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Martha Ries is vice president of Intellectual Property Management for The Boeing Company, the world's largest aerospace company. Her organization is responsible for identifying protecting and leveraging intellectual property as a strategic resource.

As part of the leadership team that integrates across Boeing's different business units, Ries oversees the company's patent portfolio; licensing of its technical data, images, consumer products, trademarks and patents; and strategic plans around the company's intellectual property.

Before assuming her current position in October of 2007, Ries was the vice president of Ethics and Business Conduct for Boeing's corporate Office of Internal Governance.

Ries joined Boeing in 1997 as litigation counsel, where she focused on commercial litigation and investigations. Three years later, she was named chief counsel of Commercial Aviation Services within Boeing Commercial Airplanes. In 2003, she was appointed to lead the attorneys representing the Army Systems group within Boeing Integrated Defense Systems in Philadelphia.

Ries began her law career as a judicial clerk at the Missouri Supreme Court. She then served as a trial attorney in the Commercial Litigation Branch, Civil Division, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., where she litigated international trade and customs law issues. She then went into private practice at the Seattle law firm of Bogle & Gates in 1990, and became a partner in 1994. For almost a decade, she focused on litigation and international regulatory work and represented various corporations.

A native of St. Louis, she earned a bachelor's degree in French and Psychology from Boston College and her law degree from Saint Louis University. Ries is a member of the bar associations of the District of Columbia, Washington and Missouri. She has been on the board of several non-profit organizations both in Seattle and Philadelphia.

An active outdoors enthusiast, Ries enjoys travel and a good book. She and her family reside in the Seattle area.