DAVID ABEL
Chairman and Managing Director, VerdeXchange, LLC
Los Angeles, California
Mr. Abel was a founding partner of VerdeXchange, an environmental think tank, publisher, and green technology event host created to inform and strategically advise green innovators in California and other western states wishing to diffuse green technology and innovations. He has served on several California state commissions studying legislative reforms, and on both corporate and civic governance boards. Mr. Abel also founded - and still manages - a California-based public policy firm, ABL, Inc., which is engaged in foundation, civic and public affairs consulting. The firm publishes The Planning Report, which focuses on land use issues in Southern California, and Metro Investment Report, which covers public infrastructure investments, as well as the Verdexchange News.
T. TAYLOR ALDRIDGE
Visiting Assistant Professor
School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University
Bloomington, Indiana
Taylor Aldridge is a visiting assistant professor at the School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University and a research fellow at the University of Wuppertal, Germany. His research areas include how ideas manifest into innovations, academic entrepreneurship, barriers to entry and patent opposition, and innovation in public R&D. Dr. Aldridge received his Ph.D. in innovation and entrepreneurship in 2009 from the University of Augsburg and was also a Max Planck Institute of Economics fellow from 2005 to 2011. He has published in such journals as Research Policy, Journal of Technology Transfer and International Small Business Journal and has received funding from the European Union (fp7), the European Commission, the U.S. Small Business Administration, the Marion Ewing Kauffman Foundation, the O.E.C.D. and Saudi Arabia. His research has featured in media outlets, such as, The New York Times and Nature and Red Herring Magazine.
AHMED ALSHUMAIMERI
Professor, Business Administration
King Saud University
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
In addition to his current academic position, Mr. Alshumaimeri serves as Chairman of the Entrepreneurship Center, and Dean of Development at King Saud University, where he also previously served as Rector's Adviser for Development and Quality. Earlier in his career, he was Dean and professor of business at Qassim University in Al-Qassim Province, Saudi Arabia. His current research is centered on direct marketing, marketing orientation, entrepreneurship service marketing, education marketing, human resource management and consumer behavior.
THOMAS ANDERSSON
Professor, Economics and
Senior Advisor on Science, Technology and Innovation Policy
The Research Council
Sultanate of Oman
Prior to his current position, Mr. Andersson was president of Jonkoping University in Sweden. He was president of the board for the International Organization for Knowledge Economy and Enterprise Development (IKED) and vice president of the International Network for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (INSME). He served on the International Advisory Committee of the Competitiveness Institute and on the International Advisory Board of the World Knowledge Forum. He was chairman of the Innovation Policy Expert group appointed by the Swedish government to review the Swedish growth record, as well as senior advisor to the Swedish Agency for Innovation Systems (VINNOVA).
ROBERT ATKINSON
President, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation
Washington, D.C.
Before coming to ITIF, Dr. Atkinson was vice president of the Progressive Policy Institute and director of PPI’s Technology & New Economy Project, where he wrote numerous research reports on technology and innovation policy, including on issues such as broadband telecommunications, e-commerce and e-government, and privacy. Previously he served as the first executive director of the Rhode Island Economic Policy Council, where he drafted a comprehensive economic strategic development plan for the state, and worked successfully through the legislative and administrative branches to implement it. He is also author of the forthcoming book The Global Race for Innovation Advantage, and Why the U.S. is Falling Behind (Yale, 2011).
DAVID B. AUDRETSCH
Distinguished Professor, Ameritech Chair of Economic Development
and Director, Institute for Development Strategies
School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University
Bloomington, Indiana
He also is an Honorary Professor of Industrial Economics and Entrepreneurship at the WHU-Otto Beisheim School of Management in Germany. In addition, he serves as a Visiting Professor at the King Saud University in Saudi Arabia and as a Research Professor at Durham University, an External Director of Research at the Kiel Institute for the World Economics, Honorary Professor at the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena in Germany, and is a Research Fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research in London. Professor Audretsch's research has focused on the links between entrepreneurship, government policy, innovation, economic development and global competitiveness. His research has been published in over one hundred scholarly articles in the leading academic journals. He is co-founder and co-editor of Small Business Economics: An Entrepreneurship Journal.
