meet the team
PIUS team members have successfully facilitated more than $40 billion in technology and intellectual property transactions.
Joe A. Agiato
Founder and CEO
Joe Agiato is the Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of PIUS. Joe oversees the structuring and pricing of deals, all due diligence functions, and developing and maintaining deal sourcing, patent, trademark and trade name valuations.
Kimberly Cauthorn
COO
Kimberly Klein Cauthorn is Chief Operating Officer of PIUS, overseeing all business operations and assisting in product development. An attorney, Kim brings more than 30 years of legal, academic, consulting, and insurance experience to her role.
Harry W. Rodgers
CMO
Harry has responsibility for product distribution through the insurance broker channel and for insurance carrier relationships. He also assists with the design and development of PIUS’s insurance programs.
Alexis Coyle
Senior Managing Director
Alexis Coyle brings global financing expertise to PIUS, including 20 years working with technology companies of all sizes and life stages at Silicon Valley Bank, ABN AMRO Bank, and Scotia Capital. She started her career in corporate banking in New York, with Citibank and TD Bank. Most recently, she founded and led the Technology Banking team in San Francisco for East West Bank.
Sam Khoury
Managing Director
Sam Khoury brings to PIUS more than 25 years of valuation and licensing experience. In addition to the valuation of patents, trade secrets, trademarks and general know-how, he has developed training courses on technology assessment and valuation. He is also the President and Founder of Inavisis, a firm dedicated to intellectual asset management (IAM) and leveraging of corporate intangible properties. Previously, he was Senior Intangible Asset Appraiser of The Dow Chemical Company.
Jaime Siegel
Managing Director
Jaime Siegel brings more than 25 years of international intellectual property experience to the PIUS team. More than half of his career was spent with Sony, where he was the Vice President and Senior IP Counsel, responsible for global patent licensing and litigation. He oversaw programs that generated well over one billion dollars. Jaime’s responsibilities included intellectual property licensing, litigation, and counseling. He led a global team developing and executing on licensing programs on a variety of Sony’s technologies, which included a patent portfolio of several thousand patents.
Amelia Erickson
Director
Amelia Erickson is a Director at PIUS and uses her technical skills to assess potential clients. Amelia takes a holistic approach when analyzing companies, looking at not only the intellectual property and technology, but also the company’s financial position, investors, business model, and market share.
Catherine L. Smith
CAO
Catherine Smith is the Chief Administrative Officer for PIUS, managing the day-to-day administrative needs of the company. She oversees the planning, management and direction of activities between the departments and outside the company. She is also responsible for budgeting, executive reporting, and marketing administration.
Laura Schoppe
Managing Director
Laura Schoppe has over 35 years in technology development, management, and commercialization. In addition to supporting PIUS, she also founded Fuentek in 2001, and under her leadership, the company has become one of the world’s leading technology transfer companies for university, government, corporate, and nonprofit research organizations.
Keleigh Stender
Director
Keleigh Stender has over 15 years of experience in the financial services industry. She began her career at The Mechanics Bank as a commercial credit analyst and later as a loan underwriter for Corporate Technology clients at Silicon Valley Bank, East West Bank, and City National Bank.