The Honorable Deborah L. Wince-Smith is the President & CEO of the Council on Competitiveness. She has more than 20 years of experience as a senior U.S. government official, as the Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy in the U.S. Department of Commerce and as the Assistant Director for International Affairs in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. She served as a member of the Oversight Board of the Internal Revenue Service.  

Ms. Wince-Smith 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 on the National Commission of the Theft of American Intellectual Property, the Japan Science, Technology, and Society Forum (STS), the Global Advisory Committees of the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), 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.   

She 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.