Cutting-edge policy issues at the intersection of Innovation, Intellectual Property, and Competition.

Judge Paul R Michel served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit from March, 1988 through May, 2010 and as its chief judge from December, 2004 to May 31, 2010 when he retired from the judiciary in order to speak freely on the nation’s need for a stronger patent system.  In pursuit of that goal, he has written dozens of articles and numerous amicus briefs for the Federal Circuit, the Ninth Circuit and the Supreme Court.  The articles have been published in both general media and IP media, including the Wall Street Journal,  Newsweek magazine, STAT, Boston Sunday Globe, Fortune, Thompson-Reuters, International Business Times, The Hill, Roll Call, Bloomberg Law, the National Review and IPWatchdog, among many others.  He has co-authored scholarly articles, including for the Berkeley Law School and Business School journals and the Drake University Law Review.  At IP conferences, he is a ubiquitous panelist and a frequent keynote speaker.  He has been called repeatedly to testify before the IP committees in Congress, including on the urgent need to reform the law of eligibility.

Judge Michel also consults for private clients and has conducted scores of mediations, moot courts and arbitrations in patent cases.  In court cases in the UK and Norway and in several international arbitrations, he has testified as an expert witness on U.S. patent law.

Managing Intellectual Property magazine named him one the 50 most influential leaders in intellectual property law in the world and Intellectual Asset Management magazine inducted him into its international Hall of Fame.

He serves on the boards of the IPO Education Foundation and the U.S. IP Alliance.  A graduate of Williams College and the University of Virginia Law School, he was awarded honorary Doctor of Laws degrees by John Marshall Law School and The Catholic University of America.

Previously, he was an assistant Watergate special prosecutor, assistant counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee, Korea-gate prosecutor, associate deputy attorney general, and chief of staff and counsel to Senator Arlen Specter.

Ellen Lord is a veteran defense industry participant whose career has spanned the c-suite to the halls of government.  Her career has kept her at the nexus of the U.S.’s industrial capability and our and allied governments’ ability to procure.  Ellen has CEO-level strategic and operational experience, seasoned business acumen, operational and technology know-how, and a track record of recruiting, compensating, developing and retaining critical talent. Her substantial commercial, governmental and academic network enables industry, government and non-profit organizations to achieve their goals. Ellen fundamentally understands how products and services are successfully sold to government, both domestically and internationally.

Ellen has more than 30 years of experience in the defense industry, serving in a variety of capacities, including as President and Chief Executive Officer of Textron Systems Corporation, a subsidiary of Textron Inc. from 2012-2017.  In this role, she led a multi-billion dollar business with a broad range of products and services supporting defense, homeland security, aerospace, infrastructure protection, and customers around the world.  Her prior roles at Textron include Senior Vice President and General Manager of Textron Defense Systems, now Weapon & Sensor Systems; and Senior Vice President and General Manager of AAI Corporation, now known as Textron Systems’ Electronic Systems, Support Solutions, and Unmanned Systems businesses. Earlier in her career, Ellen served as Vice President of Integration Management for Textron Systems and Vice President of Intelligent Battlefield Systems for Textron Defense Systems, in addition to other business and operations positions.

From 2017-2021, Ellen served as the first U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, leading the Department of Defense’s personnel, policy and processes for acquisition of products and services, lifecycle sustainment and the security and resiliency of the defense industrial base.  Ellen is credited in her government work for driving significant acquisition policy change focused on simplicity and speed.  She implemented procedures that recognize major platforms and weapon systems are hardware enabled yet software defined.  Additionally, she is recognized for addressing cyber vulnerabilities and incorporating an aggressive cybersecurity posture into acquisition policy.  Ellen also focused on a high level of communication with all stakeholders as well as strengthening human capital. During her time with the Department of Defense, she developed strong relationships with Congressional members in both a bipartisan and bicameral manner.  She holds TS and SCI security clearances.

