Deborah L. Wince-Smith is the president & CEO of the Council on Competitiveness, a coalition of CEOs, university presidents, labor leaders and national laboratory directors, committed to driving U.S. competitiveness. 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 and Assistant Director for International Affairs in the Reagan White House.
As a globally recognized leader and practitioner in competitiveness strategy, innovation policy, technology commercialization, and public-private partnerships, Ms. Wince-Smith has served and is a current member on numerous national and global advisory boards and committees, as a University Trustee, and as a director on public and private corporate boards.
She has served on the University of California’s President Council for the National Laboratories, the Board of Governors of Argonne National Laboratory, the US Naval Academy Foundation, the Smithsonian National Board, as a Trustee of Lehigh University, member of the Advisory Committee of the US Export-Import Bank, UNICEF, the Secretary of State’s International Economic Policy Committee, as Chair of the Secretary of Commerce’s Strengthening America’s Communities Initiative (SACI), Chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Competitiveness, member of Malaysia’s Global Science and Innovation Advisory Council (GSIAC), and as a Corporate Director of NASDAQ-OMX.
Currently, Ms. Wince-Smith serves as a Commissioner on the Council on Competitiveness National Commission on Innovation and Competitiveness Frontiers, the National Commission of the Theft of American Intellectual Property, a Council Member of the Japan Science, Technology, and Society forum (STS forum), as a member of the Global Advisory Committees of the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) and the Delphi Economic Forum (DEF), the National Academies Strategic Council on Research Excellence, Integrity, and Trust, as Vice-Chair of the Trustees of the American College of Greece (ACG), the Strategic Research Advisory Committee of the University of Oklahoma, the advisory committee of Queen’s Management School, Queen’s University, Belfast, and as a Director of private technology companies in medical lasers, cybersecurity, and bio-therapeutics.
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 received an Honorary Doctorate in Humanities from Michigan State University, an Honorary Doctorate of Public Administration from the University of Toledo, an Honorary Doctorate of Law honoris causa from the Queens University Belfast, an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters honoris causa from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and, most recently, an Honorary Doctorate of Public Service from the University of South Carolina.
