Board Of Directors
Our Board Members serve to advise, govern, oversee policy and direction, and assist with the leadership and general promotion of the UIA in support of our mission and needs.
Carmine Denisco
Carmine Denisco is a successful Entrepreneur, Inventor, Author, Podcaster, Investor, Patent and Trademark Holder. He has designed, developed and manufactured many products sold in retail stores, TV shopping channels, online and infomercials some have gone on to be licensed by major chain stores.
Denisco is dedicated to helping inventors correctly navigate the invention and manufacturing process, giving each inventor their best shot at success.
EarMark Sourcing www.earmarksourcing.com is a privately held product development and manufacturing company with one of the largest and fastest growing inventor networks in the world. As leaders in the industry, it is our goal to disrupt the invention industry by re-imaging the development process into the fastest and most cost effective way to monetize an invention.
EarMark has consulted with, designed, developed, marketed or manufactured a large number of consumer products in every major category to be sold in retailers around the world. Along with manufacturing in the US, China, Central and South America.
Chris Guerrera
Mr. Guerrera is an accomplished executive with over 35 years experience as a Mechanical Engineer who is a Lean 6 Sigma Manufacturing expert that has successfully led multiple teams through new Product Launch and is known as the “King of Manufacturing.”
Mr. Guerrera has enjoyed National Media exposure recently featured on the Shark Tank Season 12 Finale. He is the host of a weekly podcast “Made in America” and is the Vice President of the United Inventors Association. He has been featured on Good Morning America Shark Tank and was the Emcee of the Shark Tank panel for the MAKE48 competition hosted by the Smithsonian Lemelson Center in Washington DC. His “Made in America” manufacturing plant is Walmart Certified and his products are displayed alongside such household name products as Scrub Daddy®, Squatty Potty®, Paint Brush Cover®, Drop Stop®, and ReadeRest®, all products that have achieved mass distribution & sales after their appearance on the reality TV series ‘Shark Tank.
Mr. Guerrera was instrumental in the BMW start-up and success in the United States where he managed the interior group for the BMW Z3 and X5. He was awarded the JD Powers and Associates best in class Quality Award from BMW. He was responsible for the Greenville Operation generating 180 million in revenue using World Class Just-In-Time Lean techniques.
Mr. Guerrera was an integral part of the 1/8 turn fuel system design for Ford Motor Company and listed on the patent as the Chief Design Engineer. He spent three years developing the on-board fuel vapor recovery system for the Ford Taurus vehicle that was first in its class to have such a sophisticated fuel system design that revolutionized the industry.
Mr. Guerrera holds a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of New Hampshire in Mechanical Engineering and is a Lean 6 Sigma Master Black Belt. He is certified in the Toyota Production System and the BMW VDA Production System. He served on the Executive Supplier Counsel for BMW, Ford Motor Company and Toyota Motor Company.
Andrea Hence-Evans
Andrea Hence Evans, Esq. is a member of the Texas bar, a registered Patent Attorney, and a member of the US Supreme Court Bar. Having worked at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for approximately 5 years as both a patent examiner and a trademark examining attorney after graduating from law school, she then launched the intellectual property law practice, The Law Firm of Andrea Hence Evans, which currently represents independent inventors, entrepreneurs, small, medium, and Fortune 100 clients in multiple states and multiple countries with patent, trademark and copyright issues.
Andrea is a 2002 graduate of The George Washington Law School in Washington, DC. She is a graduate of Spelman College and Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) in Atlanta, Georgia, where she obtained a Bachelors of Science in mathematics and a Bachelors of Civil Engineering, respectively. Attorney Evans is also the owner of KidGINEER, LLC, a hands-on STEM program for children.
Andrea Pass
Andrea Pass has created and implement public relations campaigns in a wide range of categories including consumer products, lifestyle, business-to-business, education, health/wellness/fitness, beauty, food, authors, non-profits and more. Andrea Pass Public Relations (www.AndreaPassPR.com). has an expertise in national, regional and local media relations outreach. Her strength in relationships coupled with her knowledge of the ever-growing media base results in securing top tier, targeted media placements to increase brand awareness, reputation management and sales for established businesses and growing entrepreneurs alike.
She has represented clients including 4ocean, Cabinet Caddy/GoHang It, Peel Away Labs, Circadian Optics Light Therapy Lamps, Extreme Mist, Wolfgang Puck Pressure Oven/Wolfgang Puck Cooking School, Top Dog Direct, Bluewater Media, MyPillow, Blackstone Products Outdoor Griddles, Ronco, Migraine Hat, Tiny Love Developmental Baby Toys and a wide range of entrepreneurial ventures.
Prior to launching her own business, Pass served as Vice President, Media Relations for a Los Angeles-based public relations firm as well as Vice President at a number of New York-area public relations firms where she developed and implemented B2C and B2B campaigns.
Andrea Pass serves on the Board of Directors of the non-profit United Inventors Association (UIA), Workshop Council Chair for The Performance-Driven Marketing Institute (PDMI), and Membership Coordinator of the Northeast Region of the New Jersey Association of Women Business Owners (NJAWBO). She is an active member of the Meadowlands Chamber of Commerce. She was named a Leading Women Entrepreneur Top 25 Brand Builder for 2018 and was previously named a Direct Response Marketing Association (DRMA) Member of the Year Finalist.
An active volunteer, Pass holds a B.A. in Communications from Glassboro State College.