SANDY BARUAH
President and CEO
Detroit Regional Chamber
Detroit, Michigan
Mr. Baruah came to Michigan from Washington, DC, where he served as President George W. Bush’s last Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), helping shape the government’s response to the 2008 fiscal crisis. He also served as U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce, where he led the federal government domestic economic development program and the Economic Development Administration (EDA). He served as the senior advisor to Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Guiterrez regarding the 2010 Census and represented the US at the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation (OEDC) in Paris. Earlier, he was a mergers/acquisitions consultant for the Performance Consulting Group.
MAKSIM BELITSKI
Loughborough University
United Kingdom
Fulbright Scholar, Institute of Development Strategies
School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University
Bloomington, Indiana
Dr. Belitski completed his Ph.D. in Economics in 2011. He worked as a Research fellow at the Brunel University Business School (UK), Teaching Fellow at University College London (UK), Lecturer at the University of Economics in Bratislava (Slovakia), Senior lecturer at the Belarusian State University (Belarus). He studied international economics at Belarusian State University where he received his undergraduate and postgraduate degree as Candidate of Science in International Economics. After a scholarship at the University of Milan, Department of Economics for his post graduate program, he moved to the University of Leicester to continue his Doctorate in Entrepreneurship and Cities. His research interests are entrepreneurship and urban economics, knowledge expenditure and innovation, and social and green entrepreneurship. He has participated in more than 50 international conferences and his articles have been published in International Journal of Sustainable Economy, Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research, Journal of International Law and International Relations.
SHIRI BREZNITZ
Assistant Professor
School of Public Policy
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, Georgia
Professor Breznitz’s research focuses on regional economic development. Her main interest is the role of universities in economic development, technology transfer and commercialization. She is currently studying the biotechnology industry, examining and comparing Israeli and Finish biotechnology clusters to evaluate the recent phenomenon of cluster specialization. Dr. Breznitz is also affiliated with MIT’s Industrial Performance Center, where she is working with both the Globalization and the Local Innovation Systems projects.
STEVEN CASPER
Henry E. Riggs Professor of Management
Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Sciences
Claremont, California
Professor Casper’s research interests include comparative studies of the development of new technology industries, especially those processes by which biomedical science has been commercialized across the U.S. and Europe. He came to KGI from the University of Cambridge, UK, where he was a university lecturer in innovation and entrepreneurship at the Judge Institute of Management Studies, and he was previously employed as a Senior Research Fellow at the Social Science Center, Berlin. Dr. Casper has published widely in the fields of economic sociology, international business, and public policy, including a book on the development of science-based industry in Europe (Creating Silicon Valley in Europe: Public Policy Towards New Technology Industries, Oxford University Press, 2007).
SAMEEKSHA DESAI
Assistant Professor, School of Public and Environmental Affairs
Indiana University
Bloomington, Indiana
Professor Desai is one of the first researchers to explore the dynamics of destructive entrepreneurship, a theory seeking to understand the political economy of post-conflict reconstruction. Her research interests are in the relationship between entrepreneurs and public (in)effectiveness, for example examining institutions that favor productive versus destructive activities. During 2008-09, Professor Desai studied entrepreneurship in Iraq with a grant from the U.S. Army. Her findings identified local-level policies to support entrepreneurship, which have been presented at the Council on Foreign Relations, and also have been used by the United Nations World Institute for Development Economics Research. She was previously assistant professor of public administration at the University of Missouri.
JOHN D. GRAHAM
Dean, School of Public and Environmental Affairs
Indiana University
Bloomington, Indiana
Dean Graham came to Indiana University from the Rand Corporation’s Pardee Rand Graduate School, where he served as dean. He is the former Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), Office of Management and Budget in the George W. Bush administration. Prior to joining the Bush administration he was a Professor of Policy and Decision Sciences in the Faculty of Public Health at Harvard University, where he founded and directed the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis from 1990 to 2001. Dr. Graham has written seven books and more than 100 scientific articles. His most recent book, Bush on the Home Front; Domestic Policy Triumphs and Failures, was published in 2010.
