Doris Spielthenner developed NPA™ patent analysis after recognizing the potential to identify key patents and companies through a systematic analysis of their citation linkages. Doris grew up in Austria, and got interested in network analysis shortly after completing her Master degrees in communications and international business. Besides unlocking the hidden potential of patent data, Doris has also worked in business relationship analysis for a range of business sectors including the pharmaceutical, law enforcement, and infrastructure tendering in Europe, the United States and Australia.

As a pioneer in the field of relationship analysis Doris has published in a number of business journals, including the Pharmaceutical Executive, the Intellectual Property Magazine and Nature Biotechnology. Doris has also invented the concept for a reality TV series, based on social networks which has been shown in Germany and Austria. Doris was a founding partner of FAS.research Austria and it's US subsidiary, before joining PricewaterhouseCoopers, where she advises on customer analytics. Besides working with all types of data, Doris likes to surf on the Australian and Indonesian coastlines.