Innovation Coalition Fly-In Day 
Speakers & Moderators

Nishith Acharya, Director of the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship and Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Commerce

Prior to joining U.S. Department of Commerce, Nishith Acharya served as Executive Director of the Deshpande Foundation, a prominent American philanthropy focused on innovation, entrepreneurship and scalability around the world. Acharya led the Foundation's strategic planning, grant making, evaluation and advocacy efforts. Under his leadership, the Foundation's "Sandboxes" – centers of innovation and entrepreneurship have become a leading international model for regional economic development. During his tenure, the Foundation created a Sandbox in India, with over 100 partner organizations and nearly 10,000 individual participants. Acharya has also led the Foundation's venture philanthropy, working to help scale Indian NGO's like Akshaya Patra and Agastya throughout India. It also created Sandboxes to boost the economies of the Merrimack Valley cities of Lowell, MA and Lawrence, MA and New Brunswick, Canada. The Foundation also supports the MIT Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation, and provided seed capital to major initiatives like the Public Health Foundation of India, the United Way India and the U.S. Indo-Engineering Collaborative. Acharya serves as a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Bretton Woods Committee, The Indus Entrepreneurs, and the Clinton Global Initiative. He also served as a Board member of Akshaya Patra USA and the United Way Worldwide Leadership Committee. He has also been a judge for major government programs such as the Department of Energy Innovation Ecosystems Grant and the Malcolm Baldridge Award. Acharya has been an entrepreneur – first as a founding employee of MDPad, an innovative health care technology company, and as Chief Executive Officer of Youth Tech Entrepreneurs, a non-profit that developed technology and business education curriculum for students at the high school level for over 1,500 high school students in Massachusetts. Acharya served five years as a Presidential Appointee in the Clinton Administration, where he worked with the Administrator and Deputy Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development for USAID programs in Latin America, the Middle East and Asia, and initiating an effort to utilize the Internet to improve international disaster assistance. Acharya worked for former Education Secretary Richard Riley and as Associate Director of Scheduling & Advance for the President. Acharya has a Masters in Public Administration from George Washington University; and a bachelor of science in political science from Northeastern University.

Dan Berglund, President and Chief Executive Officer, SSTI

Dan Berglund is the President and Chief Executive Officer of SSTI, a non-profit organization that leads, supports, and strengthens efforts to improve state and regional economies through science, technology, and innovation.  SSTI is the most comprehensive resource available for those involved in technology-based economic development. Leading SSTI since its inception in 1996, Berglund has helped SSTI develop a nationwide network of practitioners and policymakers dedicated to improving the economy through science, technology and innovation. SSTI works with this network of more than 170 state, regional, local, and university economic development organizations to conduct research on best practices and trends in tech-based economic development, encourage cooperation among and between state and federal programs, and assist states and communities as they build tech-based economies. Prior to joining SSTI, Berglund worked as a consultant and for the Ohio Department of Development in a variety of positions, including Acting Deputy Director of the Division of Technological Innovation. Berglund holds a B.A. in economics and political science and a B.A. in history from Ohio University. 

Brian P. Darmody, JD, AURP Past President, Associate Vice President of Research and Economic Development, University System of Maryland; Special Assistant Vice Chancellor for Technology Development, University of Maryland

Brian Darmody is Associate Vice President for Research and Economic Development and Director of Corporate Relations, University of Maryland. He is responsible for developing projects, funding opportunities, and policies to support partnerships with private and government sectors. Previously he was the University’s director of state and federal relations in the President’s Office, and served in the legal counsel’s office.

He serves on national and state boards, including Fruanhofer USA, National Association of Seed and Venture Funds, Maryland Venture Authority, the Technology Council of Maryland, Maryland Space Business Roundtable and is past President of the Association of University Research Parks. He has served on the staff for the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Health Care Financing Administration Office of Attorney-Advisor, and the Maryland General Assembly. He holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Maryland and Juris Doctor from the University of Baltimore.

Dr. John C. Haltiwanger, Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Economics, The University of Maryland

John Haltiwanger is a Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Maryland. He received his Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University in 1981. After serving on the faculty of UCLA and Johns Hopkins, he joined the faculty at Maryland in 1987. In the late 1990s, he served as Chief Economist of the U.S. Census Bureau.  He is a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Economic Studies at the U.S. Census Bureau.  He has played a major role in developing and studying U.S. longitudinal firm-level data.  Using these data, he has developed new statistical measures and analyzed the determinants of firm-level job creation, job destruction and economic performance.  He has explored the implications of these firm dynamics for aggregate U.S. productivity growth and for the U.S. labor market.  The statistical and measurement methods he has helped develop to measure and study firm dynamics have been increasingly used by many statistical agencies around the world.  His own research increasingly uses the data and measures on firm dynamics from a substantial number of advanced, emerging and transition economies.   He has published more than 90 academic articles and numerous books including Job Creation and Destruction  (with Steven Davis and Scott Schuh, MIT Press).

