergence as one of the world’s largest IP companies with over 60,000 patents and applications, extensive copyright holdings and numerous trademarks.

In 2006, Mr. Phelps was elected to the initial class of the Intellectual Property Hall of Fame. In 2001 he was founding partner with Nathan Myhrvold of Intellectual Ventures, now the largest acquirer of patents worldwide. His book, “Burning the Ships”, Intellectual Property and the Transformation of Microsoft, was published in 2009. Mr. Phelps has taught IP strategy at business, law or engineering schools at Duke, Cornell, UNC, Berkeley and in Japan. He holds a B.A. from Muskingum College, an M.S. from Stanford Graduate School of Business, and a J.D. from Cornell University Law School.

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Patrick Gross

Chairman

The Lovell Group

Patrick Gross is Chairman of The Lovell Group, a private investment and advisory firm, where he works with a portfolio of venture capital backed private technology and internet commerce companies. He is engaged by the venture investors to help the companies grow to the next stage of development and benefit from his extensive experience.

From 1970-2001, he was a founder and principal executive officer of American Management Systems, Inc. (AMS), which grew to a $1 billion revenue company with 8000 associates serving clients from offices in the major cities of North America and Europe. AMS provided information technology services and enterprise software solutions to major corporations and government agencies. These solutions were leading edge applications of information technology and advanced analytics.

Prior to founding AMS, Pat worked on the staff of the Secretary of Defense in the Office of Systems Analysis, popularly known in the press as “McNamara’s whiz kids.” Earlier, he worked at the General Electric Company.

Pat has been a director of more than two dozen corporations ranging from angel-backed startups to NYSE firms. He has been lead independent director/presiding director of both NYSE and NASDAQ companies. He has served as chairman of the board of two private equity owned companies. He has served on and chaired audit, compensation, and governance and nominating committees. Currently, he serves on two NYSE company boards: Capital One Financial Corporation and Waste Management, Inc. and three NASDAQ company boards: Career Education Corporation, Liquidity Services, Inc., and Taleo Corporation.

Pat holds leadership positions in a number of non-profit organizations: trustee and chairman of the research and policy committee of the Committee for Economic Development (CED), vice chairman of the Council for Excellence in Government, vice chairman of the board of Georgetown University Hospital, and co-founder and former chairman of the World Affairs Council of Washington, D.C, He is also a trustee of the Aspen Institute, a trustee of the Federal City Council, a director of the All Kinds of Minds Institute, a director of the Foreign Policy Association, and a member of the advisory board of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.

He is an elected member of the Council on Foreign Relations, International Institute of Strategic Studies, the Washington Institute for Foreign Affairs, and the Economic Club of Washington.

Pat holds three degrees: BES degree from Rensselear Polytechnic Institute (Tau Beta Pi and Sigma Xi), MSE from the University of Michigan, and MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

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Benjamin Levy

Senior Research Analyst

Alleghany Capital Partners

Benjamin Levy is a Senior Research Analyst for Alleghany Capital Partners, the equity investment arm of Alleghany Corporation (NYSE: Y). Benjamin assists in the management of Alleghany’s portfolio of public and private equity investments.

Benjamin worked in the Principal Investment Area of Goldman Sachs, where he focused on large-cap investments for Goldman’s private equity funds, and served as an observer to the Board of Directors of CCS Corporation, Dollar General Corporation, and Signature Hospital Corporation. Previously, he worked in Citigroup’s Leveraged Finance department, where he assisted private equity sponsors in acquisition financing and leveraged recapitalizations.

Benjamin received a BS in Finance and Accounting in 2004 from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

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Steven Powell, Esq.

Co-Founder

Article One Partners

Steven B. Powell is a Co-Founder of Article One Partners. He has extensive experience in institutional finance, having worked on Wall Street for more than two decades. His experience includes senior executive positions at Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, and Bear Stearns. He began his career in finance in the investment banking division at Lehman Brothers.

Steven also served as CEO of Interacciones Global (“IGI”), a full service Latin American investment bank. In that role, he managed professionals in five countries, including equity and fixed income traders, research analysts and institutional salespeople. IGI was a successful corporate turnaround, with revenues quadrupling and expenses declining by half within 18 months. The firm reached operational break-even ahead of expectations while expanding business lines into other South American countries. During Powell’s tenure, the firm climbed to number one among all locally produced Latin American sell-side research firms whose analysis was followed by buy-side institutional investors.

Steven received his A.B. cum laude from Harvard University, where he was a John Harvard Scholar for high academic achievement. He received his joint J.D./M.B.A. degree from Georgetown University, where he was an Editor of the American Criminal Law Review. He was also a post-graduate Rotary International Fellow in South America. He is an eligible member of the American and Washington, D.C. Bar Associations.

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