Our People
President
Dr. Chris Donegan
Dr. Donegan has 35 years of experience in business strategy, investment management and intellectual property. He has worked extensively with multinational corporations and SME’s, in a wide range of IP strategy assignments, including licensing and valuation, pricing strategy and infringement diligence and enforcement. During his career, he has managed over $3B in structured financial transactions and investments.
Notable achievements and ongoing projects include advising on the creation of a $1B life science patent acquisition and commercialization venture, the private equity spin-out of an innovative cybersecurity business from ARM and the private equity acquisition of a global domain registry management business, the latter of these serving as Group Chairman. He also serves as Senior Advisor to the Calyx Venture Fund, a private investment fund that allocates capital to intellectual property-rich growth companies in a wide range of sectors and geographies.
Dr. Donegan is a graduate of The University of Leeds where he gained a BSc. (Hons) in Biochemistry and Industrial Microbiology and he holds a Ph.D. from Imperial College London in Molecular Neurobiology. He sits on the Boards of various growth companies and is a Member of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment (“CISI”).
chief licensing officer
John Garland
Mr. Garland has 33 years of experience as a Licensing Executive with worldwide transaction experience, including patent licensing, technology acquisition and licensing, joint ventures, strategic alliances and spin-offs. He has significant experience in assisting clients on IP strategy, as well as strategic patent acquisitions and divestitures. He has worked in large corporations and the start-up environment as an IP professional.
Ongoing and recent notable accomplishments include licensing globally within the cybersecurity industry (generating >$160MM in negotiated deals over 4 years); implementing and leading a licensing campaign for advanced image and video stabilization techniques versus smartphone and (DSC) camera/camcorder manufacturers; and serving as licensing agent for a leading corporation (3G, 4G, 5G, WIFI and video compression standards, etc.) for smartphones, consumer electronic devices, connected cars and OTT streaming services. Additionally, he worked with several IP Holding companies in executing licenses involving smart home automation systems and e-commerce (including, retail/targeted advertising, cloud storage, and network/application security).
Mr. Garland received his Bachelor of Science (BSEE) in Electrical Engineering from Lafayette College and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from Lehigh University.
Chief financial officer
Donald E. Hockmuth, Jr.
Mr. Hockmuth, Jr. has 40 years of knowledge and experience vis-a-vis international business, operations, sales, finance and banking. He possesses robust skills in corporate credit analysis and has an extensive background in global trade, investment, capital flows and the transatlantic economy.
Mr. Hockmuth, Jr. founded an advisory firm providing analytical and strategic consulting services to global corporations operating in private equity, asset management, finance, law, technology and real estate as well as to members of the British government. He has served as Chief Financial Officer and Gérant of the preëminent U. S. materials design firm and its French corporate partner specializing in atomistic modeling. Both in the U. S. and internationally, he led a diverse team of scientists and industry professionals engaged in achieving significant patented technology results for the company’s Fortune 500 and governmental clients.
He also founded and directed an eponymous financial advisory firm specializing in complex project financing, highly leveraged transactions, government contracting, acquisitions and restructurings.
Early in his career, he participated in debt negotiation talks between major world banks and the countries of Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. Concomitant with his doctoral studies, he performed economic and political risk analysis focusing on economic development, national sovereignty over natural resources, protection of alien property, nationalization and evolving norms of international economics and trade.
Mr. Hockmuth, Jr. was educated at New York University (B.A., 1985, Economics, Journalism and Political Science), Boston College and Fordham University (M.A., 1988, magna cum laude, International Political Economics and Development; doctoral coursework completed, 1990).
Board of Managers’ Biographies
Matt Cantor
Matthew Cantor is a Senior Managing Director leading Pretium Partners’ Legal Opportunities strategy. Matt is a member of the Firm’s Executive Committee.
Prior to joining Pretium in 2020, Matthew worked for Lehman Brothers Holdings, Inc. where he ran Lehman’s legal strategy in connection with the liquidation of its assets and business since its emergence from bankruptcy.
Prior to Lehman Brothers, Matt was a Founding Principal for the distressed, event-driven credit and special situations investment manager at Normandy Hill Capital. Before Normandy Hill, Matt was a partner at Kirkland & Ellis, where he represented debtors, creditors and investors in corporate reorganizations. Prior to Kirkland & Ellis, he was a Principal at Valley Lane Trading Corp. Matt started his career at Weil, Gotshal & Manges.
He earned a Bachelor’s in Economics from The State University of New York at Binghamton and a JD from New York University School of Law. He currently serves on the boards of Redding Ridge Asset Management and Selfhelp Community Services, Inc.
Raymond Hegarty
Raymond Hegarty is an IP strategist who has studied in Ireland and France. He has a bachelor’s degree in electronic engineering, an MBA, a master’s degree in medical AI, a postgraduate diploma in European law and a master’s degree in IP law. He has built IP-intensive businesses in Japan, Ireland and Luxembourg, assembled & developed teams and implemented processes & systems for exploitation of IP. He has executed several billion dollars of patent and trademark transactions and has managed international commercialisation of a portfolio of 40,000 patents.
Mr Hegarty is the best-selling author of three books on IP strategy. He has advised the European Commission, the OECD and policy makers in several countries on national and international innovation strategies.
He currently advises CEOs of fast-growing technology and life science companies on IP strategy, is a regular conference speaker and is connected to the global professional IP community. He has been recognized by IAM Magazine annually as one of the world’s “Top 300 IP Strategists.”
Raymond Reusser
Raymond Reusser has a broad professional background starting with personal activities in process engineering, R&D and strategy development related to semiconductor manufacturing. He subsequently spent fourteen years in corporate executive intellectual property operations, followed by twenty years as an independent intellectual property consultant. These positions included work from different perspectives of business, engineering, manufacturing, corporate leadership, and geography, while cutting across multiple technologies, disciplines, and work environments. He provides a disciplined, analytical perspective to companies operating at the intersection of innovation, patents, and value realization.
Initially, he experienced intellectual property and patents as natural by-products of personal R&D and technical innovation; however, in later roles, his focus shifted decisively to patents as critical strategic assets capable of delivering substantial economic and competitive value. He created the post-AT&T Divestiture strategic plan for exploitation of the extensive AT&T/Bell Laboratories’ patent portfolio and presented it to senior executives. Upon approval he was intimately involved in execution of the plan. He created innovative methods to evaluate commercial value of patent assets, conducted international patent licensing negotiations resulting in dozens of completed deals, and ran the patent assertion operation in support of a $500 million annual patent exploitation business.
He has been intimately involved in plaintiff patent enforcement and as an expert witness in litigation. He has presented at Licensing Executive Society (LES) and other conferences. He has been recognized as an “IAM Strategy 300: the World’s Leading IP Strategists” for many years.
Mr. Reusser was an B.S. engineering graduate from Purdue University as a Ford Foundation Scholar and obtained a Master’s engineering degree from Lehigh University. In addition, he completed the Executive Program at the University of California-Berkeley.