Registration details forthcoming.
SPEAKERS:
Michael Schimdt, former head of the CHIPS program office; is a distinguished visitor at the Griswold Center for Economic Policy Studies at Princeton University. From September 2022 to January 2025, Schmidt served as the inaugural director of the CHIPS Program Office (CPO) at the U.S. Department of Commerce, where he led the implementation of a $39 billion federal initiative to incentivize semiconductor manufacturing in the United States. Under his leadership, the office executed 20 final award agreements totaling $34 billion, unlocking more than $450 billion in total investment in U.S. chip production. Before joining the commerce department, Schmidt led the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s implementation of the expanded Child Tax Credit under the American Rescue Plan, which delivered monthly payments to over 37 million families and lifted more than 3 million children out of poverty. He previously served as commissioner of the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, overseeing the state’s tax system and the collection of more than $100 billion in annual revenue; and as deputy secretary for economic development for the State of New York, where he directed policy and operations across 12 state agencies and authorities. Earlier in his career, he held roles in the Office of Domestic Finance at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and as a financial analyst at the Yale Investments Office. Schmidt holds a BA in history and a JD, both from Yale University. Current research focuses on developing a principled framework for when industrial policy interventions are justified to advance U.S. national security. Drawing on his experience leading the CPO, he seeks to move beyond ad hoc interventions by clarifying the conditions under which government action is warranted. His goal is to articulate a framework that is both analytically rigorous and practically useful for policymakers. Schmidt also examines how U.S. industrial strategy can align with those of allies and partners to support a more coherent global approach.
Caroline Nguyen *03, is the founder of Verapex. She brings two decades of experience driving strategy and execution across boardrooms, governments, and global markets. Caroline previously led a $2B+ international portfolio as Managing Director at the Millennium Challenge Corporation, where she oversaw senior teams and drove operational delivery of complex infrastructure and policy investments across Latin America, Asia, Europe, and the Pacific. Her portfolio included market-shaping investments in energy infrastructure, regulatory reform initiatives that unlocked billion-dollar markets, and public-private partnerships that accelerated economic development. In 2022-2023, she served in the White House as Director for Clean Energy and Global Public Sector Partnerships, forging alliances at the intersection of climate, innovation, and economic growth. Earlier, at McKinsey & Company, she led strategy teams on transformative projects with public and private sector leaders across Southeast Asia. Caroline launched her career at the nexus of law and policy at the U.S. Department of Justice and WilmerHale. Caroline holds degrees from Harvard (BA), Princeton (MPA), and Columbia Law School (JD), where she was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and served on the Columbia Law Review. She is fluent in English and German, conversational in Vietnamese, and based in Washington, D.C.
Navroz Dubash is a Professor of Public and International Affairs and the High Meadows Environmental Institute at Princeton University. His work explores emergent patterns of climate governance suitable to meet the twin challenges of the climate crisis and unmet development aspirations. He has written on national climate policy, international cooperation, energy transitions and air quality, with particular interest in multidisciplinary approaches to these complex issues. Dubash joined the Princeton faculty after fifteen years of working in India with the Centre for Policy Research, and subsequently with the Sustainable Futures Collaborative (SFC), which he co-founded with colleagues. He continues to chair the Advisory Council of SFC, an independent non-profit research organization focused on sustainable development. He is currently co-Editor in Chief of Climate Policy and has published widely on climate change, energy, and air pollution in leading journals. He has also authored two books and edited ten edited collections. He has also written regularly for the media, including an ‘Expert Voices’ column for Science. Dubash has been active as a researcher and policy advisor on climate and energy issues for 25 years. He has served on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), most recently as Coordinating Lead Author for the Sixth Assessment Report, and as a member of the steering committee for the UNEP Emissions Gap Report. He has advised the Government of India over the last decade as a member of advisory committees on climate change, energy, and air and water policy, and coordinated a team to draft India’s Long-Term Low Emissions Development Strategy. Early in his career, he helped establish the global Climate Action Network as its first international coordinator.
Walter Jones is an international businessman, attorney and former U.S. senior diplomat. He has lived in six countries, speaks several languages, and is currently a managing director at Morgan Donaldson, a Washington, D.C., firm focusing on emerging market investments. Walter was the U.S. executive director and chief-of-mission to the African Development Bank; he served during the Arab Spring while the bank was located in Tunisia. Prior to this he served at the Overseas Private Investment Corporation in Washington, where he structured debt financings for projects in sectors including financial services, transportation and energy in countries as varied as Romania, Vietnam, and Ghana, and at different times was responsible for the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Latin America. Walter has been an international consultant in the Washington, D.C., firm of Neil & Co., where he co-led the East Europe practice. He was a legislative assistant for former U.S. Senator Paul Sarbanes, working with the foreign relations and banking committees. He began his professional career at the law firm of Sidley & Austin. In addition to Princeton, Walter earned degrees from Harvard Law School and the George Washington School of Business.
Ana Fernandes is a Lead Economist in the Trade and International Integration Unit of the Development Research Group at the World Bank. She joined the World Bank as a Young Economist in 2002. Her research examines the consequences of openness to trade and FDI for firm-level productivity, innovation and quality upgrading. Her work has also focused on the impact evaluation of trade-related policy interventions such as export promotion and customs reforms around the globe (Albania, Serbia, Madagascar, Tunisia). Since 2011 she has been managing the Exporter Dynamics Database project and studying the links between exporter growth and dynamics, development, policies, and shocks. She is currently working on deep trade agreements and on corruption in customs and tax evasion.
Mark Plant is a Senior Fellow Emeritus at the Center for Global Development. His appointment to CGD followed a long career at the International Monetary Fund, where he was most recently the director of Human Resources. Prior to that, Plant worked extensively with African countries, culminating in his appointment as deputy director of the IMF’s African Department. He also held a range of senior positions in the Strategy, Policy and Review Department, where he had oversight of the IMF’s policies towards low-income countries, including its work on the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI) and the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative. Before joining the IMF, Plant held senior positions in the US Department of Commerce and at the General Motors Corporation. He began his career teaching economics at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Followed by networking reception with DC-area alumni. Cosponsored by the Julis-Rabinowitz Center for Public Policy & Finance and the Griswold Center for Economic Policy Studies.