“The explosion of new technology over the past few decades has prompted a broad reappraisal of the traditional engineering curriculum, which tended to focus on compartmentalization. The Leonhard Center comes into being at a time of critical need. First, it will provide a needed incubator for new ideas in engineering education. Second, it is my hope that it will also discover ways to encourage young people to prepare themselves for engineering careers, with special attention to underrepresented groups such as women and minorities.”

William L. Keefauver

Vice President and General Counsel, Retired
AT&T Bell Laboratories Corporate Vice President - Law, Retired
AT&T

Bill Keefauver is an attorney who retired in 1989 from AT&T where he had served in the dual capacities of Vice President and General Counsel of AT&T Bell Laboratories and Corporate Vice President – Law of AT&T with responsibility for intellectual property law matters.

Since then he has served as a private consultant in the field of intellectual property law with emphasis on patent licensing and litigation.

He has served as an advisor to the US Patent and Trademark Office and also to the US Department of Commerce and the USTR in trade related negotiations. He also served as a member of the US delegation on treaty negotiations relating to the Paris Convention on intellectual property matters.

He has headed both the intellectual property law section of the American Bar Association and the US group of AIPPI, a world-wide association devoted to the protection of intellectual property. He also served as an officer of the international association.

In 1986 he was named a Penn State Outstanding Engineering Alumnus and in 1990 received a Penn State Alumni Fellow Award. He also served several terms on the College of Engineering Industrial and Professional Advisory Council.

Mr. Keefauver is a trustee of the Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concord, NH.

He received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Penn State and a law degree from the New York University School of Law. During WWII, he served in the Army Air Corps, initially as a meteorology officer and later in communications and cryptography.