Egils Milbergs
Director, Washington State Economic Development Commission
Egils Milbergs is a noted thought leader and strategist in innovation, advanced manufacturing, national competitiveness strategies and global innovation partnerships. In January 2008, Gov. Christine Gregoire appointed Mr. Milbergs executive director of a newly created Economic Development Commission for Washington State. In that capacity he also served as Gov. Gregoire’s liaison to President Obama’s transition team.
In addition, Mr. Milbergs is founder and president of the Center for Accelerating Innovation. The Center conducts research on the innovation process and partners with corporations, associations and governments on optimizing their innovation ecosystems, strategies, models, and metrics. The Center played a principal role in advancing the insights and recommendations of the National Innovation Initiative (NII), co-chaired by Sam Palmisano, IBM chairman and CEO, and Wayne Clough, president, Georgia Tech University. The NII final report, Innovate America, was published by the Council on Competitiveness. Mr. Milbergs also serves as director of Global Innovation for the Accelerating Innovation Foundation which sponsors the Accelerating Innovation Conference held at the National Academy of Sciences.
From 1998-2003, Mr. Milbergs served as president of the National Coalition for Advanced Manufacturing, an industry-led organization aimed at improving the competitiveness of the U.S. manufacturing sector. He supervised dramatic growth in the coalition’s business outreach and policy impact. He established the Advanced Manufacturing Leadership Council, which organized a powerful policy consensus on R&D, human capital, and supply chain issues focused on strengthening the “extended production enterprise.” That white paper was titled, Smart Prosperity: An Agenda for Productivity Growth. During that time Mr. Milbergs directed projects in next generation manufacturing systems, software interoperability, defense industrial base, terrorist disruption of supply chains, and technologically upgrading small and medium sized enterprises in Poland.
Prior to his service at NACFAM, he founded Learning Access in 1994 to pioneer Internet applications in the K-12 education environment. He originated a unique multimillion dollar partnership of internet-based after-school centers called the Chicago Neighborhood Learning Network. He also co-managed a 15 city tour of the CyberEd truck to low-income neighborhoods introducing internet tools to more than 4,500 teachers, students, parents, and school administrators.
From 1986-1993, Mr. Milbergs served as president of the non-partisan Institute for Illinois, a partnership of the Illinois Congressional Delegation, the business community, and the research community. A major accomplishment was implementing a $2 billion federal R&D project portfolio for improving the state’s research and technology infrastructure. He served as an advisor to the president of Virginia’s Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) and gained legislative approval and budget for its first strategic technology plan and space commercialization initiative.
From 1980-1986, Mr. Milbergs served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Productivity, Technology and Innovation at the U.S. Commerce Department under Malcolm Baldridge. He supervised policy in the areas of university-industry technology transfer, productivity enhancement, the Stevenson-Wydler Act, National Medal of Technology and Innovation, U.S. metric system, and the Federal Technology Transfer Act of 1986. He initiated the foundational concepts for the Baldrige National Quality Award. Mr. Milbergs also served as executive director of the President’s Commission on Industrial Competitiveness, chaired by John Young, CEO of Hewlett-Packard. The 30 member commission produced the landmark report to President Ronald Reagan titled, Global Competition: The New Reality.
At SRI International he led research on public-private technology commercialization strategies, R&D management practices and global futures scenarios. He began his career as a program analyst at the Office of Management and Budget and served on the staff of the President’s Advisory Council on Executive Organization.
Mr. Milbergs is a graduate of Harvard College where he concentrated in public policy and economics. He lectures frequently on the subject of technology policy, innovation, entrepreneurship and global competitiveness issues.
Tuesday, March 3
The Hyatt Regency Bellevue
900 Bellevue Way NE, Bellevue
Registration: 11:30 a.m.
Lunch Program: Noon
Registration:$35 per person (includes lunch). Guests welcome.
For additional information, please call toll free 877-978-3868.
Heading using the h3tag
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