Michelle K. Lee

Michelle Lee built her own television as a child. Her family is of Chinese descent. Lee simultaneously obtained a B.S. in electrical engineering and an M.S. in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1989; her master's thesis was on qualitative behavior of nonlinear circuits. She obtained her Juris Doctor from Stanford University School of Law in 1992. ==Career==

Before her legal career, Lee worked as a computer scientist at Hewlett-Packard Research Laboratories and at MIT's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Lee served as a clerk for federal judges Vaughn Walker of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California and Paul Redmond Michel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. when she joined Fenwick & West, where she later became a partner, before joining Google in 2003. Lee was deputy general counsel and head of patents and patent strategy at Google from 2003 to 2012. While at Google, she co-founded Chief IP Counsels (ChIPs), a networking organization for female patent attorneys. She was appointed Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and deputy director on January 13, 2014. Obama officially nominated Lee on November 11, and her initial confirmation hearing was held December 10. However, Congress adjourned without her confirmation, and the nomination was returned to the President on December 17. Her second confirmation hearing was held January 21, and the Senate Judiciary Committee voted unanimously in favor of her confirmation on February 26. Lee was confirmed by the full Senate by voice vote and took the oath of office on March 12, when she was sworn in by Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. Lee resigned from the USPTO on June 6, 2017. Upon Lee's resignation, USPTO Associate Solicitor Joseph Matal began performing the functions and duties of the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office until Andrei Iancu was sworn in. Private enterprise In September 2019, Lee joined Amazon Web Services as Vice President of Machine Learning Solutions Lab. In May 2020, MIT Corporation, the governing board of trustees of Lee's alma mater, elected Lee as a term member (2020–2025). In November 2021, Lee was elected to MassMutual's board of directors. In March 2022, Unity Technologies appointed Lee to its board of directors. Lee is currently the Founder, CEO and Principal Advisor of Obsidian Strategies, Inc. ==References==