BIOGRAPHIES
of public and private sector organizations around the world to help build capacity to
combat IP crime. He is considered one of UL’s subject matter experts on product
counterfeiting. He has given presentations at a large number of events, has led numerous
anti-counterfeiting workshops and has taught at various law enforcement training
academies. He is also involved with and supports a number of different anti-counterfeiting
initiatives and groups on a global basis.
Monica Mena is the Senior Manager in UL’s Global Security and Brand Protection
department responsible for outreach and capacity building initiatives. She is the global
program manager for the International IP Crime Investigators College (IIPCIC) which is an
INTERPOL initiative in cooperation with UL. She has responsibility for managing the
global operations and content development of the online college. She also sits on the
IIPCIC Advisory Group and on the board of the Brand Protection Professional; a
professional journal developed specifically for Brand Protection Managers. Prior to this
role, Monica was Instructional Design Manager at UL and managed the development of
learning solutions for both internal and external customers including GE and Allstate. She
has over 15 years of experience facilitating and developing online and instructor-led adult
learning in corporate and higher education settings. Monica has a B.A from Amherst
College and a Master’s degree from the University of Chicago.
Christopher Mhike is a Zimbabwean lawyer currently enrolled for an LL.M in Intellectual
Property, Information & Communications Law at the MSU College of Law. His ongoing
academic pursuits are centered on Trademarks and Unfair Competition Law, with
particular emphasis on Trademark Protection, Federal Unfair Competition and Domain
Name Resolution. Mhike previously worked as a journalist at daily newspapers, and as an
attorney at Harare-based (Zimbabwe) law firm, Atherstone & Cook Legal Practitioners. As
an attorney, he focused on a wide range of fields, especially human rights, media law &
policy, criminal law, and constitutional law. Once a Councilor of the Law Society of
Zimbabwe (the country’s Bar Association), and a Chevening Fellow trained at Bradford
University and Oxford University (UK), Mhike is a member of the International Media
Lawyers Association (IMLA), and he served as a Commissioner at the Zimbabwe Media
Commission (ZMC) since February 2010 before his enrollment at the MSU College of Law.
At the ZMC, an independent constitutional regulatory authority, he chaired the Legal
Affairs and Procedures Committee. He will be serving as a legal extern with the A-CAPP
Center for the summer of 2016 and will focus on the legislative history of federal and state
intellectual property statutes as they relate to counterfeiting of consumer goods and
packaging and secondary liability of trademark law violations.
Vernon Miller received his Ph.D. in Speech Communication from The University of Texas at
Austin. He is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Communication and
Management at Michigan State University. His research focuses on the communicative
aspects of the employment interview, organizational socialization, newcomer information
seeking, and role negotiation as well as the role of communication in large-scale
organizational change processes. His work appears in the Journal of Applied
Communication
Research,
Management
Communication
Quarterly,
Human
Communication Research, Communication Monographs, Academy of Management
Review, and Journal of Managerial Issues. Dr. Miller is a member of the Academy of
Management, International Communication Association, and National Communication
Association. He serves as an Associate Editor to Management Communication Quarterly.
Brian Monks is the Vice President and Chief Security Officer of Global Security and Brand
Protection at Underwriters Laboratories (UL). Mr. Monks has been with UL for 30 years
and has worked in the intellectual property enforcement area for over 18 years. He works
closely with national and international law enforcement agencies to identify and seize
counterfeit products, such as the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Federal Bureau of
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