JACK HARDING
Chairman, President and CEO
e-Silicon Corporation
Sunnyvale, California
Prior to co-founding eSilicon in 2000, Mr. Harding served as president and CEO of Cooper & Chyan Technology, as well as Cadence Design Systems, which, under his leadership, became the world's largest supplier of electronics design software. In the public policy arena, Mr. Harding has served as a member of the Steering Committee at the U.S. Council on Competiveness, and he was a former National Academies' Committee member for Software, Growth and the Future of the U.S. Economy. In 2010, Mr. Harding was elected as the new value chain producer director to the board of directors of the Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA). He is a frequent international speaker on the topics of innovation, entrepreneurship and semiconductor trends and policies.
SUSAN JOHNSON
Executive Director, External Affairs
School of Public and Environmental Affairs
Indiana University
Bloomington, Indiana
Susan M. Johnson, CFRE, is Executive Director of External Affairs for Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA). She oversees development and alumni relations efforts for the School. Ms. Johnson joined SPEA in 2001 as Director of Development and accepted her current position in 2006. Prior to joining SPEA, Ms. Johnson was Director of Resource Development for Ivy Tech State College from 1998 to 2001 where she was responsible for naming a nursing lab, a workforce certification center, and funding to launch an advanced manufacturing center. Ms. Johnson served as Executive Director of Big Brothers/Big Sister of Bartholomew County from 1992 – 1999.
ALBERT N. LINK
Professor, Bryan School of Business and Economics
University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Greensboro, North Carolina
Professor Link is an internationally recognized scholar in the field of economics of research and development. A long-time member of the UNC faculty, he previously directed the university’s MBA program and headed the Economics department. He also directed both the Industrial Technology and Computer Technology Education programs at UNC. He has taught at Auburn University and was visiting scholar at the Maxwell School, Syracuse University.
GERALD MCDERMOTT
Associate Professor, International Business
Darla Moore School of Business
University of South Carolina
Columbia, South Carolina
Professor McDermott specializes in international business and political economy. His first research focused on the impact of industrial networks on the creation of economic governance institutions in post-communist countries. His current research in South America uses both comparative and statistical survey methods to examine the socio-political conditions under which societies build new innovative capacities to achieve sustained upgrading in their industries. He has also recently launched a project about the impact of international integration regimes on local institutional development via a comparison of the EU accession, NAFTA, and Mercosur.
DONALD SIEGEL
Dean and Professor
School of Business
University at Albany, SUNY
Albany, New York
Professor Siegel’s research and teaching have focused on topics related to university technology transfer; economics and strategic implications of entrepreneurship and technological change; productivity analysis, private equity and corporate governance; and corporate social responsibility. He is editor of the Journal of Technology Transfer, and he serves as president of the Technology Transfer Society. He is incoming co-editor of Academy of Management Perspectives, and is associate editor of the Journal of Business Venturing, the Journal of Productivity Analysis, and Academy of Management Learning & Education. He has taught at SUNY-Stony Brook, Arizona State University, the University of Nottingham, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and the University of California-Riverside, where he served as Associate Dean for Graduate Studies.
DANE STANGLER
Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation
Kansas City, Missouri
Mr. Stangler is a director at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. In this capacity, he provides research and writing on a wide variety of subjects, including entrepreneurship, expeditionary economics, and cities. Mr. Stangler initiated and manages the Kauffman Foundation Research Series on Firm Formation and Economic Growth, and contributes to the blog, Growthology. He also advises the Foundation’s president on matters relating to strategy and programming, and represents the Foundation at meetings and conferences around the country.
