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Public policy is global. BSA is global in our approach to public policy. Working with governments around the world and multilateral organizations, BSA's global public policy staff advocates for innovation in the commercial software industry, strong intellectual property protection, patent reform, cyber security, reduction of trade barriers, and other emerging technology policy issues:
Katherine McGuire is responsible for BSA’s US and global public policy programs and oversees a team of government relations professionals in Washington and Brussels. McGuire directs BSA’s policy campaigns on issues of importance to the high tech industry including intellectual property protection, patent reform, cyber security, and trade.
Prior to joining BSA, McGuire served 17 years in the US Senate. During her Senate tenure, McGuire worked on numerous tech policy issues and a variety of other legislative proposals. For the last 10 years, McGuire worked for Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY) in various leadership positions, including serving as his Legislative Director, as Staff Director of the Senate Banking Subcommittee on International Trade and Finance, and as Staff Director of the Banking Subcommittee on Securities and Investment. In her most recent position, she served as the Republican Staff Director for the US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), where she led countless legislative initiatives for Senator Enzi. In the 109th Congress, she served as Majority Staff Director for the HELP Committee.
McGuire’s career in Washington began in 1990, when she spent five years as a legislative assistant and floor assistant to former Senator Alan Simpson. From 1995 to 1997, she worked on the staff of the Senate Agriculture Committee for Chairman Richard Lugar. McGuire holds a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science from the University of Wyoming. She is based in BSA’s Washington, DC, office.
Thomas Boué oversees the Business Software Alliance’s public policy activities in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. He advises BSA members on public policy and legal developments and advocates the views of the ICT sector with both European and national policy makers. He leads on security and privacy issues as well as broader efforts to improve levels of intellectual property protection and to promote open markets, fair competition, and technology innovation in new areas such as cloud computing.
Prior to joining BSA, Boué served as a consultant in Weber Shandwick where he advised clients on a wide range of technology and ICT-related policy issues and represented them before the EU institutions and industry coalitions. In this role, he also served as policy and regulatory adviser for both EU and US telecom operators. Prior to that Boué worked for the EU office of the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry where he was responsible for the lobbying activities towards the EU Institutions in the areas of trade, education, and labor, as well as for the organization and running of seminars on EU affairs for SMEs and business professionals.
Boué holds a Masters of Business Administration from the Europa-Insitut (Saarbrücken, Germany), a Certificate of Integrated Legal Studies (trilateral and trilingual Master’s degree in French, English, German and European Law, from the Universities of Warwick (UK), Saarland (Germany) and Lille II (France) as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Law from the University of Lille II, France. He is based in BSA’s Brussels office.
Randolph Court drives BSA’s policy communications in Washington. He helps produce BSA’s flagship studies, develops messaging for executive events, edits BSA’s blog, and manages media relations strategy for priority issues such as intellectual property protection, trade policy, cybersecurity, and cloud computing.
Prior to joining BSA, Court was a Vice President with the global public relations firm MS&L Worldwide. He developed and executed strategic communications plans and public affairs campaigns for leading corporations, trade associations, and philanthropic foundations, including Deutsche Asset Management, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the World Gold Council, and the Corn Farmers Coalition. Previously, Court spent nine years as a policy analyst, editor, and fellow at the Democratic Leadership Council and Progressive Policy Institute, where he co-authored a path-breaking series of “New Economy Index” reports illustrating the economic impact of information technologies and recommending policies to spur the transition to a digital economy.
Court started as a business writer for Wired News in San Francisco, having earned a master’s degree in journalism from UC Berkeley. He holds a bachelor’s degree in American Studies from UC Santa Cruz.
As Director of International Trade and Intellectual Property, Jesse Feder oversees the Business Software Alliance’s global efforts to improve levels of intellectual property protection and market access for computer software.
Before joining BSA, Feder served as a senior policy adviser in the United States Copyright Office. During his tenure at the Office he participated in the negotiation and drafting of a number of trade pacts, as well as numerous elements of domestic copyright legislation. He headed the Office of Policy and International Affairs for two years.
Prior to joining the Copyright Office he was in private practice in New York.
Feder received his Bachelor of Arts from Yale and his Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School. He is based in BSA’s Washington, DC, office.
As Director of Government Relations, John Hasselmann is responsible for oversight of BSA’s relationship with members of the US House of Representatives. He works with members of Congress on high technology policy regarding copyright, security, trade, privacy, taxes, licensing, and education.
Before joining BSA, Hasselmann coordinated political outreach to state and local officials for the Democratic Leadership Council. He also served as director of the Washington office for Gov. Carl Gutierrez of Guam, and as a legislative analyst for Virginia Governor L. Douglas Wilder. Hasselmann also served as a legislative assistant to Virginia Congressman Jim Olin, handling education, labor, and social security issues. Hasselmann has been active in numerous political campaigns as a volunteer, fundraiser, and policy adviser.
Hasselmann earned a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Virginia Tech. He is based in BSA’s Washington, DC, office.
As Technology Policy Counsel, Chris Hopfensperger works with the Business Software Alliance’s members to develop the BSA’s technology policy positions and articulate these positions to US and international policy makers. He advises members in such critical areas such as innovation, copyright protection, privacy, e-commerce, and cloud computing.
