Founder, Free Vector Law Group PC (Licensed in WA, TX, and CA)
Founder, Free Vector Consulting LLC (Business Advisory Services)
Bert Sugayan is an accomplished business executive and lawyer with extensive legal and business experience in the technology, media, and professional service industries. Mr. Sugayan assists clients on a wide variety of business and legal matters, including business formation, business law and governance, international transactions, intellectual property licensing, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and strategic partnerships, and pre-exit and strategic business planning and advisory services, and acts as outside general counsel for many of his clients.
Mr. Sugayan’s experience includes senior executive management positions in strategy and business development with leading media and technology companies, including Corbis, Getty Images, and ARIS Corporation. As Senior Vice President of Strategy and Business Development at Corbis, Mr. Sugayan had global responsibility for that company’s mobile, film, consumer, and rights services businesses, and had similar responsibilities as VP of Right Services at Getty Images. Mr. Sugayan also served as President and CEO of Oxford Computer Group (North America), where he helped launch that company’s North American operations and developed a partnership with Microsoft that led to Oxford being named Microsoft Partner of the Year in 2008.
Mr. Sugayan also served as General Counsel for both Corbis and ARIS Corporation, where he oversaw the legal aspects of those companies’ day-to-day legal affairs, including merger and acquisition strategies, and ARIS’s successful IPO. He has served as an attorney with law firms both in the U.S. and abroad, focusing on business law and governance, international transactions, intellectual property licensing, mergers and acquisitions, and joint ventures and strategic partnerships.
Mr. Sugayan was a founding board advisor and instructor for the Business Development Certificate Program at the University of Washington. Mr. Sugayan has published several articles and authored the chapter for “Graphic and Pictorial Works” in the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Guide on the Licensing of Copyright and Related Rights (2004).
Mr. Sugayan is a member of the California, Washington, and Texas Bar Associations.
Mr. Sugayan holds a B.A. in economics and English literature from University of Michigan, a J.D. from Notre Dame Law School, and an LLM in corporate law from New York University Law School.
“[Bert’s] business acumen and creativity made a major contribution to Corbis. I enjoyed all our work together.”
– Corbis and Microsoft Founder, Bill Gates