Former Chief IP Officer at Volvo Car Corporation brings extensive IP knowledge, business acumen and management acuity
Harness Dickey, one of the country’s leading intellectual property law firms, is pleased to announce the appointment of Ray Millien to Chief Executive Officer. As CEO, Millien will guide the firm, established in 1921, into a new century of innovation and delivering cutting-edge global legal services. Millien succeeds the 100-year-old firm’s first-ever CEO Bill Coughlin, who will assume a CEO Emeritus role.
Millien, whose distinguished background and nearly 25 years of experience include in-house IP counsel positions in four different industries — automotive, energy, financial services, and healthcare – and also in practice at both a large general practice firm and an IP boutique. In all those roles he proved himself adept at building and managing teams. That extensive and varied expertise positioned him to assume the top leadership role at Harness Dickey and prepared him with the insight and knowledge to solve the complex legal issues the prestigious global IP firm’s clients regularly encounter.
“I’m honored that the firm’s Executive Committee selected me to build on Bill’s success,” said Millien, who was most recently Chief IP Officer at Volvo Car Corporation and CEO of Volvo Cars Ventures in Sweden. “As CEO, I’ll not only practice with the finest IP lawyers, but also will help Harness Dickey build on its long and preeminent history of serving the country’s most elite businesses, universities, inventors, artists and entrepreneurs. It’s the ultimate opportunity in the perfect place with the right people.”
Millien’s vision for the future includes reimagining the way IP boutiques deliver legal services, ensuring the firm emulates its clients by embracing innovation with a similar zeal. He also plans to utilize through operational efficiency some of the work-life balance ideology he admired in Sweden. What he doesn’t intend to change are the tenets that have benefited both the firm and its clients so well during the past century: high-quality work, exceptional service and a focus on helping clients achieve the most from their IP investment.
“Our firm is in the ideal position for me to entrust its leadership to someone with the acumen, ideas and energy to catapult us into the next stage of our growth,” said Coughlin. “I’m grateful to everyone who has helped me achieve through the pandemic the progress we’ve made toward our goals, and I look forward to my new role as CEO emeritus. No one better than Ray can help us continue to harness innovation as we start on our next 100 years.”
In addition to Volvo Cars, Millien led the IP function at GE Oil & Gas (now Baker Hughes) and the American Express Company, and the software IP function at GE Healthcare. He also served as general counsel at Ocean Tomo, LLC and practiced IP law at DLA Piper and Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox. Intellectual Asset Management (IAM) magazine has repeatedly named Millien one of the “World’s 300 Leading IP Strategists.”
