The United States is undergoing a period of profound disruption and discontinuity. To lead in the next economy, the country must rethink and reorient its innovation strategy. As the Mountain West Competitiveness Conversation kicked off its first full day, Council on Competitiveness President and CEO Deborah Wince-Smith shared how the Council has been shaping the conversation around innovation and competitiveness for decades, and how the Mountain West is gearing up to lead in the new frontiers of quantum computing and climate resilience technologies.
Kicking off the first full day of the Mountain West Competitiveness Conversation, Council on Competitiveness President and CEO Deborah Wince-Smith highlighted the profound turbulence, transition, and transformation shaping the global competitiveness landscape today. Disruption is now the norm, making the Council's mission—to drive productivity, catalyze the next generation of ecosystems, drive inclusive economic growth, and strengthen national security—more crucial than ever.
“The geographic concentration of innovation and benefits of innovation have to be spread more evenly across all the parts of our great nation.”
The Hon. Deborah Wince-Smith
President and CEO
Council on Competitiveness
In 2019, under the leadership of Council Chair Brian Moynihan, Chair and CEO of Bank of America, the Council launched its flagship "National Commission on Innovation and Competitiveness Frontiers," which includes more than 60 National Commissioners from across the country — all leaders from business, academia, labor, and the U.S. DOE National Laboratory System. The Commission's first report, "Competing in the Next Economy," presented a 10x imperative: to increase the number of innovations, the speed of innovations, and the number of innovators by tenfold. And to achieve this objective, the United States needs to field more individuals and more places on the innovation team.
To advance this goal, the Council piloted the “Competitive Conversations Across America” series at the University of Wyoming in 2021, launching formally in Nashville, TN, in April 2024. The Conversations aim to convene cross-sector leaders to understand regional dynamics, assess local strengths, and empower regional leaders to collaboratively develop strategies for integration.
The initiative to understand the best practices for "place-making innovation" — that is, the intentional, strategic creation of an investment, research, and policy ecosystem that makes a place come to life with a vigorous, vibrant, and innovation-driven economy — began in Nashville, TN. The Tennessee Competitiveness Conversation focused on mobility, energy, and advanced manufacturing. Next up, the Competitiveness Conversation series moved to Boise, ID, to explore semiconductors, advanced nuclear technologies, and cybersecurity. The series wrapped up in West Lafayette, IN, with discussions on how “chips, qubits, and molecules” are reshaping the Indiana-Illinois Innovation Corridor. The year 2025 started with a visit to San Antonio, TX, known as “cyber city,” to examine its integration into national defense and critical infrastructure ecosystems.
Now, in the Mountain West—featuring three collaborating states Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico up and down the I-25 Innovation Corridor—the Council is focused on the emergence of quantum computing and sustainable technologies. In quantum computing, the Ms. Wince-Smith noted the Mountain West boasts an unmatched concentration of talent, investment, and innovation. The region has attracted $3 billion in quantum infrastructure investments, $1 billion in venture capital, produced four quantum Nobel laureates, and created 3,000 quantum jobs, positioning it at the forefront of a new computing revolution. Meanwhile, the climate resilience ecosystem has made significant strides, poised to lead globally in environmental risk mitigation. Areas such as cleaner agriculture, water resource monitoring, and wildfire prevention are exemplified by over eighty clean tech startups in the region. The Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute, a partnership between Colorado University Boulder and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, is just one example of the thriving public-private collaborations emerging here.
Overall, the Mountain West innovation ecosystem demonstrates robust growth and potential, poised to guide the nation toward a more prosperous, productive, and resilient future while enhancing the economies of its three constituent states. Ms. Wince-Smith concluded by introducing Colorado Governor Jared Polis, one of the most qualified voices on the evolution of the Mountain West's interstate ecosystem.