Charles Sauer
Charles Sauer is the President of the Market Institute, and the author of Profit Motive: What Drives the Things We Do. He represents small inventors on Capitol Hill and holds numerous pro-inventor events on Capitol Hill and around the country. He is a frequent contributor to the Washington Examiner, and writes for Forbes, Investor’s Business Daily, Fox News, Entpreneur.com, The Washington Times, The Daily Caller, and numerous other publications. Additionally, Charles Sauer appears weekly on One America News and is a frequent guest on the Thom Hartmann Radio Show – the #9 ranked radio show.
Charles has spent time on Capitol Hill working for the Chairman of the Finance Committee; he has worked for a Governor on tax, immigration, and labor issues; and was Deputy Legislative Director for an academic think tank focusing on tax, finance, and healthcare. On the Hill he is known for developing free market solutions and effective legislative coalitions.
- Author, Speaker, Columnist, Economist and Public Policy Specialist
- Founder and President of The Market Institute
- Author of Profit Motive – a best-selling microeconomic book
- Co-Director Inventors Project, 13,000 person newsletter
- Frequent National Media appearances
- Author for expert congressional testimony
- Speech writer for politicians, business owners and academics
Jim Patterson
Jim is a founding partner of the law firm Patterson Thuente IP, a full-service intellectual property boutique. His practice encompasses all aspects of intellectual property law, including patent prosecution, IP portfolio management and strategy development, licensing, dispute mediation, international IP protection and development of global market-protection strategies. Jim’s’ clients are leading companies, located around the globe, in a variety of industries, including medical device, defense, electronics, plastics and mechanical equipment.
During his 25 years as a patent lawyer, Jim has always enjoyed the challenge of patenting ideas that are twists on everyday products. He also gains tremendous satisfaction from providing access to justice for the disadvantaged and has partnered with other IP professionals and the USPTO to develop patent pro bono programs across the country.
Matt Nuccio
Matt Nuccio is the owner of Design Edge, a toy and game development, marketing, manufacturing, inventing and consulting agency. They are headquartered in New York with two satellite offices in China.
For over 30 years, Design Edge has been a leading development agency in the toys and games industry. For 4 years Matt co-chaired the Toy Industry Association (TIA) associate panel, representing all designers and inventors in the toy industry. Currently, Matt sits on the board of directors of the United Inventors Association of America (UIA) and on the Chicago Toy and Game Fair (ChiTAG) advisory board.
Matt also writes a column in Toy Family Entertainment magazine focusing on the toy industry and often lectures at New York Toy Fair, ASTRA, Chicago Toy & Game Fair, and Hong Kong Toy Fair. Our products have been nominated for, and have also won, many industry awards such as TOTY (Toy Of The Year), Games 100, Origin, and Family Fun to name a few. www.designedge.net
Russ Williams
An entrepreneur at heart with close to 20 years of business experience, Russ co-founded Invention Home to help independent inventors to connect with manufacturers for the purpose of licensing inventions. To date, we have successfully licensed over 100 inventions to independent 3rd party companies and have amassed a network of over 3,500 manufacturers/product companies looking for innovative products.
We have also developed solid working relationships with patent attorneys, design firms, prototype companies and manufacturing sourcing companies.
Scott Hynd
Scott is a Partner in Brand Innovations (BI), a Philadelphia-based marketing firm that specializes in live television shopping and product promotion. Scott appears on-air regularly as a product expert both on QVC and in infomercials. Over the past decade, he has presented over 250 different products on national television, totaling thousands of appearances and close to half of a billion dollars in sales. In October of 2014, Scott set the all-time QVC record for single units sold in one day by selling over 570,000 of the FrostGuard Today’s Special Value. In February 2016 he was nominated for the Q Star Award for Guest Excellence, the highest honor an on-air personality can receive.
Additionally, he has served as a spokesperson for numerous products and events in all forms of media, both nationally and internationally, and has served as a speaker, panelist, and judge at national tradeshows, inventor workshops, and University conferences across the country
Judge Susan G. Braden
From July 2003-April 2019, Judge Susan G. Braden served on the United States Court of Federal Claims, which has exclusive jurisdiction over claims against the federal government for money damages, including those concerning patent infringement. In March 2017, she was designated as Chief Judge. After her retirement, she was appointed as: a Public Member of the Administrative Conference of the U.S.; the Advisory Board of the Washington Legal Foundation; the Board of Directors of the United Inventors Association; and is a Jurist-In Residence at the Antonin Scalia Law School’s Center for the Protection of Intellectual Property. In 2000, she was appointed by the Secretary of Commerce to serve a three year term on USPTO’s Private Patent Advisory Committee, where she is Co-Chair of the Legislative Subcommittee and a Member of the Artificial Intelligence and IT and Outreach: International & Regional Office Subcommittees.
Judge Braden also serves on the Board of Directors of two privately held companies that create and sell computer software and artificial intelligence to commercial and defense customers. In addition, she on the Board of a major construction company based in Washington, D.C. Judge Braden is a member of the American Arbitration Association’s M&A, Intellectual Property/Technology, and Large Complex Commercial Panels and serves as an Arbitrator, Mediator, and Corporate Monitor for FEDARB. In 2000, she one of ten individuals appointed by the United States Trade Representative to serve for a three year term to represent the United States in disputes arising under the United States-Mexico- Canada trade agreement.