Michael Hanson

Senior Executive Vice President, Public Affairs

RILA

Michael Hanson is RILA’s Senior Executive Vice President of Public Affairs, overseeing the Association’s government affairs and communications arms. Hanson is responsible for identifying the industry’s top public policy challenges and working with both leading retailers and key stakeholders to elevate the industry in Washington, DC and across the country.

Hanson most recently served as chief public policy officer at Sabre, a leading travel technology company, where he led legislative and regulatory strategy at the local, state and federal level. Prior to joining Sabre, he served as vice president for government affairs at JCPenney, where he was a leading contributor in shaping RILA’s top public policy priorities.  Earlier in his career, Hanson was a partner with the D.C.-based government consulting firm, C2 Group and also served as chief of staff to U.S. Representative Sam Johnson, Texas.

Palmer Orlandi

Director & Chief Science Officer

AOAC

Palmer was named the Deputy Executive Director and Chief Science Officer at AOAC INTERNATIONAL in December 2018. In his new role, he is responsible for overseeing the AOAC Research Institute, Standards Development Activities, and the Proficiency Testing Program. In addition, he handles business development responsibilities to include developing strategic partnerships with the goal of advancing voluntary consensus standards setting activities and strengthening international relations. He has an extensive background in government relations, food science and safety, regulatory affairs, and public health in the federal government. Prior to joining AOAC INTERNATIONAL, he served more than 22 years at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, most recently as CSO and research director in the Office of Food and Veterinary Medicine where he provided strategic direction and leadership for all FDA FVM science and research programs. In the course of his career, he developed rapid molecular detection methods for emerging food- and waterborne microbial pathogens for regulatory and surveillance applications and coordinated collaborative analytical methods programs for the FDA field laboratories and the Food Emergency Response Network (FERN). Palmer holds a B.A. in Chemistry from Lafayette College and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Kentucky. He was also an officer in the Commissioned Corps of the Public Health Service since 1991, earning the rank of Rear Admiral and Assistant Surgeon General in 2017.

Rick Rosati

Vice President

Government Affairs and Industry Standards

Bureau Veritas Consumer Product Services (BVCPS)

Rick Rosati is the Vice President of Government Affairs and Industry Standards in the Americas at Bureau Veritas Consumer Product Services (BVCPS).  His primary responsibilities are to lead the companies Technical Services Team in monitoring and communicating legislative and regulatory activity, participating in pertinent standards development activity, supporting client and program development and supporting industry activities and trade shows.  Rick has been with Bureau Veritas for 20 years. 

Previous to his current role, Rick was the Director of Technical Services for Toys, Juvenile Products and Hardlines, he managed testing operations in Buffalo, NY and started with BV as a Product Test Engineer. 

Rick is currently the President on the Board of Directors for the International Consumer Products Health and Safety Organization (ICPHSO).  He also actively participates in several ASTM standards-development subcommittees and is the Chair of the F15.90 Executive Committee for Consumer Products and the ASTM F15.42 subcommittee on furniture tip over and safety.  Rick is also on the ASTM Award of Merit Committee and the Committee on Technical Committee Operations (COTCO).  Rick is a member of The Toy Association (TTA) and the Juvenile Products Manufacturing Association (JPMA).

Dana Baiocco

Commission

Consumer Product Safety Commission

Dana Baiocco joined the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission on June 1, 2018. She was confirmed by the Senate on May 22, 2018. Ms. Baiocco’s appointment by President Donald Trump is for a seven-year term, retroactively beginning on October 27, 2017.

Prior to joining the Commission, Ms. Baiocco was a partner at Jones Day, where she was a member of the firm’s Business and Tort Litigation Practice. She joined Jones Day’s Pittsburgh Office in 1998 and, in 2011, she was among the first partners to join the Firm’s Boston Office when it opened. While at Jones Day, Ms. Baiocco provided strategic business advice for clients in high-intensity trials involving mass torts, consumer and industrial products, and medical devices at the federal, state, and international level. She counselled clients on risk mitigation, compliance with regulatory and reporting obligations, warranties, and product recalls. And she litigated on behalf of clients in antitrust, construction, and bankruptcy matters.

