Leadership & Governance

Dana Brown Northcott is Vice President and Associate General Counsel for Amazon’s Intellectual Property team, where she leads the attorneys and legal professionals who support Amazon’s valuable brands and growing portfolio on trademark, domain name, gTLD, copyright and content protection efforts. Ms. Northcott devises Amazon’s intellectual property strategies and policies across the business globally, partnering closely with Amazon’s Marketing, Security, and Public Policy teams on brand protection, anti-counterfeiting, advertising, marketing, internet governance and litigation. She also represents Amazon on the Governing Board of Directors for the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment.

Prior to Amazon, Ms. Northcott was Legal Counsel for Agilent Technologies, and an Attorney for Howrey LLP in Menlo Park, California, and London, England. She has a Diploma in Intellectual Property Law and Practice from the University of Bristol in England, a Juris Doctor from University of San Francisco Law School, and Bachelor of Arts degree from Stanford University. Ms. Northcott is a Distinguished Member of the United States Patent Office and Trademark Office, on the Trademark Public Advisory Committee (TPAC), a Founding Governing Board Member for the Association for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), a Member of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers Intellectual Property Constituency (IPC), a Founding Board Member of the Washington State Chapter of Intellectual Property Association (WIPA), a past Board Member of the PNW Chapter of Chiefs in IP (ChIPs), and takes every opportunity to be on a ski hill with her husband and two kids.

In her role as INTA President, Ms. Northcott is Chair of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee.

Elisabeth Stewart Bradley is the Vice President, Innovation Law: Trademarks, Copyrights, and Brand Protection at Bristol Myers Squibb Company, a global biopharma company, and is based in their Princeton, N.J. offices. She joined Bristol Myers Squibb in 2011, following eight years as in-house trademark counsel in the consumer products industry.

Prior to Bristol Myers Squibb, Ms. Stewart Bradley was in private practice in New York City for several years, handling both litigation and IP matters for a diverse range of clients. She graduated from The University of Virginia School of Law and holds a B.A. from The College of William & Mary.

Ms. Stewart Bradley currently serves on the Executive Committee of the Board and is Chair of the Planning Committee.

Deborah A. Hampton is Senior Trademark & Copyright Program Manager at The Chemours Company FC, LLC., whose brands include Teflon and Freon. She is the global Trademark Team Leader, responsible for managing Chemours trademark and copyright portfolio focusing on prosecution, registration, strategy, enforcement, and brand protection. Prior to joining Chemours in 2015, Ms. Hampton worked on teams during her career that managed global portfolios for brands such as Victoria’s Secret, AT&T and Elizabeth Arden.

Ms. Hampton serves on the Executive Board of the Wilmington (DE) Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. She also serves as the chapter Parliamentarian. She is featured (chapter. 8) in the book “Lessons from The Top Paralegal Experts: The 15 Most Successful Paralegals in America and What You Can Learn from Them” by Carole A. Bruno. Ms. Hampton served two terms on the Trademark Public Advisory Committee of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Since inauguration in 2017 and subsequent years, Ms. Hampton has been nominated and selected for World Trademark Review’s WTR300: The World’s Leading Corporate Trademark Professionals. She has also been chosen as one of World Trademark Review’s Global Trademark Thought Leaders for the last five years.

Ms. Hampton received her bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Cincinnati. She also received an ABA-Approved Paralegal Certificate from Adelphi University’s now disbanded Paralegal Program.

Ms. Hampton currently serves on the Executive Committee of the Board and is the Group Officer of the Advocacy Group. She also serves as a member of the Association’s Leadership Development Committee and is a member of the Women’s LeadershIP Initiative Project Team.

Marlou van de Braak is the Global IP Director – Brands, Advertising & Sponsorships of HEINEKEN. Marlou is part of the global legal leadership team.

Ms. van de Braak runs the global intellectual property department. She and her team are in charge of brand protection and trademark enforcement (the Heineken company has well over 500 unique brands), marketing compliance as well as the sponsorship agreements (amongst others UEFA Champions League soccer and Formula 1 racing). The team works closely with the Global Commerce and Global Public Affairs functions as well as all HEINEKEN operating companies across the world.

Previously she was the Managing Director of Novagraaf Netherlands, an international trademark agency. She was also the head of the legal department of the Dutch Media Authority. For 17 years (6 years as a partner) Ms. van de Braak has been an IP litigation lawyer at two well-established international law firms (De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek and Hoyng Rokh Monegier).

Ms. van de Braak currently serves on the Executive Committee of the Board and is the Group Officer of the Resources Group as well as the Diversity Officer.

Sergio Barragan is the Senior Legal Director and Trademark Counsel for PepsiCo, Inc. He is responsible for PepsiCo’s food and beverage trademark portfolio in the Latin American region, in which several well-known brands exceeding the US$1B value can be identified. Mr. Barragan has more than 26 years of experience in the IP field, and his practice is focused on trademarks, copyright, portfolio management, IP litigation and conflicts, as well as strategic counseling and related matters. Mr. Barragan also provides counseling to the PepsiCo Global Foods Group in a wider range of legal issues, which include securing consistency of the major global food brands across the globe.

Before joining PepsiCo, Mr. Barragan was a senior associate at Santamarina y Steta, one of the top and most recognized full-service law firms in Mexico. Here, he started his journey with IP, learning about trademarks, copyrights, patents, and plant varieties, among other IP related matters, not only for Mexico but all around the world. This is where Mr. Barragan fell in love with IP.

Mr. Barragan serves as Treasurer and Chair of the Finance Committee of the Board. He also serves on the Executive Committee of the Board and is a member of the Association’s Copyright Committee.

Debra Y. Hughes is Assistant General Counsel for the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association where she manages a team of attorneys, paralegals and consultants supporting the marketing, communications, regulatory and policy compliance, international licensing and protection for innovative products, services and health equity initiatives.  In August of 2020, she was appointed to the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association’s Diversity Equity and Inclusion Advisory Committee. Before joining the Association, Ms. Hughes was special counsel at Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP representing Fortune 100 companies on a wide array of intellectual property, Internet and transactional matters.  Prior to Katten, she was Senior Counsel at the American Red Cross where she advised the organization regarding intellectual property, Internet strategy, entertainment, technology, fundraising and licensing agreements.  While at the American Red Cross, Ms. Hughes was appointed as a Councilor to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers’ (“ICANN”) GNSO Council with the charge to help increase the voice and participation of non-profit organizations within Internet governance.  In 2011, she received recognition from the ICANN Board of Directors for her significant contributions.  

Ms. Hughes received the “2022 In-house Leader of the Year” award from the World Trademark Review (WTR) recognizing her delivery of client services grounded in her ability to develop synergies among multiple stakeholders that collaborate to execute strategic initiatives and complex transactions that align with business priorities. Ms. Hughes received her JD, with honors, from Texas Southern University where she served as Editor-In-Chief of the Thurgood Marshall Law Review.   

Ms. Hughes serves as Secretary and is Group Officer of the Communications Group. She also serves on the Executive Committee of the Board and is a member of the Association’s In-House Practitioners Committee and Treasurer of the INTA Foundation.