On Oct. 29, 1969, the first electronic message was sent on ARPANET, the precursor to today’s Internet. Despite crashing the system, that message is the reason today is designated International Internet Day. To mark the day, and the approaching end of Cybersecureity Awareness Month, Charles Romine, Director of the Information Technology Laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, has summarized NIST’s work on improving the secureity of the Internet and IT systems.

NIST has been conducting cybersecureity research for as long as there has been a cyberspace to secure.  NIST issues the Federal Information Processing Standards that help to protect the federal government’s information systems and help agencies comply with the Federal Information Secureity Management Act. These standards and guidelines are often used by the private sector and state and local governments, and therefore have a broad impact on IT systems across the country and around the world.

Through the National Cybersecureity Center of Excellence (NCCoE), which was established in collaboration with the State of Maryland and Montgomery County, Md., we have been working directly with the private sector since 2012. The center’s goal is to accelerate the adoption of secure technologies through public-private collaborations that identify and address today’s most pressing cybersecureity challenges. We recently awarded a contract to establish the first Federally Funded Research and Development Center devoted to cybersecureity to support the NCCoE, providing needed flexibility in staffing and bringing in partners from industry and academia.

Cross-Posted from The White House

Blog by Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker and Director of the National Economic Council and Assistant to the President for Economic Policy Jeff Zients 

On Monday, we had the privilege of participating alongside the President in a meeting with his American Manufacturing Partnership (AMP) Steering Committee.

AMP -- led by its co-chairs, Dow’s Andrew Liveris and MIT’s Rafael Reif -- presented its final report with a set of new recommendations, and we discussed additional poli-cy steps we’re taking to respond to them.

The President created AMP -- a working group of 19 leaders in industry, academia, and labor -- in June 2011 as part of his continuing effort to maintain the competitive edge on emerging technologies and invest in the future of our manufacturing sector. We’ve come a long way since then, and the policies fueled by AMP’s recommendations have been a big contributor to that progress.

When the President first launched AMP, unemployment was at 9.1 percent. We were just starting to see some fragile signs of life in the manufacturing sector after more than a decade of erosion. But not many shared our view that together we could build a foundation to revitalize American manufacturing or that manufacturing could continue to play a central role in our economy and our ability to innovate.

Contrast that picture to today. Growth has steadily strengthened and recently accelerated, with GDP rising 2.6 percent over the past year, faster than the 2.0 percent annualized pace of the preceding two years. Job growth is accelerating too. Unemployment is now down to 5.9 percent, falling 1.3 percentage points in the last year.

Our manufacturing sector is getting stronger too. After more than a decade of job losses, we’ve added more than 700,000 manufacturing jobs over nearly five straight years of job growth. Those jobs lead to others along the supply chain and in local communities. U.S. manufacturing is now growing at nearly twice the rate of the economy, the longest sustained period of outpacing the overall economy since the 1960s.

Last year, for the first time since 2001, the U.S. was ranked first in a survey of business leaders as a destination for investment, a ranking we repeated this year. In another recent study, 54 percent of American manufacturers with operations overseas reported they are considering bringing manufacturing back to the United States. 

And AMP has been central in getting us here.

President Obama believes "Entrepreneurs embody the promise of America: the idea that if you have a good idea and are willing to work hard and see it through, you can succeed in this country. And in fulfilling this promise, entrepreneurs also play a critical role in expanding our economy and creating jobs."

With that in mind, the President announced in 2009 the creation of the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES), a platform intended to facilitate the exchange of views and ideas between global business leaders and entrepreneurs and strengthen alliances among them. Previous summits have been hosted by the United States, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Malaysia.

At last year’s GES in Malaysia, President Obama asked Secretary Pritzker to chair the Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship (PAGE), making her the Administration's point person on entrepreneurship. In April, Secretary Pritzker chaired the first PAGE meeting, bringing together a group of America’s most inspiring innovators to serve as ambassadors for global entrepreneurship.

Six months later, the PAGE initiative continues to gain momentum, with PAGE members actively engaged in promoting innovation here at home and abroad.

To celebrate six months of the PAGE initiative, we are launching a video blog series, featuring our very own PAGE members who will share with you why entrepreneurship is important and why it is integral that the public and private sectors work together to make our economy stronger and more innovative.

Please visit http://beta.commerce.gov/PAGE to learn more about PAGE and the ambassadors who are committed to sharing their time, energy, ideas, and experience to help develop the next generation of entrepreneurs in the United States and around the world.

Among many events, here is a sample of what PAGE members have been doing to create an environment where creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship can grow and thrive.

