WiLAN - Company - Leadership Team - Executive Management

Jim Skippen , , , President and CEO

Jim Skippen is President and Chief Executive Officer of WiLAN, a position he assumed in June 2006, and a member of WiLAN’s Board of Directors. He is responsible for all operations, including the development and implementation of the company’s strategic and operating plans.

Under Jim’s leadership, WiLAN has assembled a world-class technology licensing team, grown its portfolio from approximately 20 patents to over 4,000 patents, established a stronger balance sheet and increased its market capitalization from $25 million to over $400 million. In his career, he has been responsible for license agreements in excess of $1.5 billion. To date, over 290 companies including technology leaders Broadcom, Fujitsu, Intel, LG, Motorola Mobility, Nokia, Panasonic, BlackBerry and Samsung have licensed technologies in WiLAN’s patent portfolio.

A seasoned licensing executive and lawyer, Jim has managed several large and complex patent licensing negotiations and litigations. Before joining WiLAN, he worked for two of Canada’s largest law firms and held a number of senior management positions, including Senior Vice-President, Patent Licensing and General Counsel at MOSAID Technologies.

Jim is a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada. He is a former Vice-Chairman and board member of the Canadian Diabetes Association. Jim is a frequent speaker at conferences and has delivered numerous papers and articles on topics such as management of intellectual property, patent licensing and technology law.

Shaun McEwan , , , CFO

Shaun McEwan is responsible for all financial and fiscal management aspects of WiLAN’s operations including business planning, accounting, budgeting and financial reporting efforts.

Shaun has more than 20 years of experience in finance and executive leadership positions in public and private high-technology companies.

Before joining WiLAN, he held the position of Chief Financial Officer at BreconRidge Manufacturing Solutions where he was responsible for overall financial management. His accomplishments while at BreconRidge included leading private placement transactions that raised more than $40 million and completing numerous corporate acquisitions.

Prior to BreconRidge, Shaun served in increasingly senior positions at Calian Technologies Ltd., first as Chief Financial Officer and then President and Chief Executive Officer. During his tenure at the publicly traded company, Shaun was responsible for all its financial affairs, completed several corporate acquisitions and divestitures, helped grow revenues to more than $125 million and served as corporate secretary and as a Director.

Shaun also held senior executive positions at Microstar Software and led the company’s initial public offering on the Toronto Stock Exchange in 1993.

Shaun holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Carleton University and is a Chartered Professional Accountant.

Michael B. Vladescu , , , COO

Michael Vladescu is responsible for overseeing patent acquisitions, licensing, litigation and portfolio management.

Michael brings more than 15 years of management experience related to all aspects of patent licensing, portfolio development and patent prosecution.

Prior to joining WiLAN, Michael was Vice-President, Licensing and Intellectual Property at MOSAID Technologies where he led the effort to license the company’s patent portfolio to many of the world’s best known electronics companies and drove success in their patent licensing programs. Michael also previously held the role of Patent Portfolio Account Manager with Semiconductor Insights, a leader in technical and patent analyses of integrated circuits and electronic systems.

Michael has a Bachelor of Applied Science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Waterloo and also holds an Executive MBA from Queen’s University.

Andrew Parolin , , , Senior Vice-President

Andrew Parolin is responsible for the licensing of WiLAN’s portfolio of wireless, wireline, digital television and other technologies.

His previous role with WiLAN was Vice President, Wireless Technologies, which he assumed in November 2007. During his tenure, the business unit negotiated license agreements with over 95 companies including global technology leaders ASUSTek, BlackBerry, Sharp and Samsung.

Before joining WiLAN, Andrew worked at SiGe Semiconductor, a fabless semiconductor company specializing in next-generation integrated circuit designs, where he served as Director of Wireless Data Products.

Andrew has an MBA from the University of Ottawa, a Master of Applied Science from Queen’s University, and a Bachelor of Engineering from the Technical University of Nova Scotia. Andrew is a member of the Licensing Executives Society.

Marc Frechette , , , Vice-President and Senior Counsel

Marc Frechette is responsible for patent licensing and business development for various technologies as well as providing legal counsel.

Prior to joining WiLAN, Marc served as Senior Vice-President at Acacia Research Corporation where he led licensing activities in many technology areas and managed patent portfolio assets. Prior to working with Acacia, Marc worked as a patent attorney with Crockett & Crockett and as an in-house attorney with Discovision Associates, a patent licensing division of Pioneer Electronics. Before becoming an attorney, he was an engineer with Boeing, Ducommun and Conexant.

Marc holds a BS in Manufacturing Engineering from Boston University, JD from Whittier Law School and an MBA from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Paul Lerner , , , Vice-President and Senior Counsel

Paul Lerner is responsible for licensing and business development for various programs.

Prior to joining WiLAN, Paul was Senior Vice President and General Counsel of General Patent Corporation (“GPC”), a leading patent licensing and enforcement firm, founded in 1987. During his 12 years with GPC, Paul led licensing activities for hundreds of inventor-owned patents.

Before joining GPC, Paul was a partner in the Hartford, CT business law firm of Pepe & Hazard LLP. He has led IP law departments at Olin Corp., Black & Decker Corp., and multi-national electrical construction giant Asea Brown Boveri, Inc.

Paul’s education includes a BS in Aeronautical Engineering from Purdue University, an MBA from Loyola University, a JD from DePaul University, and post-graduate legal studies at John Marshall College of Law. He is also co-author of two books, Essentials of Licensing Intellectual Property (John Wiley & Sons, 2004) and Essentials of Intellectual Property (John Wiley & Sons, 2002).

