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Thursday, October 25, 2007

Georgia Tech president honored for U.S. competitiveness initiative

By Mini Kolluri | Thursday, October 25, 2007, 07:28 PM

CEOs and counterparts in other colleges honored Georgia Tech president Wayne Clough Thursday for leading the National Innovation Initiative aimed at helping Americans compete in an increasingly cutthroat global market.

Clough and the IBM CEO Samuel Palmisano, who was also honored, have been heading a rather large team — 400 corporate leaders, academics and others, from different sectors. All of them are members of the Council on Competitiveness, a Washington-based non-profit, the organizer of the award ceremony.

“There are any number of studies but they are narrow,” said Clough, implying that the work done his team is broad-based and hence special. “We look at funding, policy, the international aspect.”

The council claims that the initiative’s proposals paved the way for the American COMPETES Act, which President Bush signed a couple of months ago. The act increases funding for math and science education and for research.

Clough feels that he and Palmisano, coming from different backgrounds, brought different perspectives to the table.

“Sam is very engaging and bright and has been all over the world,” he said. “He is very easy to work with and has a knack of bringing the discussion back on track.”

Clough also has substantial international exposure - thanks to Georgia Tech’s campuses in Singapore, China and France.

William Booher, COO for the council, called Wayne a leader among his peers. Wayne, in turn, expressed his thanks to the council and team members late Thursday night for their contributions.

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