Women’s Entrepreneurship Symposium, part three: From inspiration to commercialization

Shirin Bidel-Niyat is a Senior Advisor for the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

Bidel-Niyat is a political strategist with nearly two decades of electoral, legislative, and community organizing experience. She has created and led national organizations, inspired stakeholder buy-in, and directed campaigns to sway public sentiment and achieve issue advocacy, policy, and electoral goals.

Before joining the USPTO, she served as the Associate Director for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), one of the nation’s largest labor unions. In this role, she served as the Chief of Staff for her department and directed AFSCME’s efforts across the country. She oversaw state legislative, candidate, and issue campaigns, all focused on building worker strength by galvanizing member political activism. She previously served as the Deputy Political Director for the League of Conservation Voters and has been a manager and field director for various federal and state candidates and issue advocacy organizations.

Bidel-Niyat received a Bachelor of Arts in both political science and psychology from The George Washington University.

Georgia Grace Edwards is the Co-Founder and CEO of SheFly Apparel, a venture capital-backed, Colorado-based startup whose mission is to improve accessibility and increase women’s empowerment in the outdoors through inclusive apparel design. Edwards and her SheFly team hold numerous domestic and international design patents, as well as several pending utility patents. SheFly’s patented zipper technology has been recognized as a 2022 "Outside Business Journal" Top 50 Product, as well as a 2022 Outdoor Retailer Innovation Awards Finalist and a 2021 Top Diamond Award Winner in the MassChallenge Accelerator. The company’s line of outdoor bottoms and accompanying intellectual property portfolio have been recognized by entities like the U.S. Senate, Forbes, TEDxTalks, Title Nine, iFundWomen, Gear Junkie, and Sierra Club.

Edwards is a summa cum laude graduate of Middlebury College in Vermont, where she founded SheFly from her dorm room. Following graduation, she spent a year in the Czech Republic as a Fulbright Fellow teaching English at a business academy. She previously worked as an Alaskan glacier and backpacking guide and, most recently, she worked as a health economics consultant in Boston. Edwards currently resides in the Rocky Mountains, where she enjoys mountain biking, skiing, and hiking–all in a pair of SheFlys.

Ceata E. Lash is the inventor of the PuffCuff. "Black Enterprise" magazine cited her as the first Black woman to hold three patents (with a fourth pending) for a natural hair accessory, and she champions self-love and self-acceptance for everyone–male or female–with thick, curly, or textured hair.

Lash is a highly skilled graphic designer, having spent 20 years in the business before starting PuffCuff. Launched in 2014, PuffCuff is now a $1 million company. As its Creative Director, Lash oversees the creative, marketing, and social media teams, producing robust content and viable brand recognition. In 2018, she was awarded the President's Innovation Award from Sally Beauty, and, in 2020, the New Voices + Barefoot Wine #WeStanForHer Beauty Business Grant. In 2021, she graduated from the Goldman Sachs 10K Small Businesses Cohort.

Abi Olukeye is the Founder and CEO of Smart Girls HQ, a National Science Foundation award-winning STEM education solutions provider that creates engaging content and facilitates exciting experiences to enable young girls achieve STEM career literacy by age 12. Core offerings include parent education about STEM, informal learning at RaisingSmartGirls.com, and Dear Smart Girl kits, a project-based, career-focused STEM curriculum for girls.

Previously, Olukeye led Internet of Things (IOT) strategy development and digital transformation projects at a diversified Fortune 500 manufacturing company. She has over 15 years of professional and leadership experience spanning new product development, technology commercialization, process improvement, and strategy.

Olukeye is a member of the Computer Science K-12 Standards Committee for North Carolina and serves on the board of CSEdResearch.org. She holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Virginia Tech and an MBA from Indiana University. She and her husband live in Charlotte, North Carolina and have two young daughters who greatly inspire her work.

Gina M. Raimondo serves as the 40th U.S. Secretary of Commerce and was sworn in by Vice President Kamala Harris on March 3, 2021. As Secretary of Commerce, she is focused on a simple but vital mission — to spur good-paying jobs, empower entrepreneurs to innovate and grow, and help American workers and businesses compete.

Secretary Raimondo was formerly the 75th Governor of Rhode Island and its first woman governor. She grew up in Smithfield in a tight-knit Italian-American family, the youngest of Joseph and Josephine Raimondo's three children. Her family history and her childhood experiences shaped her core beliefs in hard work, opportunity for all, and the importance of financial security.

After arriving from Italy at age 14, Secretary Raimondo’s grandfather learned English studying in the Providence Public Library and later lived with her family. Her mother was a homemaker, who dedicated her life to teaching her children about the importance of hard work and determination. Her father was a World War II Navy veteran from a family of butchers and became the first in his family to attend college thanks to the GI Bill. After working for 26 years in manufacturing, Joseph lost his job along with hundreds of others when the factory moved overseas, and the Raimondo family lost their sense of financial security.