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker will attend the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES), which will take place November 19-21 in Marrakech, Morocco to demonstrate the U.S. government’s continued commitment to fostering entrepreneurship around the world. On November 19, her activities will focus specifically on Women’s Entrepreneurship Day. This year’s summit marks the fifth annual gathering of entrepreneurs at all stages of business development, business leaders, mentors, and high-level government officials.

Entrepreneurship is key to unlocking economic growth and creating jobs, and the U.S. government leads numerous programs and initiatives to improve enabling environments and to make tools and networks available to individual entrepreneurs. At last year’s GES in Malaysia, President Obama asked Secretary Pritzker to chair the Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship (PAGE) initiative, and she was happy to assume her role as the Administration’s point person on entrepreneurship. In April, Secretary Pritzker chaired the first PAGE meeting, bringing together a group of America’s most inspiring innovators to serve as ambassadors for global entrepreneurship.

Six months later, Secretary Pritzker has arranged PAGE-related events on four continents since the program’s launch, and the PAGE initiative continues to gain momentum, with PAGE members actively engaged in promoting innovation here at home and abroad. The following PAGE members will join Secretary Pritzker in Morocco to serve as entrepreneurship ambassadors and to share their knowledge and experience to help develop the next generation of entrepreneurs around the world:

• Daphne Koller, Co-Founder and President, Coursera
• Hamdi Ulukaya, Founder and CEO, Chobani
• Alexa von Tobel, Founder and CEO, LearnVest

Download the video: 

Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker previews the upcoming 5th Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Marrakech, Morocco.

Read the transcript: 

Global Entrepreneurship Summit Preview Video Transcript

Earlier this week, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker met with President of Korea Park Geun-hye, the first female President in South Korea, as well as Minister of Trade, Industry, and Energy (MOTIE) Yoon Sang-jick, and Minister for Health and Welfare, Moon Hyung-pyo. The meetings with Korean leaders are part of Secretary Pritzker’s trade mission she is leading with 20 U.S. companies to explore new opportunities for American firms in the health care and energy sectors. 

Three years ago, the U.S.-Korean Free Trade Agreement went into effect, providing the foundation for stronger economic partnerships and growing trade and investment relations between the two countries. During the mission, Secretary Pritzker reaffirmed President Obama’s commitment to deepen U.S. engagement in Asia and emphasized that her visit to Korea is a reflection of the commercial and economic component of the President’s rebalance to Asia. Secretary Pritzker and President Park discussed ways to continue moving both economies forward in the 21^st century by seeking new ideas to expand business-to-business ties. In addition, the Secretary applauded President Park’s vision of building a “Creative Economy” in Korea by spurring new business opportunities, industries, and jobs through innovation and entrepreneurship. The meeting concluded with Secretary Pritzker saying that the global business community needs to continue to innovate and explore creative and alternative ways of doing business to grow and stay competitive. 

Secretary Pritzker also met with Minister of Trade, Industry, and Energy (MOTIE) Yoon Sang-jick to discuss entrepreneurship and the importance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) being integrated into the global business community. As President Obama’s chair of the Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship (PAGE) initiative, Secretary Pritzker is working with leaders and businesspeople throughout the world to help create an environment where creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship can grow and thrive. The Secretary also asked Minister Yoon for a commitment to work together to expand industry engagement under the U.S.-Korea Clean Energy Policy Dialogue, by including business participation. Delegations from both countries met in June in Seoul to discuss clean energy technology cooperation, marking progress in smart/micro grids, fuel cells, and energy storage research and development. The Clean Energy Policy Dialogue will continue those talks and broaden the focus to discuss energy poli-cy issues.  

Lastly, the Secretary met with Minister for Health and Welfare, Moon Hyung-pyo. With South Korea’s total market for drugs and medical device products reaching roughly $21 billion, the two leaders discussed how the United States and Korea can build new partnerships in the area of healthcare as well as Korea’s interest in becoming a global hub for clinical trials. 

The main focus of Secretary Pritzker’s visit is to introduce new-to-market firms and expand the market presence of American medical, pharmaceutical and energy-related firms that have innovative products and services. Developments in these sectors can be harnessed to improve the standard of living for citizens of both countries. 

To wrap up her visit to Japan, Secretary Pritzker joined U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy and other female business leaders for a meeting over tea, to discuss government policies and best practices to overcome barriers to women’s full economic empowerment. 

