Dr. Ghafele is the Director of Oxfirst Limited, a consulting firm specialized in the economics of intellectual property. Oxfirst provides advice on IP valuation, IP portfolio optimization and IP strategy. Her work as an IP economic adviser has helped companies generate substantive growth, attract finance or identify saving potentials.

She has published extensively on the economics of IP with Oxford University Press and testified multiple times for the European Commission, the Austrian and British Government and the World Bank. In addition to her assignment with Oxfirst, she holds academic positions in both law and business school with Oxford and Edinburgh University. Prior to that, she was an Assistant Professor in Economics with the University of Oxford and a Research Fellow with the Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley.

From 2002 to 2007 she worked as an Economist with the U.N.’s World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). In 2000 she started her career with the management consulting firm McKinsey & Company. Her Ph.D. was awarded the Theodor Koerner Research Prize by the President of the Republic of Austria.

Dr. Ghafele was trained at Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies, the Sorbonne and Vienna University. She is native in German and fluent in English, French, Italian and Persian.