After leaving her Department of Defense role in January 2021, Ellen established EML Enterprises, LLC, providing advisory services that leverage her industry and government experience.  Ellen serves on the Board of Directors for AAR Corporation,Voyager Space Holdings and GEOST, is a Senior Fellow at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory and advises a number of aerospace, defense, and industrial companies.  She is the former Vice Chairman of the National Defense Industrial Association and served as a Director of the U.S. – India Business Council.  Additionally, Ellen served on the Task Force providing guidance for the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) “Future Foundry: Forging New Industries for Defense” project which was formed to examine key technological trends and challenges facing the global defense industry.  Ellen also served as a Trustee on the Board of the U.S. Naval Institute Foundation.

Ellen earned a Master of Science degree in Chemistry from the University of New Hampshire and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Chemistry from Connecticut College.

As founder and president of ITIF, recognized as the world’s top think tank for science and technology policy, Rob Atkinson leads a prolific team of policy analysts that is successfully shaping the debate and setting the agenda on a host of critical issues at the intersection of technological innovation and public policy.  During the Obama administration he served as co-chair of the White House U.S. China Innovation Experts Group, and is the author of numerous books, including Big is Beautiful: Debunking the Mythology of Small Business (MIT Press, 2018).

With over 30 years of government service, Katharina (Katrina) McFarland is widely recognized as a leading subject-matter expert on government procurement. She served as Chairman of the Board of Army Research and Development at the National Academies of Science, and as a Director on the Boards of SAIC and Transphorm, She was previously the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Acquisition (2012 to 2017) and acting Assistant Secretary of the Army (Acquisition, Logistics & Technology) (2016-2017). She was President of the Defense Acquisition University from 2010 to 2012 From 2006 to 2010, Ms. McFarland was the Director of Acquisition, Missile Defense Agency. She is an accredited Materials, Mechanical, Civil and Electronics Engineer. She has received an Honorary Doctoral of Engineering from the University of Cranfield, United Kingdom; the Presidential Meritorious Executive Rank Award, the Secretary of Defense Medal for Meritorious Civilian Service Award, the Department of the Navy Civilian Tester of the Year Award, and the Navy and United States Marine Corps Commendation Medal for Meritorious Civilian Service. Ms. McFarland brings substantial experience with the U.S. Department of Defense, Department of Army, and Intelligence Community procurement with focus on Space applications,  Artificial Intelligence, Cyber,  and IT technologies.in defense acquisition, program management, logistics and technology.

John Hamre was elected president and CEO of CSIS in January 2000. Before joining CSIS, he served as the 26th U.S. deputy secretary of defense. Prior to holding that post, he was the under secretary of defense (comptroller) from 1993 to 1997. As comptroller, Dr. Hamre was the principal assistant to the secretary of defense for the preparation, presentation, and execution of the defense budget and management improvement programs. In 2007, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates appointed Dr. Hamre to serve as chairman of the Defense Policy Board, and he served in that capacity for four secretaries of defense.

Before serving in the Department of Defense, Dr. Hamre worked for 10 years as a professional staff member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. During that time, he was primarily responsible for the oversight and evaluation of procurement, research, and development programs, defense budget issues, and relations with the Senate Appropriations Committee. From 1978 to 1984, Dr. Hamre served in the Congressional Budget Office, where he became its deputy assistant director for national security and international affairs. In that position, he oversaw analysis and other support for committees in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Dr. Hamre received his Ph.D., with distinction, in 1978 from the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C., where his studies focused on international politics and economics and U.S. foreign policy. In 1972, he received his B.A., with high distinction, from Augustana College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, emphasizing political science and economics. The following year he studied as a Rockefeller fellow at the Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Joshua D. Schmidt is InterDigital’s Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary, responsible for managing the company’s legal functions. Mr. Schmidt joined InterDigital in March 2015 and previously served as Vice President, Deputy General Counsel, with responsibility for the company’s corporate, commercial, employment and compliance functions, as well as the Company’s ESG initiatives and was promoted to Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary in October 2021. Prior to that role, Mr. Schmidt served in a variety of roles within InterDigital’s legal department, with primary responsibility for the company’s M&A, corporate governance, and commercial contracting functions. Before joining InterDigital in 2015, Mr. Schmidt was an associate at Dechert LLP., where he focused his practice on private and public company M&A, securities offerings, venture capital transactions and joint ventures. Mr. Schmidt holds a Juris Doctor degree from Duke University School of Law and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration: Finance from the University of Pittsburgh.

