Chad Evans

Chad Evans is senior vice president at the Council on Competitiveness, a premiere group of CEOs, university presidents and labor leaders committed to driving US innovation, productivity and prosperity. Chad is a recognized expert in global competitiveness – and is a frequent speaker on the roles innovation, science and technology, knowledge, and talent play in driving competitive advantage, having shared his views over the past 15 years across the Americas, Asia and Europe. In addition, he currently leads several of the Council’s core projects – its National Innovation Initiative, Global Innovation Initiative, Technology Leadership and Strategy Initiative, and international benchmarking.

The Technology Leadership and Strategy Initiative is a new effort Chad is launching to build on the Council’s brand in the technology space – stemming from its "Critical Technologies" work in the late 1980s to its "Going Global" initiative in the mid-1990s. The goals of the TLSI – co-chaired by Mark M. Little, Senior Vice President and Director, GE Global Research, and Ray O. Johnson, Senior Vice President and CTO, Lockheed Martin Corporation – are to: articulate how technology will drive competitiveness in a global innovation ecosystem; explore the “frontiers” of technology and identify sources of competitive advantage in the 21st century; and, shape a private-sector action agenda to inform the next US Administration. 

He also currently leads the Global Innovation Initiative, which aims to understand and benchmark the drivers of global competitiveness by facilitating dialogues and CEO summits with key partners around the world. In 2005, Chad led the first US-EU Innovation Summit under the auspices of the Prime Minister of the Netherlands in cooperation with the Council of the European Union – as well as the first US-Japan Innovation Summit with the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. In 2007, Chad created and managed the first US-Brazil Innovation Summit, endorsed by Presidents Bush and Lula – and is building a second US-Brazil Summit for March 2010 through the creation of “Innovation Learning Laboratories,” engaging leading public and private sector innovators from both nations in a series of 10, concrete, partnership-building dialogues in 2008 and 2009. 

The National Innovation Initiative has involved 500 innovation thought-leaders across the United States in articulating the innovation challenges and opportunities facing the nation. Chad has led the creative team responsible for development of the NII – which was launched and co-chaired by IBM CEO Samuel J. Palmisano and Georgia Institute of Technology President G. Wayne Clough. He managed the 2004 National Innovation Summit, and shaped Innovate America – the first private-sector innovation agenda for the United States and the basis of bi-partisan legislation to strengthen the US innovation ecosystem.  And since 1996, Chad has spearheaded the Council's flagship publication, The Competitiveness Index. Working with Council leadership and Index chair Professor Michael E. Porter of the Harvard Business School, Chad has helped to create new metrics and analysis to understand the role of innovation in driving competitiveness – highlighted in the creation of the world’s first Innovation Index.

Chad is a 2007 American Marshall Fund Fellow from the US German Marshall Fund. He holds a Master’s of Science from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, an Honors concentration in International Business Diplomacy from Georgetown's Landegger Program, and a BA in international affairs from Emory University. He serves on the Georgetown University MSFS Admissions Committee.