Speaker

The Honorable Deborah L. Wince-Smith is the President & CEO of the Council on Competitiveness, a non-partisan leadership coalition of CEO’s, University Presidents, Labor Union Leaders, and National Laboratory Directors, all committed to developing policy solutions and national initiatives to drive future productivity growth, prosperity for all Americans, and the global success of American business.

She has more than 20 years of experience as a senior U.S. government official, as the first Senate-confirmed Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy in the U.S. Department of Commerce in the Administration of President George H.W. Bush, and as the Assistant Director for International Affairs in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Reagan Administration. She served as a Senate confirmed member of the Oversight Board of the Internal Revenue Service in the Administrations of President George W. Bush and President Barack H. Obama.

 Ms. Wince-Smith is also the President and Founder of the Global Federation of Competitiveness Councils (GFCC). She previously served on the Smithsonian National Board, the Secretary of State’s Committee on International Economic Policy, the U.S. Naval Academy Foundation, and the Board of Governors of Argonne National Laboratory. She served as Chairman of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Competitiveness and as a Public Director of NASDAQ-OMX. 

Ms. Wince-Smith currently serves on the Advisory Committee of the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) and UNICEF. She is also a Commissioner on the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property, and as a member of the Council of Japan’s Science and Technology in Society (STS) Forum. As an expert in technology commercialization, Ms. Wince-Smith serves on the Board of Directors of Aerolase, Inc. and Q-Net Security, Inc., and she serves as the Vice Chair of the Board of the American College of Greece. 

Ms. Wince-Smith graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Vassar College and earned a master’s degree in Classical Archaeology from King’s College, Cambridge University. She has received Honorary Doctorates from Michigan State University, the University of Toledo, the Queens University Belfast, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and the University of South Carolina.