Steven L. Berman, Esq.

Steven L. Berman currently serves as Executive Director, Digital Media Research and Academic Initiatives for the University of California, Los Angeles; Founder and CEO, Berman & Company; and Consultant to the University President’s Council and the Ministry of Economic Development. Mr. Berman has served as a senior management professional, academic, attorney, economic and management consultant, entrepreneur, and engineer providing solutions and advancing cutting edge issues while executing day-to-day responsibilities. Background includes hands on experience in both academia and industry, launching and managing academic, educational and multi-million dollar research programs for diverse organizations, technology enterprises, professional consulting and law practices with emphasis on innovation management and intellectual property.

 

Relevantly, Mr. Berman most recently has been the architect of British Columbia (BC), Canada and California advanced collaborations with a focus on developing and implementing an international tripartite, academic, government, and industrial set of strategic research, commercialization and economic advancement initiatives. Key technology themes have focused on life sciences, Asia-Pacific, goods movement and infrastructure, and power technology (alternative energy, intelligent transportation). A key focus is to determine and adopt best practices leading to societal solutions, advanced commercialization and a distributed educational and training framework for next generation jobs.

Mr. Berman has served as Co-Founder & Co-Director of the UCSB-MAT-CNSI Collaboratorium integrating the Media Arts and Technology graduate degree program with the $100 million California Nanosystems Institute, CNSI, (one of four UC Institutes for Science and Innovation to expand California's role as a leader in technical innovation); Director, Strategic Business Alliances & Convergence Technologies Development for the University of California System-wide (ten campuses and three national laboratories) Digital Media Innovation Program (a $30 million dollar industry-university-state matching grants program); Director, Business Development for Business Research Partnerships at UCLA (now an $800 million dollar research and $10 million dollar licensing organization); faculty in the Media, Arts & Technology Graduate Program (MAT) at UCSB; General Counsel, TVS Entertainment (former International Entertainment Conglomerate) and international speaker and lecturer.

Mr. Berman earned his B.S. degree, magna cum laude, in Materials Science/Ceramic Engineering from Rutgers College of Engineering and his J.D. degree from Yeshiva University, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. He is member of the State Bar of California, various Federal Courts including the U.S Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court.