ATHENS – The American College of Greece (ACG) announced on July 23 the appointment of Deborah Wince-Smith as Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees. Deborah Wince-Smith joined the Board in 2017 and is the President and CEO of the Council on Competitiveness, a non-partisan leadership coalition of CEOs, University Presidents, Labor Union Leaders, and National Laboratory Directors, all committed to developing policy solutions and national initiatives to drive future productivity growth, prosperity for all Americans, and the global success of American business.

Wince-Smith has more than 20 years of experience as a senior U.S. government official, as the first Senate-confirmed Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy in the U.S. Department of Commerce in the Administration of President George H.W. Bush, and as the Assistant Director for International Affairs in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Reagan Administration. She served as a Senate confirmed member of the Oversight Board of the Internal Revenue Service in the Administrations of President George W. Bush and President Barack H. Obama.

Wince-Smith is also the President and Founder of the Global Federation of Competitiveness Councils (GFCC). She previously served on the Smithsonian National Board, the Secretary of State’s Committee on International Economic Policy, the U.S. Naval Academy Foundation and, the Board of Governors of Argonne National Laboratory. She served as Chairman of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Competitiveness and as a Public Director of NASDAQ-OMX. 

Wince-Smith currently serves on the Advisory Committee of the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) and UNICEF. She is also a Commissioner on the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property, and as a member of the Council of Japan’s Science and Technology in Society (STS) Forum. As an expert in technology commercialization, Ms. Wince-Smith serves on the Board of Directors of Aerolase, Inc. and Q-Net Security, Inc.

Wince-Smith 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.

Greece holds special interest for Wince-Smith as she spent her junior year at Vassar College as an exchange student with the College Year in Athens. After receiving her master’s degree, she excavated with the British School of Archaeology’s late Bronze Age excavations at Aghios Stephanos in Laconia, led by Lord William Taylor. Equipped with the archaeologist’s perspective on how the discrete pieces of the puzzle fit together for meaning and impact, Wince-Smith, throughout her career, succeeds in fusing bits of knowledge and technology to create something of value, and seeing opportunity in a highly fragmented, ever-changing consumer market. This ability also led her to believe that the global realignment of comparative advantage, coupled with the commoditization of information and technology, requires a new 21st century operating plan. 

According to Wince-Smith, “the path to prosperity for individuals and nations is to embrace the rapidly emerging conceptual economy. Rewards will go to these frontier innovators – individuals and nations – who learn, work, and thrive at the intersections of imagination, insight, ingenuity, invention and impact.”

In recent years, at the request of Greek government and private sector leaders, she has been instrumental in supporting the establishment of the new private sector-led Greek Council on Competitiveness, Compete Greece, and the active participation of Greek private sector companies and the ACG as members of the Global Federation of Competitiveness Councils (GFCC). She also serves on the Global Advisory Committee of the Delphi Economic Forum.

Wince-Smith is married to former Deputy United States Trade Representative Ambassador Michael B. Smith and resides in McLean, VA. Her two sons are graduates of the U.S. Naval Academy and are currently serving as officers in the U.S. Navy and Marines Corps.

About The American College of Greece

The American College of Greece (ACG) is a private, independent, non-profit educational institution founded in 1875. It comprises three divisions: Pierce (secondary education), Deree (undergraduate and graduate programs) and the Alba Graduate Business School. Faithful to its mission of providing equal access to education, ACG offers over €8 million in financial assistance each year.

More information about ACG is available online: https://www.acg.edu/.