Deborah Wince-Smith

Deborah L. Wince-Smith is President of the Council on Competitiveness. Founded in 1986, the Council is the only national organization that brings together leading CEOs, university presidents, and labor leaders to promote U.S. productivity growth, success in global markets, and a rising standard of living for all Americans. The Council’s current portfolio includes a range of regional, national and global projects formed to drive competitive advantage. The flagship effort, the National Innovation Initiative, released the groundbreaking Innovate America report in December 2004, which forms the basis for omnibus innovation legislation to be introduced shortly by Senators Ensign and Lieberman. In 2004 Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez appointed her as Chairman of his Strengthening America’s Communities Initiative Federal Advisory Committee, which produced the first detailed assessment of federal investment and policy in regional economic development in almost forty years. An internationally recognized expert on science and technology policy, innovation strategy, regional economic development and global competition, Wince-Smith serves on a number of boards and committees, including the Board of Directors of the NASDAQ Stock Market, the National Science Board’s Task Force on Transformative Research, the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board’s Task Force on Nuclear Power, the National Research Council’s Committee on Innovation Models for Aerospace Technologies, the University of California President’s Council for Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, and the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. She is a trustee of the National Inventors Hall of Fame and a national juror for the MIT Lemelson Award for Invention. From 1989 to 1993, Ms. Wince-Smith served as the first Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy in the Department of Commerce Technology Administration. In that capacity, she developed technology policies and national initiatives to strengthen U.S. productivity and economic competitiveness. She served on White House policy councils, chaired the Interagency Committee on Federal Technology Transfer, and directed the President’s National Technology Initiative. She was also the U.S. representative to the multilateral Intelligent Manufacturing Systems Consortium with government and private sector leaders from the U.S., Europe, Japan, and Canada. During the Reagan Administration, Ms. Wince-Smith served as the Assistant Director for International Affairs and Competitiveness in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. As a Program Manager at the National Science Foundation from 1976-1984, she managed U.S. research programs with Eastern European countries and U.S. universities. Trained as a classical archaeologist, Ms. Wince-Smith graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Magna cum Laude from Vassar College and received her master’s degree from King’s College, Cambridge University. She is a frequent speaker at conferences and symposia and an author on technology policy and innovation.