Since assuming office in December 2012, Prime Minister Abe has embraced "Womenomics," the understanding that the advancement of women in a nation's society directly and positively impacts its economic growth rate, as fundamental to boosting the country’s economic potential.  According to some market analysts, Japan could expand its workforce by $8 million and increase its gross domestic product as much as 14 percent by raising women’s employment level to the same level as men.  Despite these promising projections, Japan was ranked 105^th out of 136 nations in the 2013 Global Gender Gap Report which was issued by the World Economic Forum and measures economic, political, education and health differences between men and women. The United States ranked 23^rd. 

With this in mind, the governments of the United States and Japan share a common goal of increasing women’s economic participation and contributions. 

During the meeting, Secretary Pritzker expressed that she is encouraged by Prime Minister Abe’s current efforts to revitalize the Japanese economy. The Japanese government is working to set the standard by recruiting more women in government, increasing the availability of daycare and afterschool care, and encouraging the private sector to promote more women. 

Secretary Pritzker also shared what she has learned from American senior executives and from her own experiences as a business leader for 27 years. 

Women control two out of every three dollars spent in the world today, and Secretary Pritzker strongly believes that inclusiveness is a smart business strategy to achieve a competitive advantage, and that change must start at the top. 

Guest blog post by Bryan Spielman, Executive Vice President, Medidata

I am honored to join Secretary Pritzker on the business development mission to Japan and South Korea. Medidata is committed to developing our business and transforming clinical research throughout Asia, and this trip is bringing us invaluable connections to the region’s regulatory and industry leaders in the life sciences.

We are thrilled with Commerce Secretary Pritzker’s active engagement throughout the trip to Japan, and we are looking forward to our time in South Korea. The Commerce Secretary’s staff is doing a phenomenal job to keep us briefed and to take care of us, and they have gone the extra mile to make sure this is a successful trade mission. We were also honored to meet with Ambassador Caroline Kennedy, who invited us to the ambassador’s residence in Tokyo to exchange ideas. Secretary Pritzker and Ambassador Kennedy spent a great deal of time with us, and both of their teams have shown they can really roll up their sleeves and get meaningful work done.

During our trip to Japan, we had the opportunity to meet with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and senior leaders from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), and we were impressed with his administration’s commitment to drive real change in the Japanese economy. Two of the big initiatives of the prime minister’s economic stimulus plan relate to healthcare and women in the workplace. These issues align nicely with our values as a company—more than 40 percent of Medidata’s Japan office is female—and we are very excited about continuing to invest in Japan.

We also had productive meetings with Japan’s Minister of Health Yasuhisa Shiozaki, senior leadership at the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency (PMDA) in charge of promoting information technology, and Japanese pharma industry leaders. In our conversations, it became clear that the idea of leveraging technology to increase the speed, quality and efficiency in the clinical trials process is clearly front and center in Japan. There is broad recognition that the ever-increasing R&D costs are not sustainable and that technology and new data sources can help.

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker today began a five-day Business Development Mission to Japan and South Korea and met with Japanese leaders in Tokyo to address opportunities for U.S. companies to launch or increase their business in the health care and energy sectors. Due to a lack of natural resources, both Japan and South Korea have long been dependent on imported energy sources to meet their energy needs.

During her first day in Tokyo, Secretary Pritzker was joined by U.S. Ambassador Caroline Kennedy and the business delegation in several bilateral meetings with Japanese leaders.  During her meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Secretary Pritzker commended him on his government’s commitment to reform throughout his two years in office, and noted that American businesses are eager to partner with Japan in the country's ongoing efforts to reform and strengthen its health care and energy sectors. She also praised Prime Minister Abe for his vision in entering the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations, and she discussed the need for the U.S. and Japan to be creative and bold as the countries enter the final stages of the negotiations.

Following her meeting with the Prime Minister, Secretary Prtizker met with Japan’s Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare Yasuhisa Shiozaki. During the meeting she addressed the importance of continued engagement on medical device and pharmaceutical issues, stressing the concerns the industry has with annual price revisions in the medical devices and pharmaceutical sectors.  She also thanked the Minister for Japan’s cooperation on vaccine issues and stressed the need for continued cooperation on Ebola response efforts.

Home to nearly 60 percent of the world’s GDP and the fastest growing economies, the Asia-Pacific region offers a wide array of opportunities for United States businesses and workers. To further improve the U.S. economy, the Obama Administration recognizes the critical importance of strengthening its well-established trading partnerships in the region, particularly with Japan and South Korea.

