East Lansing Marriott at University Place 300 M . A . C Avenue
PANEL 2 : Whether a Solo Act or Entire Team : Best Practices for Brand Protection Teams
Jay Kennedy is an Assistant Professor in the Center for Anti-Counterfeiting and Product Protection ( A-CAPP ) and School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University . He received his Ph . D . in Criminal Justice at the University of Cincinnati , where he was Graduate School Dean ’ s Distinguished Fellow , as well as a Yates Scholar . While at the University of Cincinnati , Jay was awarded a Graduate Minority Fellowship from the American Society of Criminology , and received several research grants and awards . A graduate of the MBA program at the Carl H . Lindner College of Business , University of Cincinnati , his research focuses upon deviance within corporations . Specifically , his research and published works explore issues of employee theft within small businesses , the multi-level antecedents of corporate crime , and the role business ethics plays in decision-making . Prior to attending graduate school , Jay spent just over 8 years working for a number of corporations in the metro Detroit area , including a major non-profit organization , a family-owned automotive supplier , and a Fortune 100 corporation .
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PANELISTS
Noel Belton is the Director of Brand Protection at Pusheen Corporation . Pusheen Corp . is the creator of Pusheen the Cat , a cute character phenomenon with 9.5 million followers on Facebook and chat stickers that are used around the world tens of millions of times every day on platforms such as Facebook , Instagram , and Snapchat . Pusheen licensed merchandise is sold in over 60 countries around the world . Noel previously worked in Law Enforcement Communications for 25 years . After retiring from the public sector he joined Pusheen Corporation as director of brand protection . In his current role he utilizes his previously acquired skills and ongoing professional development and education , in an open-minded approach to Pusheen Corp . brand protection .
John Carriero is the Senior Director of Brand Protection for Under Armour , Inc ., which he joined in 2013 to design their brand protection program from scratch . Over the last 5 years , John has created , designed , expanded and constantly improved the brand protection program for one of the world ’ s most valuable sports apparel brands . Over his tenure , Under Armour has developed and deployed a comprehensive Brand Protection program consisting of Market Monitoring , Threat Assessments , Online Monitoring , Investigations , Law Enforcement Engagements and Trainings , as well as a comprehensive seizure and destruction program . Under John ’ s leadership , Under Armour expanded its Brand Protection program to span all five continents with special focus on key markets , such as Asia and North America . John encourages and fosters creative problem solving by his teams to deploy best practices from across a wide range of diverse and unique countries to safeguard the most important asset of the company . Prior to joining Under Armour , John led the brand protection efforts for Abercrombie & amp ; Fitch , which became one of the leading brand protection programs globally , deploying innovative approaches to address the growing threat from virtual marketplaces and on-line traders . John ’ s extensive experience includes military intelligence , private sector security , K-9 security , loss prevention , corporate security and brand protection with global assignments across all five continents . John holds two BA degrees from The Ohio State University .
Jason Daniels is the Senior Investigation Manager with Underwriters Laboratories ’ ( UL ) Global Security Brand Protection Unit . His primary responsibility is to supervise and facilitate intellectual property theft investigations in the Americas . Mr . Daniels has focused his efforts on combating counterfeiting for over 14 years . He has written curriculum that has been presented throughout the United States concerning fraud investigations and has been a law enforcement instructor for over 18 years . Prior to entering the corporate arena Mr . Daniels was a sworn law enforcement officer in the State of North Carolina serving his last post as Special Agent in Charge with the Secretary of State ’ s Office . He is a graduate of Shaw University and continued his graduate development at the University of Louisville .
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