PIUG Board of Directors
Chair: Cynthia S. Barcelon Yang (Bristol-Myers Squibb)
 Biography:
Cynthia S. Barcelon Yang is currently Director of the Patent Analysis
Group at Bristol-Myers Squibb, Princeton, New Jersey. She started her
career in 1980 as a medicinal bench chemist at American Critical Care,
Waukegan, IL, which was purchased by DuPont in 1986. After 8 years at the
bench, she joined DuPont Corporate Information Science unit at Wilmington,
DE where she worked as information scientist for more than 10 years. She
was also project manager/co-leader of several DuPont corporate-wide
standardization initiatives (property nomenclature, analytical test
methods and TSCA chemical inventory reporting) and was a DuPont delegate
to the Polymer Industry Advisory Council (PIAC) consortium from 1994-1997.
In 1999, Cynthia transferred to the DuPont Pharmaceuticals subsidiary, and
within a year, she was assigned as Team Leader of the Patent Information
Services Group. With the acquisition of DuPont Pharmaceuticals Company by
Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) in 2001, Cynthia was promoted to Associate
Director, Patent Analysis Group and subsequently in 2004 to her current
position. Cynthia has a B.S. degree in Chemistry (magna cum laude) from
College of the Holy Spirit, Manila, Philippines. She obtained her M.S.
degree in Physical-Organic Chemistry from Marquette University and her
M.S. degree in Library & Information Science from Drexel University.
Cynthia has been an active PIUG volunteer, both at the regional and
national levels. She was one of the recipients of the 2006 PIUG Special
Recognition Award for her dedicated service to the organization, including
co-championing the Membership Directory 2003, and co-chairing the
Membership Label Committee 2003-2005. She chaired the 2007 Sponsorship
Committee and co-chaired the 2008 Planning Committee.
Telephone: +1 (609) 252-4033 (US)
Email: Cynthia.Yang @ bms.com
Vice chair: Doreen Alberts (Theravance, Inc.)
 Biography:
Doreen Alberts is the Associate Director of the Knowledge Management
Department at Theravance. After 11 years as a medicinal chemist at
SmithKline Beecham, Doreen transferred to the Information Management
Department as an information analyst. In 2000, she was recruited to
join Theravance to build their information management capabilities.
Doreen is currently a member of the Advisory Committees for Questel
Orbit and OVID Technologies.
Doreen is one of the recipients of the 2007 PIUG Service Awards in
recognition of her service to PIUG as the Annual Conference Sponsorship
Committee Chair for 2005-2006 and the Strategic Planning Committee Chair
for 2006-2007. She is the Program Co-chair of the 2008 PIUG Annual
Conference.
Telephone:
Email: doalberts @ theravance.com
Secretary: Denise Fobare-DePonio (Amgen Inc.)
Biography: (pending)
Telephone: +1 805-447-6618 (US)
Email: dfobare @ amgen.com
Treasurer: Ken Koubek (The Dow Chemical Company)
 Biography:
The first 13 years of Ken's professional career was spent in the laboratory, 10
years of which he worked as a pesticide residue chemist at ICI Americas. In
1985, Ken accepted a position in their corporate research information
department as a research information scientist. He worked 6 years in that
capacity until 1991 when he went to Coca-Cola to oversee the technical
information aspects of the research library. In December, 1998, Ken returned
to a searching position with Rohm and Haas Company where he is currently
employed as a Senior Information Scientist. Ken was the membership chair for PIUG from September 2001 until June 2004 when he was elected treasurer.
Address: PO Box 7596, Newark, DE 19714-7596 USA
Telephone: +1 215-641-7615 (US)
Facsimile: +1 215-641-7811 (US)
Email: kkoubek @ rohmhaas.com
Immediate Past Chair: Suzanne G. Robins (Patent Information Services Inc.)
 Biography:
Suzanne Robins received a Bachelor's degree in Chemistry from
the University of Virginia in 1981 and a Master's degree in
Chemistry from Rice University in 1983. After joining the team of
patent searchers at the Monsanto Patent Department in 1988 as an
independent contractor she started her own company, Patent
Information Services, Inc. in 1991. She conducts patent and
literature searches for a wide variety of clients around the
country. Suzanne is a member of the American Chemical Society, the
Division of Chemistry and the Law, the Division of Chemical
Information, and the Patent Information Users Group. Suzanne is
the Immediate Past Chair of PIUG and currently serves on the PIUG
Board as a Director. She served as Planning Committee Co-Chair for
the 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 Annual Conferences and PIUG
Vice-Chair from June 2004 to June 2006. Her previous roles in PIUG
include Annual Conferences Registration Chair, Membership Chair,
and Treasurer.
Telephone: +1 (508) 366-7814 (US)
Email: sgrobinspi @ cs.com
Director-at-large, 2005-2008: Edlyn Simmons (Procter & Gamble )
 Biography:
Edlyn Simmons is currently serving as PIUG Director-at-Large.
She was one of the founders of PIUG in 1988, and was its first elected Chair
in 1990-1992 and a member of the Executive Committee in 1992-1994. She
received B.S. and M.S. degrees in Chemistry from the University of
Cincinnati and has been a registered patent agent since 1977. She is
employed by Procter & Gamble Intellectual Property & Business Information
Services as Section Manager, Patent Information. Edlyn has spoken and
written extensively on patents and chemical information.
As a founder and active member for the entire history of PIUG, and a member
of the Board of Directors for the last four years, I offer a deep
institutional memory to the operation of PIUG, Inc. The organization has
already succeeded beyond the expectations of the founders, but there is much
work to be done to help PIUG mature into the world class corporation it has
become. I hope that the members will give me the opportunity to help steer
PIUG, Inc., into the future.
Telephone: +1 (513) 627-5664 (US)
Email: simmons.es @ pg.com
Director-at-large, 2008-2010: Heidi Stone (Abbott)
 Biography:
Heidi is currently a Senior Patent and Chemical Information Analyst at
Abbott Laboratories. She has worked at Abbott her entire career. She
moved into a technical information career after 7 years in the laboratory.
In 1987, she started for a short time as just a chemical literature
searcher in the Library services search group. Within a year she added
pharmaceutical patent searching to her responsibilities and has been
searching patents for more than 20 years. She has served on several
vendor advisory committees including the Thomson Fragmentation Code
Project Team, the Thomson-Pharma Advisory, and former Derwent Advisories.
She actively advocates for the needs of the patent searching community and
her input if often requested.
Heidi PIUG volunteer activities include Vice Chair of PIUG 2006-2008,
Co-Chair of the Planning Committees of the PIUG Annual Conferences
2005-2008, initiating a workshop survey to better understand the needs of
the membership for future planning, on-site registration of the annual
meeting for four years and Hospitality Chair for the 2003 Annual Meeting.
Telephone: +1 (847) 937-2362 (US)
Email: heidi.stone @ abbott.com
© 2009 The Patent Information Users Group, Inc. – PIUG Website Committee
Webmaster: Tom Wolff (piugwebmaster @ gmail.com): –
Updated: 2 May 2009
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