Daniel H. Rosen is a Founding Partner of Rhodium Group and leads the firm’s work on China, India, and Asia. Mr. Rosen has twenty-nine years of professional experience analyzing China’s economy, commercial sector, and external interactions. He is widely recognized for his contributions on the US-China economic relationship. He is affiliated with a number of American think tanks focused on international economics and is an Adjunct Associate Professor at Columbia University. From 2000-2001, Mr. Rosen was Senior Adviser for International Economic Policy at the White House National Economic Council and National Security Council. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and board member of the National Committee on US-China Relations. A native of New York City, Dan graduated with distinction from the graduate School of Foreign Service of Georgetown University (MSFS) and with honors in Asian Studies and Economics from the University of Texas, Austin (BA).

Orville Schell is the Arthur Ross Director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at the Asia Society in New York. He is a former professor and Dean at the University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.

Schell is the author of fifteen books, ten of them about China, and a contributor to numerous edited volumes. His most recent book is Wealth and Power: China’s Long March to the Twenty-first Century and the Chinese historical novel,  My Old Home. He has also been a contributor to such magazines as The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Times Magazine, Foreign Affairs, the Wall Street Journal, The Wire China, and The New York Review of Books, among others.

Schell graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard University in Far Eastern History, was an exchange student at Taiwan University in the 1960s, and earned a PhD (Abd) in Chinese History at the University of California, Berkeley. He worked for the Ford Foundation in Indonesia, covered the war in Indochina as a journalist, and has traveled widely in China since the mid-70s.

He is a Fellow at the Weatherhead East Asian Institute at Columbia University, a Senior Fellow at the Annenberg School of Communications at USC and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.  Schell was a Fellow at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and the recipient of many prizes and fellowships, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Overseas Press Club Award, and the Harvard-Stanford Shorenstein Prize in Asian Journalism.

Rob Strayer serves as the Executive Vice President of Policy at the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI). He leads ITI’s efforts to shape technology policy around the world to enable innovation, competition, and economic growth, while supporting governments efforts to achieve their public policy objectives. Managing a team of experienced professionals at ITI, he is responsible for developing and executing policy strategies in major global markets and on a wide range of digital technology issues, including privacy and data protection, cybersecurity, trade and market access, taxation, artificial intelligence, and standards.

Prior to joining ITI, Strayer served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Cyber and International Communications Policy at the U.S. State Department. In that role, he led dozens of bilateral and multilateral dialogues with foreign governments on digital economy regulatory, cybersecurity, and technology supply chain security issues. He was named as an ambassador by the President to lead the 90-plus person U.S. delegation to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Plenipotentiary Conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates in 2018.

Before joining the State Department, Strayer was the general counsel for the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He also practiced telecommunications law at WilmerHale, and clerked for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

Strayer received a law degree from Vanderbilt University Law School, and earned his B.A. in Economics, summa cum laude, from Denison University.

Rama G. Elluru is currently a Senior Director at the Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP), a non-profit, funded by Eric and Wendy Schmidt and established to make recommendations to strengthen America’s long-term competitiveness for a future where artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies reshape our national security, economy, and society.  Previous to the SCSP, she was a Director at the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence (NSCAI), an independent Commission established by Congress to consider the methods and means to advance the development of AI, ML, and associated technologies to address the national security and defense needs of the United States.  She was detailed to the NSCAI from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), where she served as an Administrative Patent Judge on the Patent Trial and Appeal.  Before joining the USPTO, Rama practiced IP law for 20 years, particularly in analyzing and litigating E.E. and bio-pharma patents. She graduated from Trinity University with a B.S. in Computer Science/Philosophy and obtained a J.D. from the Washington and Lee School of Law. After law school, she received a M.S. in Biochemistry/Molecular Biology from Georgetown University.