Prior to joining BSA, Hopfensperger served as a technology and trade policy associate with K&L Gates, where he advised companies and industry associations on pursuing legislation and representing their issues before Congress and the federal agencies and in the courts. Previously, Hopfensperger worked as a newspaper journalist. He edited and wrote for several metropolitan dailies, including The Washington Post, The Sacramento Bee, and the St. Petersburg Times.
Hopfensperger holds a law degree from the University of Michigan and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Nebraska. He is based in BSA’s Washington, DC, office.
Tim Molino coordinates and manages BSA’s US government relations activities. He is responsible for BSA’s relationship with members of the US Senate regarding issues important to the tech community.
Prior to joining BSA, Molino worked in the US Senate. He served as Chief Counsel for Senator Amy Klobuchar and worked for the Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights Subcommittee. He was responsible for advising Senator Klobuchar on a variety of tech issues, including intellectual property, trade, innovation, telecommunications, broadband deployment, cyber security, and privacy. His portfolio also consisted of antitrust, transportation, tourism, and consumer protection issues.
He began his career in Washington as an intellectual property attorney at Bingham McCutchen and prior to that, Burns, Doane, Swecker, and Mathis (now Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney). During his law career, he focused on patent litigation in the areas of software, electronics, business methods, medical devices, and biotech. He also litigated copyright and trademark cases. In addition, Molino prosecuted patent applications and provided counseling regarding noninfringement and validity issues.
Molino received his law degree from Washington and Lee University and a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Mary Washington. He is based in BSA’s Washington DC, office.
As Director of Public Policy and Emerging Markets, David Ohrenstein oversees the Business Software Alliance’s public policy programs and initiatives in China, India, Brazil, Russia, and other key emerging markets.
Before joining BSA, Ohrenstein was senior counsel to Fontheim International, LLC, where he advised clients on international trade, business, and government relations matters related to their international operations. Prior to that, he was Executive Director and Trade Counsel to the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, an advisory body established by Congress to analyze and report on the trade and security dimensions of the US-China relationship.
Ohrenstein also served as a senior adviser to the chairman of the US Export-Import Bank, where he coordinated a broad portfolio of emerging market export initiatives and served as a liaison to the White House, Treasury Department, and State Department. He began his career in Washington as a legislative assistant to Congressman Lawrence J. Smith (FL).
Ohrenstein received a Bachelor of Arts from Cornell University and a Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School, where he was an editor of the Columbia Law Review. He is based in BSA’s Washington, DC, office.
As Director of Communications for the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region, Lisa Randles oversees BSA’s corporate communications activities across the region, and provides public relations and communications support for BSA’s European public policy efforts. She also drives communications for BSA’s global research initiatives devising strategies to raise awareness of the scale and impact of software piracy, and to communicate the value of intellectual property to society and global economies.
Prior to joining BSA, Randles served as Deputy Director, Communications, for a US not-for-profit organization, the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, where she devised and executed groundbreaking PR initiatives to educate communities about the dangers of illegal drug use. She also spent nearly a decade at global PR firm Burson-Marsteller, most recently as a director in the public affairs practice where she drove internal and external communications programs for global telecommunications and consumer goods clients.
Randles has a Bachelor of Arts from Pepperdine University and a Master of Business Administration from the Stern School of Business at New York University. She is based in BSA’s UK office.
Emery Simon is Counselor to the Business Software Alliance. He advises the BSA and its member companies on a broad range of domestic and international policy issues including intellectual property, technology policy, trade and security. The BSA’s members include the leading software and computer companies in the business of developing creative software solutions for the work-place, school, and home.
Previously, Simon was the Executive Director of the Alliance to Promote Software Innovation, and was the Deputy Assistant USTR for Intellectual Property at the Office of the United States Trade Representative, where he was the principal US negotiator on intellectual property. Simon has also worked for the Congressional Budget Office, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Council on Environmental Quality, and Kaye, Scholer, Fierman, Hays and Handler.
Simon has a law degree from Georgetown University, a master’s degree in international affairs from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Queens College. He is based in BSA’s Washington, DC, office.
Roger Somerville supports and promotes BSA’s public policy and government-outreach agenda throughout the Asia-Pacific region, covering issues such as copyright legislation, cloud computing, and data privacy, along with bilateral government interactions and related software and intellectual policy matters.
Before joining BSA in 2011, Somerville was a director in the Beijing office of APCO Worldwide, a global public affairs consultancy, where he advised business leaders on policy, regulation, and investment issues in China. He was previously a New Zealand diplomat, serving in posts in Beijing, Taipei, Canberra, and Melbourne. While posted in the New Zealand Embassy in Beijing, Somerville led work on negotiating a free trade agreement between China and New Zealand.
He has a Master of Arts degree in international relations from the Australian National University, and joint Bachelor of Arts (Honours, first class) degrees in history and political studies from Otago University in New Zealand. Somerville also has studied at the London School of Economics and Moscow State University. He is fluent in Chinese and maintains a working knowledge of Russian.
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