Ashley is a USPTO-registered patent practitioner who specializes in the development and management of patent portfolios for startup ventures and emerging growth companies. She takes a hands-on approach with each client, partnering with Engineering and Management teams to intimately understand each client’s business, competition, and product vision. Armed with this knowledge, Ashley is able to increase the value of her clients’ patent portfolios while reducing overall legal costs.

Ashley has significant experience building patent portfolios directed to a diverse array of technologies. Previously, with Silicon Valley’s Hudak Consulting Group LLC, a Schox Patent Group spin off, Ashley drafted and prosecuted patent applications for robotic systems, intracardiac devices, wireless healthcare technologies, physical activity equipment, biotechnologies, surgical training systems, topical drug formulations, drug repurposing, and other medical and consumer product devices. In this role, she also performed patent landscape analyses and patentability searches for healthcare technology companies.

Ashley’s company, Aurora Consulting LLC, purchased Hudak Consulting Group LLC at the end of 2016 and has maintained a similar subject matter focus. Since then, Ashley has rapidly grown the company and maintained focus on startup ventures. Aurora Consulting currently serves clients, ranging in size and technological field, throughout the U.S. and internationally. 

Ashley earned her Ph.D. (summa cum laude) in the biomedical sciences from the University of Michigan. In addition to her research in immune-mediated disorders, Ashley also worked as a technology transfer fellow in the Office of Technology Transfer at the U of M. There she analyzed nascent technology for commercialization potential (marketability, challenges, competitors, potential licensees) and patentability. During this time, Ashley authored or contributed to nine peer-reviewed publications, presented at over 25 research conferences and meetings, acquired over $25,000 in research funding, and served as an Associate Editor for Faculty of 1000, where she reviewed and highlighted cutting edge research in the biomedical research space.

After earning her Ph.D., Ashley served as a patent infringement researcher for the U of M and a regulatory writer for an Ann Arbor-based, early stage pharmaceutical company, in particular, drafting documents for approval by the European Medicines Agency.

Ashley is also a frequent host of the Patently Strategic Podcast.