Deborah Wince-Smith is the President & CEO of the U.S. Council on Competitiveness, a coalition of CEOs, University Presidents, National Laboratory Directions and Labor Leaders committed to driving U.S. productivity and prosperity. She is the Founder and President of the Global Federation of Competitiveness Councils (GFCC) a network of global competitiveness organizations from around the world. Ms. Wince-Smith is frequently called upon to testify in front of the U.S. Congress and appears regularly on global television news networks including Bloomberg, BBC, CNBC, CNN and Fox News.

With more than 20 years of experience as a senior U.S. government official, she served in the Reagan White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and as the first Senate-confirmed Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy in the Commerce Department in the administration of President George H.W. Bush.  

Ms. Wince-Smith serves as a Corporate Director and Board Member of National and International organizations, U.S. Government Policy Advisory Committees, Charitable Organizations, and as a University Trustee.  Currently, she is a member of The Smithsonian National Board, the Secretary of State’s Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy and the U.S. Naval Academy Foundation Board.  She also serves as Vice-Chairman of Women Corporate Directors and a Trustee of Lehigh University.  She is a member of the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property, co-chaired by former Governor Jon Huntsman and former U.S. Director of National Intelligence, Admiral Dennis Blair.  She also serves on the Purdue Strategic Research Advisory Council (SRAC).  Ms. Wince-Smith is a member of the Board of Directors of the American Associates of Japan’s prestigious Science and Technology in Society Forum and the Qatar Foundation’s R&D Advisory Board.  Ms. Wince-Smith also serves as Vice Chair and former Chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Competitiveness.  From 2005-2012, Ms. Wince-Smith served as a public Director of NASDAQ-OMX and from 2006-2013, as a Senate-confirmed member of the Oversight Board of the Internal Revenue Service.

An expert in national innovation policy and technology commercialization, Ms. Wince-Smith is a Director of NanoMech, Inc., a leading innovator in industrial nanomaterials, and Aerolase, a company at the forefront of portable laser medical devices.  

A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Vassar College, Ms. Wince-Smith earned her Master’s Degree in Classical Archaeology from King’s College, Cambridge.  She received an Honorary Doctorate in Humanities from Michigan State University, an Honorary Doctorate in Public Administration from the University of Toledo and an Honorary Doctorate of Law honoris causa from The Queens University of Belfast.

Her two sons are graduates of the U.S. Naval Academy and are currently serving as officers in the U.S. Navy and Marines Corp.  She resides in McLean, Virginia.