Gordon Gillerman, Director, Standards Coordination Office at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Department of Commerce Standards Executive, leads NIST’s work in standards coordination and the National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program. Gordon supports extensive standards development and advises federal agencies and other stakeholders on standards and conformity assessment policy. The Standards Coordination Office is the NIST standardization focal point for federal government, administers the NIST Standards Curricula Development Cooperative Agreement Program, operates the U.S. Inquiry Point for the World Trade Organization’s Technical Barriers to Trade Agreement, is the U.S. Designating Authority for Telecom Mutual Recognition Agreements, and is a key information source for US industry on standards related market access issues.

Gordon has extensive standards experience across a wide range of critical issues including homeland security, safety, health, and protection of the environment. Gordon is an expert on conformity assessment systems design, an advisor to the U.S. Trade Representative on technical barriers to trade and related trade agreements, and has collaborated across the standards community to develop standards based solutions for national priorities throughout his career. Gordon provided direct support in the drafting and negotiation of the Technical Barriers to Trade chapter of the USMCA.

Prior experience includes leading government affairs for the largest U.S. product safety certification and standards development organization, Underwriters Laboratories (UL) in Washington, DC, and Staff Engineer for the medical device and information technology sectors at UL’s Northbrook, IL headquarters.

Kathleen M. O’Malley was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit by President Barack Obama in 2010.  Prior to her elevation to the Federal Circuit, Judge O’Malley was appointed to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio by President William Clinton in 1994.

Prior to her appointment to the bench, Judge O’Malley served as First Assistant Attorney General, Chief of Staff, and Chief Counsel to the Attorney General for the State of Ohio. Before joining the Attorney General’s Office, Judge O’Malley was in private practice with Jones Day and Porter, Wright, Morris & Arthur, where she focused on complex corporate and intellectual property litigation.

Judge O’Malley began her legal career as a law clerk to the Honorable Nathaniel R. Jones, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.  She received her J.D. degree from Case Western Reserve University School of Law in 1982, summa cum laude and Order of the Coif. While there, she served on the Law Review and as President of the National Mock Trial Team.  Judge O’Malley received her A.B. from Kenyon College in 1979 where she graduated magna cum laude, is a Phi Beta Kappa, and she also received an honorary LL.D. from Kenyon in 1995.

For her contributions to the development of IP law, she has received the following honors: the Sedona Conference Lifetime Achievement Award, the New Jersey Intellectual Property Law Association Jefferson Medal, the New York Intellectual Property Law Association Outstanding Public Service Award, and the Intellectual Property Owners Association’s 2020 Distinguished IP Professional Award and was named to the Globe Business Media Group’s IP Hall of Fame.

David J. Kappos is a partner at Cravath.  He is a leader in the field of intellectual property, including IP management and strategy, the development of global IP norms, laws and practices as well as commercialization and enforcement of innovation-based assets.  From 2009 to 2013, Mr. Kappos served as Under Secretary of Commerce and Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).  In that role, he advised the President, the Secretary of Commerce and the Administration on IP policy matters.  Mr. Kappos led the Agency in dramatically reengineering its entire management and operational systems and its engagement with the global innovation community.  He was instrumental in achieving the greatest legislative reform of the U.S. patent system in generations through passage and implementation of the Leahy‑Smith America Invents Act, signed into law by President Obama in September 2011.

Prior to leading the USPTO, Mr. Kappos held several executive posts in the legal department of IBM, the world’s largest patent holder.  From 2003 to 2009, he served as the company’s chief intellectual property lawyer.  In that capacity, he managed global intellectual property activities for IBM, including all aspects of patent, trademark, copyright and trade secret protection and exploitation.  During his more than 25 years at IBM, he also served in a variety of other roles including litigation counsel and Asia Pacific IP counsel, where he led all aspects of IP protection, including licensing, transactions support and M&A activity for the Asia/Pacific region.

Dr. Stephen J. Susalka is the Chief Executive Officer of AUTM, a 3,000+ member non-profit association, focused on supporting and enhancing technology transfer globally, and oversees a cooperative partnership with the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer to support federal technology transfer for more than 300 federal labs across the US.

As an international leader in technology commercialization, Dr. Susalka uses his experience in intellectual property protection, licensing, and company formation to empower, promote and connect AUTM members as they advance the next generation of ground-breaking innovations into the products and services of tomorrow.

