Contributors

The Licensing Executives Society USA & Canada recently recognized its 2026 award recipients, and Womble Bond Dickinson Partners Jeffrey Whittle and Karthika Perumal both were honored.

Whittle received the LES President’s Exemplary Service Award at the organization’s Annual Meeting. At the same meeting, Perumal was named the 2026 winner of the Frank Barnes Award for mentorship.

The LES President’s Exemplary Service Award was established in 2018 and is the highest honor that LES can give to a member of the intellectual capital management (ICM) community. This award honors an LES volunteer who has made an outstanding contribution to the health, vibrancy, and well-being of the Society. 

Whittle has devoted more than 20 years to the LES, including serving as the organization’s President and Chair in 2015-16. He also spent years on the LES Board of Directors and currently serves as Co-Chair of the Americas Committee for LES International. Whittle also has worked to grow LESI’s membership, including by backing the effort to launch a chapter in Saudi Arabia.

LES USA & Canada President Mike Perham said Whittle “has led this Society, taught its members, and then kept showing up long after any title required it. Many of us in this room learned our craft from him, or from someone he taught, and the quality of our community today reflects that.”

The Frank Barnes Award was established in 2000 by a group of LES members to memorialize Frank Barnes’ vast contributions to the field of licensing through mentorship. Each year at the LES Annual Meeting, the Frank Barnes Award is presented to an LES member who has dedicated considerable time and energy to mentoring fellow licensing professionals.

Perham described Perumal as “someone who brings out the best in everyone they mentor, with enthusiasm and warmth that draw people in.” He said she has “a gift for finding newcomers to this community and finding them opportunities to shine.”

Perumal is a former President and Chair of LES USA & Canada, and she is Womble Bond Dickinson’s Houston Office Managing Partner.

The LES USA & Canada Annual Meeting took place October 18-21 in San Diego.