Former chief of staff at U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to visit Behrend

ERIE, Pa. — Have an idea for a business or patent? Andrew Byrnes can help.

Byrnes, the former chief of staff at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, has spent more than two decades helping organizations move from ideation to impact through legal expertise, government relations and public policy acumen, operational excellence and partnership development.

Byrnes will discuss his career path and innovation on Tuesday, April 3, when he visits Penn State Behrend as part of the college’s Speaker Series. His presentation, “The Path to Impactful Innovation: From the ‘Innovation Mystique’ to Transformative Change,” begins at 7:30 p.m. in Room 180 of the Jack Burke Research and Economic Development Center. The program is free and open to the public.

Byrnes currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he serves as executive vice president and general counsel at PresenceLearning, a venture-backed company democratizing access to life-changing care for students nationwide. However, he is familiar to the Erie region, as he attended General McLane High School in Edinboro during the 1980s.

From 2013 to 2015, he served as chief of staff at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. After leaving the Obama administration, he was an executive at Shuddle, a pioneering ridesharing-for-kids service. He also has represented technology companies and inventors as a Silicon Valley-based attorney at several major law firms, including as a partner in Covington and Burling, LLP.

His appearance at Penn State Behrend is made possible by the college’s Student Activity Fee, the Division of Student Affairs, and the Harriet Behrend Ninow Memorial Lecture Series Fund. For additional information, contact the Office of Student Activities at 814-898-6171.