Jon Dudas

Jon Dudas has served as the Senior Associate to the President and Secretary of the University of Arizona since July 2014.

Mr. Dudas spent fourteen years in service to the U.S. Government, and as head of the USPTO, he led a performance-based government agency with 9,000 employees and a nearly $2 billion annual budget. During his tenure, the USPTO achieved record-level performance in meeting key annual objectives, and led key patent cooperation and development missions with China, India, Europe, Brazil and several other countries.

In addition to holding his post as Director of the USPTO from 2004 – 2009, Mr. Dudas’s public sector experience includes serving as Counsel for Legal Policy and Senior Floor Assistant for The Speaker of the House for the U.S. House of Representatives and Staff Director and Deputy General Counsel for the Committee on the Judiciary. After his appointment as Director of the USPTO, Mr. Dudas was a partner at Foley & Lardner LLP in Washington D.C. and then President of FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), a national nonprofit that works to educate and inspire children to pursue careers in technology, science and innovation. He also served as a member of the Board of Directors for Conversant Intellectual Property Management, Inc., of Ottowa, Ontario. Mr. Dudas holds a J.D. from the University of Chicago and a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Illinois.