Elizabeth Hyman, Vice President, Public Advocacy, CompTIA

Liz Hyman is the vice president of public advocacy for CompTIA. Hyman is responsible for the Association’s outreach to members of Congress, the Executive Branch, government agencies and other organizations at the federal, state and local levels of government that shape and influence public policy affecting the IT industry. Hyman joined CompTIA after overseeing U.S. government affairs for PC manufacturer Lenovo. Prior to joining Lenovo, Hyman was vice president, international, at the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) where she worked to expand and deepen relationships with electronics associations and other entities abroad, as well as establish a greater strategic footprint for CEA in international trade policy matters. Between 1994 and 1997 she held various positions in the federal government, including Special Assistant to the Attorney General, Associate Counsel to the Vice President, and Assistant Counsel at the United States Trade Representative’s Office. Hyman is a graduate of Tufts University and holds a law degree from the Washington College of Law at American University.

Tom Kalil, Deputy Director for Policy, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy

Thomas Kalil is currently serving as the Deputy Director for Policy for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and Senior Advisor for Science, Technology and Innovation for the National Economic Council.  Kalil previously served as Special Assistant to the Chancellor for Science and Technology at UC Berkeley. He was responsible for developing major new multi-disciplinary research and education initiatives at the intersection of information technology, nanotechnology, microsystems, and biology. He also conceived and launched a program called “Big Ideas @ Berkeley,” which provides support for multidisciplinary teams of Berkeley students that are interested in addressing economic and societal challenges such as clean energy, safe drinking water, and poverty alleviation.  In 2007 and 2008, Kalil was as the Chair of the Global Health Working Group for the Clinton Global Initiative, where he developed new public and private sector initiatives in areas such as maternal and child health, under-nutrition, and vaccines. Kalil was also a Senior Fellow with the Center for American Progress, where he co-authored A National Innovation Agenda, one of the four pillars of CAP’s Economic Plan for Plan for the Next Administration. He was also a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Nanomix, and has served on three committees of the National Academy of Sciences, including the Committee to Facilitate Interdisciplinary Research.

Previously, Kalil served as the Deputy Assistant to President Clinton for Technology and Economic Policy, and the Deputy Director of the White House National Economic Council. He was the NEC's "point person" on a wide range of technology and telecommunications issues, such as the liberalization of Cold War export controls, the allocation of spectrum for new wireless services, and investments in upgrading America's high-tech workforce. He led a number of White House technology initiatives, such as the National Nanotechnology Initiative, the Next Generation Internet, bridging the digital divide, e-learning, increasing funding for long-term information technology research, making IT more accessible to people with disabilities, and addressing the growing imbalance between support for biomedical research and for the physical sciences and engineering. He was also appointed by President Clinton to serve on the G-8 Digital Opportunity Task Force (dot force).

Honorable Mary L. Landrieu, Senator, State of Louisiana

Senator Mary Landrieu has been fighting and winning for Louisiana since she was first elected to the Louisiana state legislature at the age of 23. After serving eight years as a state representative and two terms as State Treasurer, in 1996 she became the first woman from Louisiana elected to a full term in the U.S. Senate. Senator Landrieu is currently the Chair of the Senate Small Business Committee, chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security and a member of the Energy and Natural Resources Committees. The nonpartisan Congress.org has ranked Senator Landrieu as the tenth most effective legislator in the Senate.

Senator Landrieu has been the leading voice in Washington for the Gulf Coast recovery effort. In the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the failures of the federal levee system, she secured billions in recovery dollars and has worked extensively to jumpstart recovery projects. She is committed to reforming the Federal Emergency Management Agency to ensure the nation’s disaster response arm is speedy and effective the next time a disaster strikes the United States, be it natural or manmade.

As chair of the Small Business Committee, she is leading efforts to ensure all small businesses have access to capital and contracts, superior health insurance at a low cost and the resources needed to help boost our economy and guarantee America’s competiveness in the global marketplace.

As one of the chairs on the Senate Appropriations Committee, Senator Landrieu is a strong and effective voice for Louisiana. The Senate appointed Sen. Landrieu chair of the Appropriations Committee's important Subcommittee on Homeland Security. This subcommittee is responsible for drafting legislation to fund the Department of Homeland Security's 20 offices and seven sub-agencies.  The Appropriations Committee is considered the most powerful panel on Capitol Hill. From this seat, she fights for Louisiana’s jobs and economic interests and the funding the state needs to rebuild from the 2005 and 2008 hurricanes.

Senator Landrieu, a member of the Energy Committee, coauthored the landmark Domenici-Landrieu Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act, which was signed into law in 2006. The bill expanded oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico by more than 8 million acres and shares the revenues with Louisiana to restore and protect the eroding wetlands along the Gulf Coast. 

Phillip Singerman, Associate Director for Innovation and Industry Services at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

Phillip Singerman serves as Associate Director for Innovation and Industry Services at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).  In this capacity he is responsible for the NIST suite of external partnership programs, including the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership, the Technology Innovation Program, the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, and NIST technology transfer and small business innovation research awards. 

The position of Associate Director was established in October 2010 as part of the first major realignment of NIST programs in 20 years; Singerman was appointed to this position in January 2011.  Immediately prior to joining NIST, he was a Senior Vice President at B&D Consulting, a DC-based firm providing strategic advice and technical assistance on federal economic development programs to non-profit organizations, local governments, and universities.  Previously he was a managing director of a $120 million seed stage venture fund that invested in early stage technologies.

Singerman has more than 30 years of experience in tech based economic development; he was the first chief executive of two of the best known public-private partnerships, the Ben Franklin Technology Center of Southeastern Pennsylvania and the Maryland Technology Development Corporation.  During the Clinton Administration he served as U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development, a Presidential appointment requiring Senate confirmation.