President, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation
Robert Atkinson is president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based technology policy think tank. He is also author of the book, The Past And Future Of America’s Economy: Long Waves Of Innovation That Power Cycles Of Growth.
He has conducted ground-breaking research projects on technology and innovation, is a valued adviser to state and national policymakers, and is a popular speaker on innovation policy nationally and internationally.
Previously, Dr. Atkinson served as the first Executive Director of the Rhode Island Economic Policy Council. Prior to that, he was Project Director at the former Congressional Office of Technology Assessment. While at OTA, he directed The Technological Reshaping of Metropolitan America, a seminal report examining the impact of the information technology revolution on America’s urban areas.
He is a board member or advisory council member of the Alliance for Public Technology and the Information Policy Institute. Dr. Atkinson was appointed by President Clinton to the Commission on Workers, Communities and Economic Change in the New Economy. He is also a member of the Task Force on National Security in the Information Age.
In 2006, Inc. Magazine listed Atkinson as one of 19 Friends of small business in Washington. He received his Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1989.
As long as the Wall Street triumphalists’ unreflected “why worry?” thinking remains the norm, the urgently needed pursuit of a U.S. economic reform agenda will go nowhere.
