Chip Lockdown – The Future of Semiconductor Supply Chains

November 3 12-2pm ET

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Semiconductor chips are integral to an extraordinary array of products in the Information Age, and their importance has only grown as societies have shifted on-line during the pandemic. The pandemic also revealed vulnerabilities in the semiconductor supply chain, leading to shortages that have idled production in a number of key industrial sectors and raised concerns about U.S. national security. This session will examine the federal semiconductor supply chain review from the industrial, managerial, and policy perspectives and consider how well the proposed response matches up to the problem.

Moderator: Melissa Appleyard, Ames Professor in the Management of Innovation and Technology, School of Business Administration, Portland State University

Administration Presenter: Sree Ramaswamy, Senior Policy Advisor, Office of the Secretary, U.S. Department of Commerce 

Discussants
Stephen Ezell: Vice President, Global Innovation Policy, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation 
Bernhard (Ben) Sell: Vice President, Director Specialized Technologies, Intel 
John VerWey: Global Security, Technology, and Policy Group, National Security Directorate, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory  

Melissa M. Appleyard is an Ames Professor in the Management of Innovation and Technology, School of Business Administration, Portland State University, and currently serves as the Associate Dean of Graduate Business Programs. Her research focuses on how knowledge creation and diffusion catalyze economic growth and business longevity in technology-intensive industries. Previously, as a research fellow of U.C. Berkeley's Competitive Semiconductor Manufacturing Center sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, her research concentrated on the global semiconductor industry's ability to achieve perpetual innovation in design, process integration, and manufacturing. Her recent work has developed the construct of Open Strategy that combines open innovation with traditional business strategy. Through an NSF grant, Melissa has examined the critical processes for successful interdisciplinary R&D in nanomedicine, which relies on open innovation. She is currently examining how cross-firm interdependencies influence blockchain technology adoption in maritime trade. Her work has been published in leading academic journals. Melissa holds a B.A. in Economics/International Area Studies with College Honors (summa cum laude) from UCLA and a Ph.D. in Economics from UC Berkeley.

Stephen Ezell is Vice President, Global Innovation Policy with the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), a Washington-DC based science, technology, and economic policy think tank, where he focuses on technology and innovation policy as well as international competitiveness, trade, ICT, and manufacturing policy issues. He is the co-author with Dr. Robert Atkinson of Innovation Economics: The Race for Global Advantage (Yale, September 2012) and a co-author of Innovating in a Service-Driven Economy: Insights, Application, and Practice (Palgrave McMillan, November 2015). Mr. Ezell has testified on topics including U.S. competitiveness, innovation, manufacturing, and trade policy before the U.S. Congress and the U.S. International Trade Commission. His articles have appeared in Forbes, The Hill, Roll Call, The Futurist, and The International Economy, among others.

Mr. Ezell came to ITIF from Peer Insight, an innovation research and consulting firm he co-founded in 2003. He previously worked in the new product development group at the NASDAQ Stock Market and at the technology startup Brivo Systems. Mr. Ezell holds a B.S. from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, with an Honors Certificate from Georgetown’s Landegger International Business Diplomacy program.

John VerWey is a Research Analyst in the Global Security, Technology, and Policy Group at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). In this role, he analyzes international trade and investment data, export controls, and technology supply chains in support of U.S. government nonproliferation missions. Before joining PNNL he worked for the U.S. Trade Representative, where he was a staff-liaison to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), the U.S. International Trade Commission, and the Bureau of Industry and Security at the U.S. Department of Commerce. His research on the microelectronics industry has been published in the Journal of International Commerce and Economics and cited by The New York Times and The Financial Times, among others. He holds a graduate degree in international political economy from the London School of Economics and undergraduate degrees in Asian studies and history from Gonzaga University.