A regular speaker on technology transfer issues, Dr. Susalka has frequently presented on Capitol Hill and internationally on topics ranging from start-up formation to the evolution of the profession. He has worked with senior leaders from around the world on strategies to enhance the commercialization of early-stage inventions and has provided testimony to the Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science, and Technology on promoting best practices for intellectual property and technology transfer.

Before joining AUTM, Dr. Susalka served as Associate Director for Commercialization at Wake Forest Innovations.

Dr. Susalka earned his Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Virginia and is a registered U.S. Patent Agent.  He is a past Board member of multiple Wake Forest-affiliated start-ups and is both a Certified Licensing Professional and Registered Technology Transfer Professional.

Maureen K. Ohlhausen chairs Baker Botts’ Global Antitrust and Competition practice. Her practice focuses on antitrust, privacy and data security and consumer protection investigations and litigation both in the U.S. and abroad. Ms. Ohlhausen joined the firm after leading the Federal Trade Commission as Acting Chairman and Commissioner. She directed all aspects of the FTC’s antitrust work, including merger review and conduct enforcement, and steered all FTC consumer protection enforcement, with a particular emphasis on privacy and technology issues. A thought leader, Ms. Ohlhausen has published dozens of articles on antitrust, privacy, IP, regulation, FTC litigation, telecommunications, and international law issues in prestigious publications and has testified over a dozen times before the U.S. Congress.

Ms. Ohlhausen has relationships with officials in the U.S. and abroad, with a particular emphasis on Europe and China, and has led the U.S. delegation at international antitrust and data privacy meetings on many occasions. She has received numerous awards, including the FTC’s Robert Pitofsky Lifetime Achievement Award.  Prior to her role as Commissioner, Ms. Ohlhausen led the FTC’s Internet Access Task Force, which produced an influential report analyzing competition and consumer protection legal issues in the areas of broadband and Internet.

In private practice, she headed the FTC practice group at a leading telecommunications firm, representing and counseling telecommunications and technology clients on antitrust compliance, privacy, and consumer protection matters before the FTC and the FCC. She also clerked at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Jonathan M. Barnett is the Torrey H. Webb Professor of Law at the University of Southern California School of Law.  He is the author of Innovators, Firms, and Markets: The Organizational Logic of Intellectual Property  (Oxford University Press 2021) and has published widely in scholarly journals on antitrust and intellectual property law and policy.  He also comments and speaks regularly on legal, policy, and business developments in these areas.  Prior to academia, he practiced corporate law at Cleary Gottlieb in New York.

Dr. Jorge Padilla is senior managing director and head of Compass Lexecon Europe. He is a research fellow at the Centro de Estudios Monetariosy Financieros (CEMFI, Madrid) and teaches competition economics at the Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).  He has given expert testimony before the competition authorities and courts of several EU member states, as well as in cases before the European Commission. Dr. Padilla has submitted written testimony to the European General Court, and the UK Competition Appeals Tribunal in cartel, merger control and abuse of dominance cases. He has also given expert testimony in various civil litigation (damages), international arbitration cases, and competition cases in non-EU jurisdictions.

Dr. Padilla has written numerous papers on competition policy, industrial organization and finance in the Antitrust Bulletin, the Antitrust Law Journal, the Economic Journal, the Energy Journal, the European Competition Journal, the European Competition Law Review, the Fordham International Law Journal, Industrial and Corporate Change, the International Journal of Industrial Organization, the Journal of Competition Law and Economics, the Journal of Economics and Management Strategy, the Journal of Industrial Economics, the Journal of Economic Theory, the RAND Journal of Economics, the Review of Financial Studies, the University of Chicago Law Review, and World Competition.

Bob Taylor is the founder and owner of RPT Legal Strategies PC in San Francisco and Palo Alto, providing legal and business advice to companies and investors with respect to all aspects of intellectual property, competition law and related fields of endeavor.

For more than 40 years, Bob has focused primarily on intellectual property litigation, serving as lead trial counsel and/or appellate counsel in dozens of patent, copyright, trade secret and antitrust cases involving a wide range of technologies and industries.  He is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and a Lifetime Member of the American Law Institute.