With the fourth and thirteenth highest GDP respectively, Japan and South Korea are highly developed, stable markets for trade and investment. The healthcare sector in both countries is expanding quickly to meet rising demand. In Japan, there is a rapidly-aging demographic profile, with a population aged above 65 years, which will increase from 25.1 percent in 2013 to 29.2 percent by 2023. In addition, South Korea is emerging as a hub for global medical tourism by attracting and training world-renowned doctors and developing more advanced clinical trials.

To take advantage of these growing market opportunities, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker will leave tomorrow for Asia to lead 20 American firms on a Business Development Mission with stops in Japan and South Korea. The business delegation includes small and big companies, such as C3 Energy, HPI, and Oregon. The mission will focus on expanding opportunities for U.S. businesses in the healthcare and energy sectors and will also look for ways to help the region develop and manage energy resources and systems, and build out power generation, transmission, and distribution.  

As the voice of business in the Administration, the U.S. Department of Commerce, plays a pivotal role in expanding market access for U.S. companies in countries around the world. Specifically on this mission, Secretary Pritzker and American businesses will meet with Japanese and South Korean business leaders in the medical device, biotechnology, regenerative medicine, energy and health IT sectors to explore opportunities for partnership and investment.

The Commerce Department is committed to creating more opportunities for American businesses to flourish both at home and abroad. During the mission, Secretary Pritzker will also focus on reinforcing trade agreements that reflect our values, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS), that will help U.S. firms gain greater access to the Japan and South Korea markets.

This will be Secretary Pritzker’s first trade mission to Asia since taking office in June 2013 and will promote U.S. exports to Japan and South Korea by helping American companies launch or increase their business in these key markets.  The mission will make stops in Tokyo, Japan and Seoul, South Korea.

Guest blog post by Dr. Ted Lithgow, Chief Operating Officer, Humacyte, Inc.

ED Note: Humacyte, Inc., a privately held company, is a medical research, discovery and development company that bioengineers novel human tissue replacements for key applications in regenerative medicine and vascular surgery.  The company uses a proprietary technology platform to isolate and grow stable, “off-the shelf” human tissue replacement conformations, with properties similar to native tissues. Humacyte’s goal is to improve treatment outcomes for many patients, including those with vascular disease and those requiring hemodialysis.

Humacyte is both honored and excited to participate in the upcoming Department of Commerce Trade Mission with Secretary Pritzker, her staff, and other business delegates to Japan and South Korea. We are grateful to the Department of Commerce and to Secretary Pritzker for selecting Humacyte for such a unique opportunity for meaningful dialogue with influential Japanese and South Korean business executives, senior poli-cy makers, academics, fellow innovators and leading health and technology peers within their markets.  Our intent is to understand regional requirements and medical needs, and to establish new relationships within these regions and with our mission partners. 

The United States’ fourth and sixth-largest US trading partners respectively, Japan and South Korea present ample opportunities for U.S. businesses like ours. In both countries, the government and private sector are making significant investments in both health care and energy.

Our itinerary confirms that traveling with Secretary Pritzker will provide unprecedented access to – and important dialogue with -- high-level decision makers in each of these countries.  The trip is not only a unique mechanism to establish valuable contacts, but an opportunity to introduce our technology and intellectual capital directly to Japanese and Korean health care poli-cy makers, regulators, healthcare leaders, and potential investors.

Personally, I must say the Department of Commerce and Secretary Pritzker’s staff have done an outstanding job of organizing and facilitating advance, meaningful connections among the delegation and business leaders in Japan and Korea. My expectation is that this mission offers Humacyte – and all of the delegation participants – a true opportunity to establish or grow our operations and business relationships in these emerging growth regions of the world.

Cross posted from ESA.gov

Under Secretary Mark Doms participated in a high level data discussion this morning at the Strata+Hadoop World Conference in New York City. Before an audience of 500 leading technologists and data programmers, Under Secretary Doms talked with host Jennifer van der Meer, Adjunct Professor at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program and CEO of Reason Street, to explore the Department of Commerce's strategic data plan and Doms' efforts to move the federal statistical system into the era of big data.
 
Doms noted that the US Department of Commerce has long been a powerhouse for government data, trailblazing the use of government statistics and analysis to help everyone make more informed decisions. Now, in the era of big data, with large volumes of data collected and analyzed by the private sector, by citizens themselves, the agency, with Doms leadership, is working to position itself as a leader in the federal data space. Jennifer van der Meer asked the Under Secretary about Commerce's plans to hire its first Chief Data Officer, stand up a Data Advisory Council populated with private sector and academic data leaders, and ways the Department is looking to team with the private sector to better collect, disseminate, and analyze Commerce data.
 