Prior to joining Jones Day, Ms. Baiocco served as a federal law clerk to The Honorable Gustave Diamond, U.S. District Court Judge for the Western District of Pennsylvania.

Ms. Baiocco served as Chair of the Pennsylvania Bar Association House of Delegates, (2009-2011), during which she presided over all discussions, debates, votes, and the adoption of resolutions by this policy-making arm of the Association and also held other bar association roles.

Ms. Baiocco earned her law degree from Duquesne University, cum laude, and was awarded the Justice Louis Mandarino Honor Society for Achievement in Trial and Appellate Advocacy. She earned a B.A. in Journalism from Ohio University. Ms. Baiocco also holds a private pilot certificate.

Ms. Baiocco was born in West Virginia and raised in the Ohio Valley (Yorkville, Ohio to be exact). Ms. Baiocco is married and has a teenage daughter, Ava.

Kim Gianopoulos

Director, International Affairs and Trade Team

US Government Accountability Officer

Kim is the Director for international trade issues in the International Affairs and Trade (IAT) team at the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Her portfolio includes a wide variety of trade-related issues, including intellectual property rights, sanctions, export controls, and government procurement. Recently, she and her teams have written reports on trade-based money laundering, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., Customs and Border Protection’s trade enforcement activities, and conflict minerals. She serves as a facilitator in GAO’s Learning Center for leadership and diversity courses and participates in recruiting activities. She has provided leadership on a number of efforts, including GAO’s High-Risk series and a body of work on commercial nuclear power. Ms. Gianopoulos has received a number of awards, including a Meritorious Service Award, a Client Service Award, an Assistant Comptroller General’s Award, and several Results Through Teamwork awards. Ms. Gianopoulos earned a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and a Master’s degree in Public Analysis and Administration from the State University of New York at Binghamton. She is a Certified Government Financial Manager and a member of Pi Alpha Alpha, the Global Honor Society for Public Affairs and Administration.

Jill Notini

Vice President of Communications & Marketing

AHAM

Jill Notini is AHAM's Vice President, Communications and Marketing and has been with AHAM since 1999. In her role, Notini has responsibility for member communications, media and consumer outreach and AHAM's shipment data programs and market research. Notini also oversees membership recruitment efforts.  In addition, she has executed consumer safety education and category promotion programs to raise awareness of safety issues and promote key benefits of home appliances. Notini has developed award-winning appliance donation program called "Home Sweet Home," which provided appliances to those rebuilding from Hurricane Katrina.  She is a member of the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE), and has served on the Board of Directors of the Consumer Trends Forum International (CTFI) and the Program Committee of the Electrical Safety Foundation International (ESFI). Notini was named to Dealerscope Magazine's 40 Under 40 and was named PR News "15-to-Watch." Jill also was named one of PR News' Top Women in PR for 2017.  Jill graduated from American University with a B.A. in Public Communications.

Shira Perlmutter

Chief Policy Officer and Director for International Affairs

Shira Perlmutter is the Chief Policy Officer and Director for International Affairs at the USPTO. In that position, Ms. Perlmutter serves as a policy advisor to the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property, and oversees the USPTO’s domestic and international IP policy activities; legislative engagement, through the Office of Governmental Affairs; education and training, through the Global Intellectual Property Academy (GIPA); global advocacy, through the IP Attaché Program; and economic analysis, through the Office of the Chief Economist.

Before joining the USPTO, Ms. Perlmutter was Executive Vice President for Global Legal Policy at the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). Prior to that, she held the position of Vice President and Associate General Counsel for Intellectual Property Policy at Time Warner.

