Sherry Knowles joined GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) as senior vice-president of corporate IP and the worldwide head of IP in August 2006 – a job which sees her responsible for the company's trade marks, patents and copyrights for both litigation and transactional matters. The former head of the biotechnology and pharmaceutical IP practice group at King & Spalding for nearly 10 years and an avid science buff (she holds two degrees in organic chemistry in addition to her law degree), Knowles' interest in IP was first ignited while working as a bench level chemist at SmithKline Beecham, before it and Glaxo Wellcome merged in 2000. There, she was in charge of maintaining the patent library for the lab in which she worked, which meant that she interacted regularly with the company's patent attorneys. "I thought it was a fascinating field", says Knowles of her decision to ultimately take up patent law herself. "In patent law you can combine both working with the law and learning about all of the different kinds of technologies, as well as working with the scientists in the field. Each person who walks in the door of a patent attorney's office has a different problem, a different invention, a different group of compounds. I thought, 'this is something that will keep my interest'."

Two decades later, the company's decision to appoint her as the Philadelphia-based head of IP for a UK-centred, global pharmaceutical company has intrigued many in the IP community. However, Knowles says that GSK's decision to hire an American isn't necessarily indicative of any particular trend. "When GSK was looking for a new head of IP, I don't think they were geographically restricted", says Knowles. "I think they were looking for the person who they wanted without respect to location. Of course, it goes without saying that we have a lot of litigation in the United States and the US is our largest market, so from an IP standpoint, it makes every bit of sense to have the head of IP based here."

Although she spends weekends at home in Atlanta and works mostly from Philadelphia, as the leader of a 250-person strong IP group spread across nine locations worldwide – including offices in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, London, Stevenage, Harlow, Cambridge, Belgium, Verona, Croatia and, soon, Shanghai – Knowles is hardly confined to her US base. She spends about three weeks each month in the US and one week in London, but within that time frame travels throughout Europe as well, and will soon be dividing her time further with the December opening of the Shanghai office. "We're expanding into China and we have a commitment to have over 250 scientists in China by the end of next year and 1,000 within the next few years", reports Knowles.