Bob has written and lectured extensively on the business and legal problems associated with both intellectual property protection and the laws related to competition.  He served for several years as the co-chair of the Antitrust Committee of Intellectual Property Owners Association and also as a Member of IPO’s Amicus Committee.  Bob served as a member of the 1992 Commission on Patent Law Reform.  He is a former chair of the Antitrust Section of American Bar Association and a long-time member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.  He is one of the founding board members for the U.S. Intellectual Property Alliance and is a member of the Advisory Board of the Alliance of U.S. Startups and Inventors for Jobs.

Eddie Lazarus serves as the Chief Legal Officer at Sonos. He leads the company’s legal, corporate governance, SEC reporting, government affairs, regulatory and compliance activities.

Eddie comes to Sonos after a distinguished career as an attorney, including most recently as General Counsel and Chief Strategy Officer for Tribune Media Company from 2013 to 2019. Lazarus served as the Chief of Staff to the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from June 2009 to Feb. 2012. At the FCC, he oversaw policy development and implementation, strategic planning, communications, legislative and intergovernmental affairs, and agency management. Before working at the FCC, Eddie was a partner and member of the Management Committee at the law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, where he chaired the firm’s national litigation steering committee. Prior to entering private practice, Eddie served as a federal prosecutor in Los Angeles.

In addition to his career as an attorney, Eddie is the author of two highly acclaimed books: “Black Hills/White Justice: The Sioux Nation Versus the United States, 1775 to the Present” and “Closed Chambers: The Rise, Fall, and Future of the Modern Supreme Court.”

Deanna Tanner Okun is the managing partner at AMS TRADE LLP. She is an international trade attorney providing legal and strategic international trade policy advice to steer companies through the intersection where innovation confronts barriers, such as intellectual property theft, unfair trade practices, and regulatory hurdles. Her practice involves all aspects of unfair trade litigation and trade remedy advocacy. Her Section 337 work includes all stages of litigation at the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) from pre-institution consultation to post-remedy enforcement with Customs and Border Protection. She also represents companies in Title VII antidumping and countervailing duty investigations before the ITC and the Department of Commerce. In 2017, her client secured the first negative preliminary AD/CVD determination in over seven years and her work in trade remedy proceedings on behalf of U.S. companies extends to previously rarely used trade statutes, including Section 201, 232, and 301 investigations. She works closely with contacts in the executive, judicial, and legislative branches of the government to create innovative solutions to her clients’ legal and business challenges.

During her tenure as an ITC Commissioner, Deanna was nominated to be Deputy United States Trade Representative. In 2012, she was named Outstanding Woman of the Year by the Association of Women in International Trade (WIIT). She has served on the Federal Circuit Advisory Council since 2013. In 2019, for the seventh consecutive year, Managing Intellectual Property named Deanna one of the Top 250 Women in IP. She is also on the 2021-2022 USMCA Binational Panel Roster.

Dr. Walter Copan is cofounder of the Renewing American Innovation Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Currently, he serves as vice president for research and technology transfer at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado. He previously served as under secretary of commerce for standards and technology and 16th director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a position to which he was confirmed unanimously by the Senate. He served as the U.S. principal presidential adviser on standards policy and technology matters and provided high-level oversight and strategic leadership for NIST, a world-leading science and technology institute. Under his widely acclaimed leadership, he spearheaded streamlining and modernization of foundational policies and practices for innovation and technology transfer arising from federally funded research to benefit the economy and society. Dr. Copan is a distinguished leader with wide-ranging experience spanning large company, entrepreneurial tech start-up, U.S. government, nonprofit, and other public sector settings. For the U.S. government, he also served with two of the Department of Energy national laboratories: the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Brookhaven National Laboratory. He is a sought-after speaker and thought leader on matters of science and technology, strategy, entrepreneurship, technology commercialization, intellectual property, and innovation. Dr. Copan began his career in research and development and business leadership at the Lubrizol Corporation. He earned undergraduate degrees and his PhD in physical chemistry from Case Western Reserve University and holds a certificate in advanced business administration studies at Harvard Business School. He was named 2020 laboratory director of the year by the U.S. Federal Laboratory Consortium. The Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) recognized Dr. Copan with its 2021 Bayh-Dole Award for contributions to innovation and technology transfer.

