Rob is President & CEO of LAVA Group, Inc., an intellectual property investment bank that is focused on helping its clients create, manage and leverage intellectual assets.  Rob founded LAVA Group on the principle that many companies spend little time focusing on the creation, management and exploitation of their intellectual assets.  As a result, a vast amount of untapped value lies dormant within companies, large and small, technical and non-technical.  By combining in one firm, global experts in innovation, intellectual property, strategy/analysis and licensing, LAVA Group delivers an unmatched end-to-end value proposition to its clients.

Previously, Rob held the positions of SVP, Business Development, General Counsel of ZapMedia, Inc., a digital media entertainment and technology company.  At ZapMedia, he licensed the critical technologies required to build a consumer electronics and content delivery platform (including a landmark licensing relationship with Microsoft) and identified, targeted and licensed this newly created platform to companies worldwide.  Before joining ZapMedia, Rob held the positions of VP of Strategic Alliances and General Counsel of Security First Network Bank (SFNB), the world's first Internet bank.  Prior to SFNB, he practiced law with Troutman Sanders LLP, an international law firm, where he had an intellectual property, technology, M&A, and general corporate practice. 

Rob is a board member of Camp Twin Lakes (www.camptwinlakes.org), a camp for chronically and terminally ill children.  He conceptualized, created and co-hosted a talk radio show in Atlanta on work and careers on 790AM (Atlanta) - The Zone, which was sponsored by USA TODAY.  Penguin-Putnam, Inc. has published three consumer guides to intellectual property co-authored by Rob (published fall of 2004).  Rob is the inventor or co-inventor of eight pending U.S. Patent Applications.  In 2004, the Atlanta Business Chronicle named Rob one of Atlanta's 50 under 40 up and comers and Catalyst Magazine named Rob Catalyst of the Week in December 2003.  In 2009, IAM Magazine named Rob one of the Top 250 IP Strategists in the world.  He is a magna cum laude graduate of Villanova Law School where he was an editor of the Villanova Law Review and studied economics at Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA.