Luis M. Alcalde
President and General Counsel

Luis M. Alcalde was named president of PICA in August 2008 after serving as the company's corporate counsel for more than 20 years as a partner at the Ohio law firm of Crabbe, Brown & James.

As president, Luis is responsible for overseeing day-to-day operations as PICA focuses on developing and scaling proprietary best practices and building infrastructure that will be required to compete and perform as a multi-million dollar global brand protection and security consulting company with international Fortune 500 clients. Thanks to his legal background, he ensures compliance and helps PICA scale its successful business philosophy through his supervision of legal, conflict resolution, policies and procedures, human resources, compliance, ethics, productivity and operations integrity.

Luis is a former Army Captain and JAG Officer where he was stationed in Germany and investigated, prosecuted and defended criminal cases. He also has worked for the Ohio Attorney General's Office, where he helped supervise a division of attorneys, investigators and auditors prosecuting white-collar crime. At Crabbe, Brown and James, Alcalde worked across multiple disciplines and international borders on international business matters and complex business litigation, developing a reputation as a tenacious litigator, consummate arbitrator and productive partner.

Luis was born in Havana, Cuba and has lived in Caracas, Venezuela and Germany. He is completely fluent in Spanish to include technical legal matters. He is a graduate of The Ohio State University (B.A. Political Science), The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law (J.D.) and Capital University School of Law (LLM, Business/Taxation). He is AV rated by Martindale-Hubble and has been named an Ohio Super lawyer.

From 1981 to 1984, Luis prosecuted and/or defended over 120 courts-martial including 36 fully contested General and Special Courts-Martial for premeditated murder, rape, armed robbery and drug trafficking. From 1984 to 1987, Luis worked as an Assistant Ohio Attorney General, providing legal advice to numerous administrative agencies of the State of Ohio. He served as lead counsel in scores of administrative cases on behalf of the State, became the first Chief of Prevailing Wage Enforcement for the Attorney General's Office and, served as Assistant Chief of the Division of Medicaid Fraud. He supervised numerous auditors and investigators, investigated Medicaid fraud in conjunction with a Special Grand Jury and prosecuted criminal fraud cases.

In 1987, Luis joined Crabbe, Brown & James. In addition to litigating hundreds of cases involving torts, class actions, police procedures, breach of contract, trade secrets, trademarks, copyrights and other commercial law issues he has appeared in American Arbitration Association hearings also representing Fortune 500 companies. His practice has included representing clients in business matters throughout Latin America including trademark issues in Cuba, contract litigation and other business matters in Uruguay, Mexico and Venezuela and, business formation in Costa Rica and Mexico. He served as outside corporate counsel in both business and litigation matters to small and mid-size companies in service, retail, media and professional services.

Among his many community activities, Luis served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Columbus Council on World Affairs from 2005 to 2007. He currently serves on the Board of Trustees of CAPA Columbus as Chairman of the Finance Committee and a member of the Executive Committee. He is presently Chairman of the Board of Commissioners of the Ohio Supreme Court's Client Security Fund. He was appointed to the 2012 Commission of the City of Columbus and is Chairperson of the committee searching to establish Columbus' first sister city relationship with a Latin American city. He also has been active in such brand protection industry groups as the International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition and International Trademark Association.