Ken Stanwood , , , President, WiLAN Labs

Ken Stanwood is responsible for leading the WiLAN Labs team in identifying challenges facing next generation wireless communications and cloud computing, developing technical solutions addressing those challenges, and transferring the solutions to partners for inclusion in products.

Ken brings more than 30 years of experience in broadband wireless technology development including protocol and algorithm development, intellectual property, and standardization. For the past 16 years, Ken has been involved in developing the foundational technology for 4G broadband wireless networks.

Ken was a co-founder of the WiMAX Forum, vice-chair of 802.16 and the first technical working group chair of the WiMAX Forum. He holds more than 90 US patents in broadband wireless communications.

Prior to WiLAN Labs, Ken served as Executive Vice President, Technology and Standards for NextWave Wireless. His responsibilities included systems engineering for forward looking mobile broadband wireless technology; corporate intellectual property strategy; corporate standards strategy, as well as regulatory and M&A support.

Prior to NextWave, Ken was president and CEO of Cygnus Communications, which he co-founded to create WiMAX semiconductor products. NextWave Wireless acquired Cygnus Communications, which became the foundation for NextWave’s semiconductor business unit. Prior to founding Cygnus Communications, Ken was CTO at Ensemble Communications where he was a primary designer of the layer 2 technology that became the basis for much of the 802.16 MAC layer (WiMAX).

Ken holds a BS in Mathematical Sciences from Oregon State University and a MS in Computer Science from Stanford University.

David Gell , , , CTO, WiLAN Labs

David Gell is responsible for the development of innovative technology to dramatically improve performance, efficiency and user experience for next generation 4G mobile and cloud networks.

David brings over 20 years of industry experience building and leading technology teams across R&D, Marketing and Operations. David previously held the role of CTO & Vice President at Solectek Corporation where he led the company’s wireless infrastructure technology and product development efforts for RAN (4G/WiMAX) and backhaul products. Prior to his work at Solectek, David served as Vice President Engineering at Ystop.com and at Hewlett-Packard in both R&D and Operations.

David has more than 50 patents issued and pending in the area of wireless and cloud technology. He earned a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and a MS in Electrical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.

Prashant Watchmaker , , , Vice-President, Corporate Legal and Corporate Secretary

Prashant Watchmaker oversees all WiLAN’s corporate and securities legal requirements and assists with licensing and other commercial matters.

Prashant practiced corporate, securities and technology law and tax litigation with the Ottawa law firm of LaBarge Weinstein Professional Corporation for 10 years, developing extensive experience and negotiating many significant transactions for clients in Canada, the U.S. and the United Kingdom. Prashant has also practiced banking law as Legal Counsel with the Canadian Payments Association.

Prashant holds an LLB and a BA from the University of Ottawa and an MA from the University of Toronto. He is a member of the Law Society of England and Wales as well as the Law Society of Upper Canada.

William Middleton , , , Vice-President and Senior Counsel

William (Bill) Middleton is responsible for managing WiLAN’s major litigation activities and also helps lead licensing initiatives within certain business units.

Bill has over 25 years of business and legal experience. Prior to originally joining WiLAN in 2006, Bill held senior positions including General Counsel at Aviva Insurance, General Counsel at MOSAID Technologies(now known as Conversant Intellectual Property Management) and Vice-President, General Counsel at Nygard International Partnership. He was also in private practice with Borden Ladner Gervais and Miller Thomson. Bill left WiLAN for two years in 2011 to take a position as CEO of a small-cap Canadian public technology company and re-joined the company in December 2013.

Bill holds a BA and LLB from Western University and is a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada, the Licensing Executives Society, and the American Intellectual Property Law Association.

Doug MacCrae , , , Vice-President, Finance

Doug MacCrae is responsible for all day-to-day financial and accounting operations.

Doug brings over 20 years of senior financial management experience in public and privately-held high-technology business environments. Prior to joining WiLAN, he held a series of executive positions at BreconRidge Corporation with the final position being Chief Financial Officer.

Before BreconRidge, Doug held increasingly senior finance positions at Computing Devices Canada, DY4 Systems Inc. and Oz Optics Ltd.

Doug is a Certified General Accountant.

Steve Adam , , , Vice-President, Business Development

Steve Adam is responsible for business development for various programs including the establishment of partnerships with patent owners. Steve has been working in the patent licensing industry for close to 15 years, and also brings to the role more than 20 years of experience in management, sales, business development, licensing and strategic alliances.

Prior to WiLAN, Steve worked at Pachira IP, a patent licensing company, where he had global responsibility for Pachira's business development efforts. Prior to Pachira, Steve spent seven years at Chipworks, a globally-recognized patent-related technical services firm, most recently as Vice President, Patent Intelligence. Before joining Chipworks, Steve worked for Corel in role of Director of Strategic Alliances where he was responsible for licensing WordPerfect and other software to PC manufacturers.

Steve has spoken at several conferences on the issues of patent quality and patent licensing and has had articles published in leading IP news sources. Steve has a BA in Economics from Wilfrid Laurier University and is a member of the Licensing Executives Society.

Deepak Sharma , , , Vice-President, Business Development

Deepak Sharma is responsible for business development activities for wireless and display technologies where he leverages his in-depth experience in IP licensing, acquisition and managing strategic partnerships.

Prior to joining WiLAN, Deepak served most recently as Vice-President, Business Development with the Kudelski Group. Before working at the Kudelski Group, Deepak held the position of Vice President, Strategic Acquisitions and Licensing at Intellectual Ventures.

Deepak holds a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering degree from the Panjab University, a Master of Chemical Engineering degree from the National University of Singapore and an MBA from the University of Illinois.