At the 2024 National Competitiveness Forum, Council President and CEO Deborah Wince-Smith presented the 2024 National Competitiveness Award to Mr. Brian T. Moynihan, Chair and CEO of Bank of America and Chair of the Council on Competitiveness. This honor highlights Mr. Moynihan’s sustained efforts over his career, as well as during his time as Council chair, to advance efforts and initiatives that support sustainability, resiliency, innovation, and competitiveness.
In accepting the National Competitiveness Award, Mr. Moynihan focused his remarks on the tremendous innovation potential inherent in the United States, highlighting the nation’s unparalleled higher education system, unique national laboratories, industrial capability, and robust capital markets. He noted that when the Council was founded nearly forty years ago, the nation was facing questions related to its place in the world, with fears of an ascendant Japan raising concerns over the United States' global leadership. Many of the same concerns have resurfaced today regarding China, and the Council and its community must again rise to the challenge and set the global competitiveness agenda.
Mr. Moynihan has led Bank of America since 2010, overseeing 210,000 employees globally. Since taking the helm, he has led Bank of America through a time of intense global change, growing the value and prosperity of both the company he leads and the millions of individuals, businesses, and institutional investors who rely on Bank of America. Under Brian's leadership, Global Finance Magazine named Bank of America as their 2023 World's Best Bank, JUST Capital named it as one of America's most "JUST" companies, and Fortune has consistently rated it among their "World's Most Admired Companies."
Mr. Moynihan's work as Chair of the Council has also been extraordinary. He took on the role in February 2021 and has overseen several important Council initiatives, including the implementation of Phase 1 of the National Commission on Innovation and Competitiveness Frontiers, which shaped the competitiveness agenda of the Biden administration, including the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act. Also during his leadership, the Council launched the "Competitiveness Conversations Across America" leadership series, engaging our members from academia, industry, labor, and the national laboratories with the goal of expanding the geography and demography of the innovation economy.
Many other Council important Council programs advanced under his stewardship. The Council engaged for the first time in the COP28 climate talks in Dubai, where we held the first "Innovation Arena," with plans for further engagement at COP30 in Brazil. The Technology Leadership and Strategy Initiative (TLSI) celebrated its 15th Anniversary this fall and will release a new "Compact for America" in 2025. Additionally, at the 2024 National Competitiveness Forum, Mr. Moynihan and Ms. Wince-Smith released a major policy report coming from the National Commission: Competing in the Next Economy – Innovating in an Age of Disruption and Discontinuity, with 50+ recommendations organized in seven critical competitiveness pillars.
The Council is as strong today as at any point in our almost 38-year history, and for that we are very grateful to Moynihan for his leadership, and commitment to our mission and work.
About the NCA
The National Competitiveness Award recognizes individuals from the public and private sectors who have made lasting contributions to America's prosperity by advancing U.S. leadership in talent, technology, and innovation. Previous winners include Cabinet Secretaries, U.S. Senators, and innovators from across the competitiveness ecosystem.
