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DEBORAH L. WINCE-SMITH President The Council on Competitiveness |
Deborah L. Wince-Smith is the president of the Council on Competitiveness - a premiere group of CEOs, university presidents and labor leaders committed to driving U.S. competitiveness. Since her appointment as President in 2001, she has spearheaded a national campaign that made innovation a top-tier national policy issue. Deborah is recognized in the global business community as a “go to” person for strategic counsel, as exemplified by her appointment to the Board of Directors of the NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. and the NASDAQ Stock Exchange.
As president of the Council on Competitiveness, Deborah’s expertise in technology policy, economic development and global competition is frequently sought after by government, industry and news media. She was appointed by President George W. Bush and confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as a member of the Oversight Board of the Internal Revenue Service. She is also a member of the U.S. Department of State’s Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy.
Her eclectic knowledge and prescient foresight have been called on by three presidents. She has more than 20 years of experience as a senior U.S. government official, including as Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy in the Department of Commerce during the George H.W. Bush administration. Following her government tenure, Wince-Smith became active in governance of various national scientific laboratories and provided strategic counsel to several FORTUNE 100 companies.
Since becoming president of the Council on Competitiveness, Deborah has helped recharge the national debate on competitiveness, innovation and resilience.
Wince-Smith earned a degree in classical archaeology and graduated Magna cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Vassar College. She earned her master’s degree from King’s College, Cambridge University. In December 2006 she received an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree from Michigan State University.
Ms. Wince-Smith will serve as a speaker for the General Session on “America’s Competitiveness Agenda” as well as panelist for the “Competitiveness in Manufacturing” Town Hall for the Manufacturing Discipline.
The United States faces a global competitive landscape that has changed radically and irrevocably. We are in an era of transition driven by the digital revolution, globalization, entry of emerging economies into global business and markets, and the emergence of global enterprises. Today, many emerging economies seek to follow the path of the world’s innovators. They are adopting innovation-based growth strategies, boosting government R&D, developing research parks and regional centers of innovation, and ramping up the production of scientists and engineers.
The United States cannot keep or replicate the advantages of emerging economies. We cannot compete on low wages, commodity products, standard services, and routine technology development. Knowledge and technology are increasingly commodities, so rewards do not necessarily go to those who have a great deal of these things. Instead rewards go to those who know what to do with knowledge and technology once they get it. This has created an “Innovation Imperative” for the United States.
More than 100 years ago, American society reorganized around the Industrial Age. Now we must optimize society for an Age of Innovation. High value added manufacturing must play a central role: exploiting the leading edge of the nanotechnology, biotechnology, and digital revolutions; fulfilling the global need for clean energy and energy efficiency innovations; by increasing productivity and speed to market with digitally-infused production operations and networks; and through widespread deployment of high performance computing to lower the cost of innovation and develop high value innovations that would otherwise be impossible.
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