From this page on the FIRST web site:
Appointment of Jon Dudas as FIRST President
June 7, 2010
To: FIRST® Community
From: Walt Havenstein, Chairman
Dean Kamen, FounderWe are very pleased to announce that the FIRST Board of Directors has appointed an outstanding new President for FIRST: Jon Dudas, the former U.S. Undersecretary of Commerce and Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Jon will be starting in early July.
Mr. Dudas is currently a partner with the law firm Foley, Lardner LLC, specializing in patent policy issues. He joined Foley after serving for five years as the Under Secretary and Director of the USPTO and two prior years as the Deputy Director. As the U.S.A.’s top Intellectual Property (IP) official, Jon personally spearheaded an unprecedented number of patent cooperation and development missions with Brazil, China, Europe, India and several other countries to improve IP systems globally and help inventors establish and enforce IP rights throughout the world. As the CEO of the USPTO, he led a performance-based government agency with 9000 employees and a $2 billion annual budget. Prior to this role, Mr. Dudas held several senior staff positions for the House of Representatives. He started his career in private legal practice in Chicago.
Jon has been an unwavering, long term supporter of FIRST, appearing as a featured speaker at numerous FIRST events. He can easily relate to the students that FIRST serves since Jon and his wife, Nicole, have four children ranging from 7 to 16 years old.
We would like to thank Paul Gudonis again for his many contributions during the last five seasons and his commitment to helping during this transition.
Please join us in welcoming Jon to his new, expanded commitment to FIRST.
Congratulations to Jon! I cannot imagine a more exciting choice, or one which will be more beneficial to the long-term health of FIRST.
-dave
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