Rebecca J. Kuprowicz, MBA
President & CEO

Rebecca J. Kuprowicz is an accomplished professional Business Consultant with more than 28 years of cross-industry experience, who enjoys facilitating measurable progress. Rebecca began her career in banking, moved into television broadcasting, and then entered the healthcare sector, where she worked for more than a decade.   Opportunities presented while working within healthcare invited a transition into the software industry, where she awakened her entrepreneurial interests.  She was instrumental in building a software start-up to a level where it was acquired by a larger entity.  

During her time of employment within these various industries, she repeatedly achieved recognition for various accomplishments, including project management, meeting planning, technology training, sales & marketing accomplishments, and opportunity identification.   In 1998, Rebecca began her own business, which is now known as Business Success Strategists, LLC™.  Because of the variety of her experiences, she has the ability to be somewhat of an “Executive Chameleon™.”  Her roles have included President, Director, Manager, Marketer, Strategist, Salesperson, Researcher, Trainer, Project Manager and have also included activities in Business/Competitive Intelligence (BI/CI), Hiring/Evaluating Employees, Executive Coaching, Knowledge Management, Data Mining, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Internet Marketing, and Office and Workflow Management.  She has applied her skills and knowledge across diverse industries (e.g., legal, medical, real estate, professional organizations, etc.) to assist clients in achieving their strategic goals.  She is described by clients and colleagues as professional, conscientious, organized and detail-oriented.    

Rebecca has been a member of many business and professional organizations, including: American Management Association, American Marketing Association, Society for Competitive Intelligence, Delta Sigma Pi (business fraternity), Licensing Executive Society, Toastmasters, American Society for Training and Development, and National Association of Female Executives. Rebecca also enjoys traveling, reading, attending theatre performances and museums, art, and event planning.  She is a member of the Board of Directors,  Executive Committee, Chair of the Strategic Planning Committee, for the American Veterinary Medical Foundation and is a member of its Finance & Administration Committee, which helps to advance animal welfare through sponsored research, education, and disaster response and rescue initiatives.  On a local level, she volunteers with the SPCA of Wake County and facilitated within the MDLI Leadership Experience at Fuqua.  Rebecca is also an active member of the Business Alliance, Raleigh Chamber of Commerce, Working Women 2 Win, Cardinal Club Member Nominating and House Committees, recently launched and Chairs the Cardinal Readers Book Club. 

Rebecca has a BBA in both Marketing and Management from Kent State University in Kent, Ohio and an Executive MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business in Durham, North Carolina.   She has recently moved back to the Raleigh, NC area from Ohio to further pursue her career, educational interests, and to live in a growing and vibrant region of the country.

 
Mark G. Bloom, BS, JD, CLP, CRCP 
Registered Patent Attorney
VP of Projects & Consulting

Mark began his professional career in sales for The Upjohn Company and E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. (pharmaceuticals and medical devices, respectively). Mark was also a Licensing Associate with the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), the technology transfer management organization for the University of Wisconsin-Madison. While at WARF, Mark was responsible for marketing computer science, multimedia, pharmaceutical, and biotechnological inventions to private industry.

After receiving his law degree,* Mark served as outside patent counsel for the Roswell Park Cancer Institute (Buffalo, NY) and as a marketing and legal consultant for Harvard Medical School’s “Funds for Discovery Program” (a seed fund for biotechnology start-ups). Before joining Business Success Strategists, LLC, Mark served as Associate General Counsel and Chief Intellectual Property Counsel - CCF Innovations for Cleveland Clinic, a major academic medical center. Mark is a member of the Bars of New York, Ohio (Eligible as a Registered Corporate Counsel), Wisconsin, and Massachusetts and is also registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). 

In the past sixteen years, Mark has been involved in the creation of 17 high-technology companies.Mark is an active member of several professional organizations including the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA), the Licensing Executives Society - USA & Canada (LES), the Licensing Executives Society International (LESI), the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM), and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Mark currently serves as Immediate Past Co-Chair of the LES Biomedical Device Sub-Sector and is a member of the Executive Committee of the LES Healthcare Industry Sector. In May of 2007, Mark was named Editor of the AUTM Technology Transfer Practice Manual, a five-volume, web-based treatise focused on the field of academic technology transfer. Mark is a member of both the Editorial Board of the AIPLA Quarterly Journal (2006-2009 Term) and the Editorial Advisory Board of the AUTM Journal (2006-2009 Term).

On April 10-11, 2008, Mark was a featured speaker at the International Science and Technology Center’s (ISTC) Technology commercialization Seminar on “Advanced Topics in Technology Transfer and Commercialization” held in Moscow, Russian Federation. In 2005, Mark received the LES Deal of Distinction Award for his work on the “Orthopaedic Operating Room of the Future Project” between The Cleveland Clinic and Stryker Corporation. From 2002-2005, Mark represented the United States via the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) as a member of the “Expert Group on Best Practice Guidelines for the Licensing of Genetic Inventions.”

To date, Mark has given 83 public presentations on a variety of topics and has 21 publications, including three book chapters.

Mark received a B.S. in Microbiology from The Ohio State University (Columbus, OH) and a J.D. from Franklin Pierce Law Center (Concord, NH) with a concentration in Intellectual Property Law and Technology Licensing. While at Pierce Law, Mark served as Issue Editor of IDEA: The Journal of Law and Technology and was an FPLC/MIT Research Fellow in Technology, Business, and Law.

Mark is designated as a Certified Licensing Professional (CLP) by Certified Licensing Professionals, Inc., (an affiliate of LESI) and is certified as a Clinical Research Contract Professional (CRCP) by the Model Agreement Group Initiative (MAGI).  Mark is Of Counsel to the patent law firm of Hahn & Voight, PLLC, located in Washington, D.C.

*- Please note that Mark is not licensed to practice general law in North Carolina and, as such, does not provide general law-related services of any kind.