Ms. Perlmutter previously worked at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva as a consultant on the copyright issues involved in electronic commerce. In 1995, she was appointed as the first Associate Register for Policy and International Affairs at the U.S. Copyright Office. She was the copyright consultant to the Clinton Administration’s Advisory Council on the National Information Infrastructure in 1994–95.

Ms. Perlmutter is a Research Fellow at the Oxford Intellectual Property Research Centre at Oxford University. From 1990–95, she was a law professor at The Catholic University of America, teaching Copyright Law, Trademarks and Unfair Competition, and International Intellectual Property Law. Previously, she practiced law in New York City, specializing in copyright and trademark counseling and litigation. She is a co-author of a leading casebook on International Intellectual Property Law and Policy, and has published numerous articles on copyright issues.

Ms. Perlmutter received her A.B. from Harvard University and her J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.

Alaina van Horn

Chief

Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Intellectual Property Rights Branch

Alaina van Horn currently serves as the Chief of the Intellectual Property Rights Branch of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Office of Trade, where she supervises a team of attorneys and paralegals specializing in border enforcement of intellectual property rights.  Prior to this position, she served a one year detail in the Office of the U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator (IPEC) in the Executive Office of the President, as a Policy Advisor specializing in customs law.  Prior to joining the IPEC she was a Senior Attorney-Advisor in the Intellectual Property Rights Branch of CBP’s Office of Trade for over a decade, where she provided legal support to all ports of entry on border enforcement of trademarks and copyrights, adjudicated administrative petition for relief from seizure, issued binding rulings and infringement determinations, and administered patent and trade secrets based exclusion orders issued by the U.S. International Trade Commission.  Ms. van Horn has conducted numerous capacity building trainings on border enforcement of intellectual property rights to foreign governments, international organizations, and domestic audiences in both the public and private sectors. 

Ms. van Horn received a bachelor's degree in philosophy from New York University, a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from Catholic University, Columbus School of Law as well as a Masters of Arts (M.A.) degree from Catholic’s Graduate School of Philosophy, and a Master of Laws (LL.M.) from The George Washington University Law School.

Jeff P. Hardy

Director-General

Transnational Alliance to Combat Illicit Trade

Jeffrey Hardy is a seasoned executive with 25 years' experience strengthening the voice of business in international policy. Before joining TRACIT, he served as the Director of the International Chamber of Commerce’s Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy (BASCAP), where he united the global business community to fight illicit trade in the forms of trademark counterfeiting and copyright piracy. In this leadership position, he pressed governments to set higher standards for global performance and pioneered mitigation tactics for securing supply chains and digital channels.

Since 2010, he also served as Director of the ICC G20 CEO Advisory Group, where he coordinated international business priorities on the G20 policy agenda related to trade, investment, energy and anti-corruption. Jeffrey has long been an advocate of open and fair trade, and to achieve these goals he mobilizes expertise from companies and business organizations.

As President of IDA Consulting, Jeffrey has worked with dozens of international trade associations to help them more effectively navigate key policy arenas and gain from emerging legislative and regulatory regimes.

From 1985 to 1998, Jeffrey worked for the U.S. Department of Energy, where he held positions as International Energy Economist and Director of the U.S. Clean Cities program. Jeffrey holds a Master of Public Administration and Policy from George Mason University, a Bachelor of Science in Economics from Illinois State University and an Honorary Degree for Energy Policy from the Oxford College of Petroleum Studies. In 1992, Jeffrey was awarded the U.S. Secretary of Energy's Silver Medal for his meritorious service during the Gulf War.

Brian Weinhaus

Unit Chief

HIS Intellectual Property Rights Unit

Brian Weinhaus is Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agent and the unit chief for the Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPRC) Intellectual Property Unit. With more than 25 years in law enforcement, he was most recently assigned as a group supervisor in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Prior to that, he was assigned to Domestic Operations at HSI Headquarters as an operations manager. His work as a special agent includes stops in HSI, the Diplomatic Security Service, U.S. Border Patrol, and the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office.