William Reinsch holds the Scholl Chair in International Business at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and is a senior adviser at Kelley, Drye & Warren LLP. Previously, he served for 15 years as president of the National Foreign Trade Council, where he led efforts in favor of open markets, in support of the Export-Import Bank and Overseas Private Investment Corporation, against unilateral sanctions, and in support of sound international tax policy, among many issues. From 2001 to 2016, he concurrently served as a member of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. He is also an adjunct assistant professor at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy, teaching courses in globalization, trade policy, and politics.

Reinsch also served as the Under Secretary of Commerce for Export Administration during the Clinton administration. Prior to that, he spent 20 years on Capitol Hill, most of them as senior legislative assistant to the late Senator John Heinz (R-PA) and subsequently to Senator John D. Rockefeller IV (D-WV). He holds a B.A. and an M.A. in international relations from the Johns Hopkins University and the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies respectively.

Susan M. Armstrong started at Qualcomm working on Globalstar and then early CDMA base station projects. She was a pioneer in bringing internet protocols to the cellular industry, resulting in the first web surfing on a cellular phone in 1997, and Qualcomm’s commercialization of packet data in 1998. Since then she has held various leadership positions, first responsible for the development and commercialization of the all of the software that drives Qualcomm’s chipsets, and then as the head of worldwide Customer Engineering. In addition to her work on Qualcomm’s inventions and new technologies, she has worked extensively with base station makers, carriers, phone and device makers in the US, Asia and Europe to bring those technologies to market.

In 2015, Armstrong has joined Qualcomm’s Government Affairs group, where she brings an engineering and product background the Government Affairs work in worldwide public policy, including intellectual property protection, cyber security, STEM and STEM diversity.

Kathleen Kingscott is Vice President, Strategic Partnerships for IBM Research.  She is responsible for developing collaborative research partnerships between IBM, industry, academia and government. Ms. Kingscott is a member of the National Academy of Sciences Innovation Policy Forum and is IBM’s alternate member of the Semiconductor Industry Association Board of Directors.  She chairs the CTO Work Group of the SIA. She is a member of the Board of Managers of the American Institute of Physics Publishing and is chair of the Compensation Committee for the AIPP Board.

Previously, Kathleen held the IBM Industry Chair at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, National Defense University, as the first faculty member from industry at the college. Other earlier roles include Director, Worldwide Innovation Policy for IBM with responsibility for worldwide public policy matters regarding innovation, science and technology.  She has held other leadership roles in IBM, including Congressional relations, information technology marketing and marketing management positions. Kathleen formerly served as a member of the Executive Committee of the Electronics Division of the National Defense Industrial Association. She was a member of the Secretary of Commerce’s Manufacturing Council 2015-2016. She was a founder and served as a long-time co-chair of the Task Force on American Innovation, a major coalition of companies, university and trade associations, and professional societies that supports federal investment in scientific research.

Ms. Kingscott has been with IBM 40+ years.  She holds a B.A. from Vanderbilt University.

Jessica McBroom is Director for International Economics and Competitiveness at the National Security Council, White House.   Jessica has driven the President’s supply chain agenda since the beginning of the Biden-Harris Administration, including as the chief coordinator for the implementation of Executive Order 14017 on America’s Supply Chains.  She is currently on detail from the Office of Industrial Policy at the Department of Defense.  Prior to that, Jessica was in the private sector as Vice President at a major U.S. financial institution and also served as a Director at a major manufacturing-focused trade association.  Jessica has also held positions at the Department of State.  She has a B.A. from Tulane University in political science and a minor in the French language.  She is originally from Detroit, Michigan

Chad P. Bown is Reginald Jones Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. Bown previously served as senior economist for international trade and investment in the White House on the Council of Economic Advisers and most recently as a lead economist at the World Bank, conducting research and advising developing country governments on international trade policy for seven years. Bown was a tenured professor of economics at Brandeis University, where he held a joint appointment in the Department of Economics and International Business School for 12 years. He has also spent a year in residence as a visiting scholar in economic research at the World Trade Organization (WTO) Secretariat in Geneva. Bown received a BA magna cum laude in economics and international relations from Bucknell University and a PhD in economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.