As a teenager, Secretary Raimondo rode a public bus to LaSalle Academy in Providence, where she was valedictorian of her graduating class. She went on to graduate with honors from Harvard, where she was recognized as the top economics student in her class. She won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University where she earned a doctorate and met her future husband Andy Moffit. She later graduated from Yale Law School. Secretary Raimondo clerked for US District Judge Kimba Wood and served as founding employee and senior vice president at Village Ventures.

Wanting to start her own business and be close to family, she returned home to Rhode Island and founded Point Judith Capital, a venture capital firm. In November 2010, Secretary Raimondo was elected to serve as General Treasurer of Rhode Island, receiving the largest number of votes of any statewide candidate. When she took office as General Treasurer, she tackled the state's $7 billion unfunded pension liability. Secretary Raimondo was sworn into office as Governor in January 2015 and won a second term in 2018. She also served as chair of the Democratic Governors’ Association in 2019.

During her time as Governor, Secretary Raimondo kick-started the state’s economy and made record investments in infrastructure, education, and job training. She focused tirelessly on creating economic opportunities and good-paying jobs for all Rhode Islanders. Early in her administration, she launched an innovative workforce development program that develops business-led partnerships to address unique workforce challenges. Secretary Raimondo is married to Andy Moffit and they have two children, Ceci and Tommy, and a rescue dog, Sparky.

As the Director of the Texas Regional Office of the USPTO, Hope Shimabuku carries out the strategic direction of the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO, and is responsible for leading the Texas Regional Office. Focusing on the region and actively engaging with the community, Shimabuku ensures the USPTO’s initiatives and programs are tailored to the region’s unique ecosystem of industries and stakeholders. Shimabuku brings to the USPTO nearly two decades of experience as an engineer and intellectual property attorney. Most recently, Shimabuku was part of the Office of General Counsel at Xerox Corporation serving as Vice President and Corporate Counsel responsible for all intellectual property matters for Xerox Business Services LLC. She also worked for BlackBerry Corporation advising on United States and Chinese standards setting, cyber security, technology transfer, and intellectual property laws and legislation. As an engineer, she worked for Procter & Gamble and Dell Computer Corporation.

Shimabuku is a leader in the Texas region. She currently sits on the Board of Visitors for the University of North Texas Law School and is an honorary member and inaugural member of the Barbara M.G. Lynn IP Inn of Court. She served as the past president of the Dallas Asian American Bar Association, chaired the Dallas Diversity Task Force, served as a facilitator for the DFW Women in Intellectual Property group, served on the board of the Dallas Bar Association, and was a member of the Grievance Committee for the State Bar of Texas – District 6.

Throughout her career, Shimabuku has championed diversity efforts. She served as the first Asian-American Chair of the Intellectual Property Law Section of the State Bar of Texas and was honored with the Champion of Diversity Award by the Association of Corporate Counsel and separately by the Asian Pacific Interest Section of the State Bar of Texas. She has received numerous professional honors, including being recongnized as a Hero of Innovation by the Center for American and International Law, being selected as a "Dallas Business Journal Top 40 Under Forty,” named "Dallas Business Journal’s" Corporate Counsel Rookie of the Year, and selected as one of "DCEO’s 500 Most Powerful Business Leaders.”

Shimabuku received a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and graduated cum laude with a J.D. from the Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law. She is a native Texan, born and raised in Houston. She currently lives in Flower Mound, Texas, with her husband and two daughters.

Sean Wilkerson works in the Office of Innovation Outreach at the USPTO, creating intellectual property awareness programs and managing outreach services to independent inventors, small businesses, entrepreneurs, makers, and universities. Wilkerson previously worked as an outreach coordinator for the programs leading up to the opening of the USPTO’s Silicon Valley and Texas Regional Offices. He also spent a year as part of the New York engagement team that developed the 2015 Future of Urban Innovation Startups Summit in coordination with Columbia University and the USPTO.

From 2011-2013, he served as the Program Manager of the inaugural Select USA Summit, developing the program, structure, and outreach efforts of a U.S. government-wide program housed at the International Trade Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce. As an education program analyst in the Global Intellectual Property Academy from 2008-2011, he managed international programs focused on providing intellectual property training related to the enforcement of patents, trademarks, and copyrights and the U.S. patent and trademark system. Prior to working for the federal government, he served as the Director of Events for the National Association of Homebuilders in Washington, D.C., and as the Ideas Exchange Manager for Accenture in Reston, Virginia. Wilkerson was awarded  the USPTO’s Bronze Medal award for superior performance in 2021.