If you could trade places with anyone for a day, who would you choose?
Charlie Watts, drummer for The Rolling Stones. He's always a sedate figure in the background, but can you imagine the stories he knows?
 
What's a new habit you're trying to incorporate?
Trying to be more patient.
 
What does Bayh-Dole mean to you?
That's really hard. I was a young staffer on the Senate Judiciary Committee when I was asked to handle what became Bayh-Dole. That changed my life.
 
Luckily, I worked with a wonderful boss on the Committee who gave me guidance on how to staff a bill (you'd better do your homework because you can be embarrassed real quick), and got to work directly with Senator Birch Bayh. I also worked closely with two people who became my long-time mentors: Norman Latker, NIH patent counsel and Howard Bremer of WARF.
 
It was really hard getting the bill passed and just as hard to keep it from being undermined by its opponents. Eventually, I got to oversee the law at the Dept of Commerce, which was also a tremendous learning experience. It's fair to say that my professional career has been bound up in Bayh-Dole.
 
The law was a leap of faith that if we cut the government red tape smothering tech transfer, academic institutions would effectively manage their inventions. Because of the hard work of AUTM Members, and the entrepreneurs in our private sector, that faith has been fully justified.
 
Do you have a favorite magazine?
Runner's World. I’ve been running for many years but can always learn something new.
 
What's the most memorable meal you've ever eaten?
One comes to mind that is related to AUTM. Not long after I started my consulting business in 2008, I was attending the AUTM Annual Meeting. I was late for breakfast and arrived as the waiters were clearing the room but was able to grab something and saw only two people still eating. They waved me over to join them. We'd never met, but they were from Turkey, and one of them said the country was looking at adopting the Bayh-Dole model and asked if I was interested in going there to advise them. I laughed and said that I would if they paid my way and showed me to walls of Constantinople.
 
A couple of months later I was on a plane to Istanbul. I couldn’t believe it. My hosts could not have been kinder, we had meetings with various officials during the day, and they took me all over the city. One night we had dinner overlooking the Bosporus, the body of water separating Europe from Asia. As the dinner wound down, one man said there was a spectacular view of the city from the patio. We walked outside under a full moon and it was breathtaking. As we started back inside, he said: "This is for you" and handed me a thick envelope. I had no idea what was inside but put it in my coat pocket. When I returned to the hotel, I was astounded to find a wad of $100 bills. They’d paid me in cash! I have no idea what we ate that night, but it was certainly a memorable dinner.
 
If you could write a book about your life, what would the title be and why?
"You Never Know What's About to Happen. "The biggest opportunities in my life came seemingly out of the blue. It reminds me of the opening in the Beatles movie "Yellow Submarine," when Ringo is walking around with his head down saying, "Nothing ever happens around here." When he looks up the yellow submarine pops up out of nowhere and invites him on board. I used to love Herman Hesse books while I was in college, particularly "Journey to the East," about how our lives often change when we least expect it. So, keep your eyes open-- and when an opportunity arises, go for it.
 
What's the worst job you ever had and what did you learn?
I went to college in the late '60s and didn't see much point to it, so I dropped out. I got a summer job working construction. One day we had to haul concrete in buckets (one each hand) up a long flight of stairs from a basement floor broken up by a jack hammer. It didn't take many trips before it dawned on me that going back to school seemed like a pretty good idea.
 
Where do you see the impact of Bayh-Dole 40 years from now?
One thing's for sure: I won't be here to see it. It's fair to say that Bayh-Dole has changed the world for the better.Public/private R&D partnerships are becoming even more important as demonstrated by the impressive response to the COVID crisis.
 
However, the forces who've fought Bayh-Dole over the last 40 years haven't gone away. If anything, they're more determined than ever to undermine the law.
 
Howard Bremer was one of the most influential people in my life. Many mornings the phone would ring and I'd hear him say: "Hi Joe, it's Howard, have you seen this?" And we'd be off discussing the latest attack on the law and how to effectively respond. The last time we talked, he said: "Do you think after we're gone that someone will be willing to fight like we've done to protect Bayh-Dole?" I had to reply that I really didn't know if they would or not.
 
Friends, it's fair to say that the impact of Bayh-Dole over the next 40 years is squarely in your hands.