Significant Intellectual Property and Public
Company Leadership and Oversight Experience Will Enhance Acacia’s
Board
Acacia Research Corporation (Nasdaq: ACTG) today announced it
has appointed Maureen O’Connell and Katharine Wolanyk to its Board
of Directors. These new appointments fill existing vacancies on
Acacia’s Board and bring its membership to five directors.
“The addition of Maureen and Katharine to the Board brings us
significantly closer to rebuilding Acacia’s Board in a strategic
and deliberate manner by appointing directors with relevant
experience and qualifications to provide independent oversight,”
said Acacia Board member Clifford Press. “We expect to add
additional highly-qualified independent directors as we complete
the governance and management structure of Acacia.”
Acacia Board member Alfred V. Tobia, Jr. added, “Maureen is a
strategic financial executive with deep experience and expertise in
financial reporting, auditing and corporate governance in addition
to a wide range of intellectual property experience spanning the
tech, biotech and publishing industries. Katharine has a long
tenure on the operational and investment sides of the intellectual
property world, and her domain expertise will be immensely valuable
as we expand Acacia’s intellectual property portfolio.”
Maureen O’Connell said, “The current Acacia directors have
dramatically reduced overhead costs and strengthened corporate
governance in a short period of time. I am excited to join them in
contributing to the oversight and governance efforts at Acacia as
the organization continues to develop.”
Katharine Wolanyk said, “Acacia has a long and established
reputation for partnering with patent owners to realize value from
their intellectual property. The opportunity to help reinvent an
industry pioneer alongside Acacia’s new leadership team compelled
me to accept this position. I am excited to join the Board in its
charge to build value for patent owners and the company’s
shareholders.”
Katharine Wolanyk
Ms. Wolanyk’s career spans the business, legal and engineering
fields, with a particular focus in intellectual property. She is a
Managing Director at Burford Capital, a leading global finance and
investment management firm focused on law with over $3 billion
committed to the legal market. She was named a World’s Leading IP
Strategist by Intellectual Asset Management (IAM) in 2015 through
2018 and has deep experience within the technology industry. Ms.
Wolanyk leads Burford’s intellectual property business as well as
its Chicago office. Burford is one of the top performing listings
on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM market, with a current market
capitalization of more than $4.5 billion.
Prior to joining Burford, Ms. Wolanyk was President, Chief Legal
Officer and a board member of Soverain Software, an enterprise
software company whose patent portfolio has been licensed
extensively in the software and Internet retailing industries. Ms.
Wolanyk was also intellectual property counsel to a publicly traded
IT solutions firm, General Counsel of a managed hosting provider,
Senior Vice President of corporate development at a publicly traded
enterprise software company, a corporate attorney at Latham &
Watkins LLP, and began her career as a systems engineer at Hughes
Aircraft Company. Ms. Wolanyk holds a Juris Doctor from the
University of Chicago and a B.S. in Engineering from Michigan State
University.
Maureen O’Connell
Ms. O’Connell is a global business executive, Chief Financial
Officer and corporate director recognized for significant value
creation through strategic initiatives in a variety of industries
including media, education, digital, retail, technology,
professional services, biotech, pharma, homebuilding, real estate
and insurance.
From 2007 to 2017, Ms. O’Connell served as the Chief Financial
Officer of Scholastic Corporation, the world's largest publisher
and distributor of children's books. In her role as Chief Financial
Officer, Ms. O’Connell had significant experience licensing rights,
partnering with trademark and copyright owners and overseeing the
protection and assertion of rights on a world basis. Earlier in her
career, Ms. O’Connell served as President and Chief Operating
Officer of the Gartner Group, the world's leading research and
advisory company which has developed more than 300,000 business
case studies of intellectual property since 1979.
Maureen O’Connell has received numerous and diverse awards
including CFO Studio’s CFO World Class Award in 2017, Treasury and
Risk magazine’s 30 Outstanding Women in Business in 2012 and Irish
Voice’s Top 75 Influential Women in 2009.
Ms. O’Connell also served as an independent director, audit
committee chair and transaction committee chair at Sucampo
Pharmaceuticals, a biopharmaceutical company focused on the
development and commercialization of highly specialized medicines,
from 2013 to 2018 when it was acquired by Mallinckrodt in a $1.2
billion transaction. At Sucampo, Ms. O’Connell played a key role in
evaluating the acquisition of highly specialized medicines in
development resulting in the acquisition of two companies. She is
currently an independent director at Harte-Hanks Inc. and
previously served on the board of directors of Beazer Homes USA
Inc.
Maureen graduated Magna Cum Laude with a B.S. in Accounting and
Economics (dual major) from New York University Stern School of
Business in 1985 and is a Certified Public Accountant.
ABOUT ACACIA RESEARCH CORPORATION
Founded in 1993, Acacia Research Corporation (ACTG) is an
industry leader in patent licensing and partners with inventors and
patent owners to unlock the financial value in their patented
inventions. Acacia bridges the gap between invention and
application, facilitating efficiency and delivering monetary
rewards to the patent owner.
Information about Acacia Research Corporation and its
subsidiaries is available at www.acaciaresearch.com.
Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995
This news release contains forward-looking statements within the
meaning of the “safe harbor” provisions of the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based upon our
current expectations and speak only as of the date hereof. Our
actual results may differ materially and adversely from those
expressed in any forward-looking statements as a result of various
factors and uncertainties, including the contributions of newly
appointed director, the appointment of additional directors, the
ability to successfully develop licensing programs and attract new
business, rapid technological change in relevant markets, changes
in demand for current and future intellectual property rights,
legislative, regulatory and competitive developments addressing
licensing and enforcement of patents and/or intellectual property
in general, general economic conditions and the success of our
investments. Our Annual Report on Form 10-K, recent and forthcoming
Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, recent Current Reports on Form 8-K,
and any amendments to the forgoing, and other SEC filings discuss
some of the important risk factors that may affect our business,
results of operations and financial condition. We undertake no
obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking
statements for any reason.
The results achieved in the most recent quarter are not
necessarily indicative of the results to be achieved by us in any
subsequent quarters, as it is currently anticipated that Acacia
Research Corporation’s financial results will vary, and may vary
significantly, from quarter to quarter. This variance is expected
to result from a number of factors, including risk factors
affecting our results of operations and financial condition
referenced above, and the particular structure of our licensing
transactions, which may impact the amount of inventor royalties and
contingent legal fees expenses we incur period to period.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190123005728/en/
Investors:Hayden IRRob Fink,
646-415-8972actg@haydenir.comorMedia:Sloane & CompanyJoe
Germani / Kristen Duarte, 212-486-9500jgermani@sloanepr.com /
kduarte@sloanepr.com
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