MARY WALSHOK
Associate Vice Chancellor for Extended Studies and Public Programs
Professor, Sociology
University of California, San Diego
San Diego, California
Professor Walshok is a thought leader on aligning workforce development with regional economic growth and innovation. As an industrial sociologist, she has been researching various American regions for the U.S. Department of Labor, NSF, and Lilly Foundation. One of her current research projects is an NSF-funded study of the role of boundary-spanning organizations in shaping the social and cultural dynamics of the highly innovative regions. She is the author of Blue Collar Women, Knowledge Without Boundaries, Closing America’s Job Gap and forthcoming at Stanford University Press Invention and Reinvention: The Evolution of San Diego’s Entrepreneurial Economy. Professor Walshok is also a co-founder of CONNECT, one of the most admired innovation cluster development organizations in the world.
JUERGEN WEIGAND
Professor, Economics
Associate Dean, Fulltime MBA and International Programs
WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management
Vallendar, Germany
Professor Weigand’s research interests involve industrial organization, economics of finance and banking, corporate governance, and competition policy. He has published extensively, and currently serves as editor of Empirica and as adviser to the Central Plan Bureau (the Netherlands Institute for Economic Policy Analysis). Previously, he was assistant professor of economics at the University of Erlangen-Nurnberg, as well as visiting researcher at Georgia State University, the Institute for Development Strategies at Indiana University, and at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in Washington, DC.
CHARLES WESSNER
National Academy Scholar and Director
Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship
The National Academies
Washington, D.C.
Mr. Wessner is recognized nationally and internationally for his expertise on innovation policy, including public-private partnerships, entrepreneurship, early-stage financing for new firms, and the special needs and benefits of high-technology industry. He testifies to the U.S. Congress and major national commissions, advises agencies of the U.S. government and international organizations, and lectures at major universities in the U. S. and abroad. Reflecting the strong global interest in innovation, he frequently addresses issues of shared policy interest with foreign governments, universities, and research institutes. He has a strong commitment to international cooperation, reflected in his work with a wide variety of countries around the world.
DAVID A. WOLFE
Royal Bank Chair, Public and Economic Policy
Professor, Political Science
University of Toronto
Co-Director, Program on Globalization and Regional Innovation Systems (PROGRIS),
Munk School for Global Affairs
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Professor Wolfe’s research interests include the political economy of technological change and the role of local and regional economic development, with special reference to Canada and Ontario. At PROGRIS, he is national coordinator of the Innovation Systems Research Network (ISRN), funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. There he has served as principal investigator on two major collaborative research initiatives, includingInnovation Systems and Economic Development: The Role of Local and Regional Clusters in Canada, and currently on the Social Dynamics of Economic Performance: Innovation and Creativity in City Regions. He is the editor or co-editor of nine books and numerous scholarly articles.
ARTHUR G. WOOLF
Associate Professor
Department of Economics
University of Vermont
Burlington, Vermont
Professor Wolfe’s research interests include the political economy of technological change and the role of local and regional economic development, with special reference to Canada and Ontario. At PROGRIS, he is national coordinator of the Innovation Systems Research Network (ISRN), funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. There he has served as principal investigator on two major collaborative research initiatives, including Innovation Systems and Economic Development: The Role of Local and Regional Clusters in Canada, and currently on the Social Dynamics of Economic Performance: Innovation and Creativity in City Regions. He is the editor or co-editor of nine books and numerous scholarly articles.
HIDEKI YAMAWAKI
Academic Dean
Ito Chair of International Business and Professor of Management
Claremont Graduate University
Claremont, California
Hideki Yamawaki is Professor of Management and Academic Dean at the Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management in Claremont Graduate University. Formerly, he was Professor of Economics at the Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium and Visiting Associate Professor in the Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA and. From 1982 to 1990, he was Senior Research Fellow at the Wissenschaftszentrum für Sozialforschung Berlin in Germany.
SPEA Staff
Betty Fiscus, Assistant to the Director, Institute for Development Studies
David Huang, Graduate Assistant, Institute for Development Studies
Susan Johnson, Executive Director, External Affairs