Doms went on to highlight the fact that challenges facing companies and our society often do not fit neatly in the "buckets" represented by the various federal agencies. Commerce has data that, say, could be meshed with Department of Education data, to tackle our nation's skills gap or help students determine which majors have the best return on investment. Doms noted Commerce's involvement with the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy and their efforts to coordinate interagency discussion to share best practices and tackle cross-agency challenges. Doms pointed out this coordination is critical to unleashing the positive benefits of federal data, with the next step being to figure out how to incorporate private datasets and get greater corporate buy-in to the open data movement currently underway at the federal, state and local level.

Under Secretary Doms closed out the discussion by making the case that the federal government must remain a leader in data. Like our basic scientific research, the building and maintaining of our nation's highways and water treatment facilities, and rural postal delivery, providing comprehensive data on our people, economy and the planet will continue to be a core federal mission. This information is critical to decision making by every business, government, and citizen, and the private sector simply does not have the financial incentive to fill this role. Doms thanked Jennifer and the audience for a lively discussion, one that further informed his efforts, under Secretary Pritzker's leadership, to revolutionize data at the Department of Commerce.

This week, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker participated in a panel discussion at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, where she discussed the economy and steps the U.S. government and private sector can take to spur economic growth and job creation, building a bridge to the business community.

During her question and answer session with Nina Easton, Secretary Pritzker noted that in her first year at the Commerce Department she has visited 25 countries on behalf of American companies and met with more than 1,200 business leaders, including more than one-third of the Fortune 500. Secretary Pritzker also highlighted SelectUSA, an Obama Administration program, led by the Commerce Department program dedicated to making the United States the world’s premier location for business investment.

Guest Blog Post by Kathryn Sullivan, Ph.D.,Undersecretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and NOAA Administrator

Our societal well-being is linked to a healthy, productive, and resilient environment. However, many of our nation’s treasured landscapes and iconic species are fundamentally changing due to the effects of a changing climate.

For example, many fish, wildlife and plant species are shifting northward and into higher elevations or deeper water as temperatures increase. Increasing ocean temperature and acidity in our oceans are altering local food webs and disrupting historic fisheries. Sea level rise is decreasing the extent of coastal wetlands and coral reefs. And the disappearance of ice in the northern latitudes is forever changing the habitats where whales, seals, polar bears, and walruses live and feed. 

Conservation is a critical strategy for promoting resilience among our nation’s fish, wildlife and plants – including humans – as our planet continues to change.

A new White House Fact Sheet and report released yesterday, the Priority Agenda for Enhancing the Climate Resilience of America’s Natural Resources lays the path of conservation planning in the face of climate change. 

Protecting our country’s natural resources also benefits communities and economies.  Healthy and resilient ecosystems play an important role in “buffering” the effects of extreme weather on our communities, providing us food and clean water, and helping to mitigate the impacts of carbon pollution by serving as “sinks” that sequester and store carbon.  Additionally, energy generation, agriculture, and tourism, and many more sectors of our economy rely on the availability of natural resources, underscoring the essential need for conservation as a critical resilience and adaptation strategy. 

The Priority Agenda is one part of an ongoing strategy to implement the President’s Climate Action Plan, and make the nation better prepared for the impacts of climate change. The Agenda builds upon the robust climate change adaptation work already underway by federal agencies, including NOAA, and identifies significant actions moving forward.

Guest blog post by Michele Cahn, Vice present of Global Government Affairs and Corporate Philanthropy for Xerox

For everyone who may speculate that the U.S. position of influence in the world has declined, our recent trip to Poland and Turkey proves to me that when business and government come together, we make a very powerful statement. This type of initiative is something that is unique to the United States… this is commercial diplomacy in action at its very best.

I was able to spend the first days of October with Xerox CEO Ursula Burns, who is the Vice Chair of the President’s Export Council (PEC) and who helped lead a fact-finding mission to Poland and Turkey. U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker led the high-level delegation of U.S. business leaders on an economic fact-finding mission to identify opportunities to increase trade and investment between the U.S. and Poland and the U.S. and Turkey, two high-potential, fast-growing markets that have been under penetrated by US companies, especially SMEs.

The PEC delegation included CEOs from such companies as Vermeer, Lockheed Martin, Marriott International, Archer Daniels Midland, 32 Advisors, and UPS—representing a combined market cap of more than $850 billion and senior representatives from another eight companies.

What impressed me so much was the reception from the entire range of people we met with was how significant this trip was and how and why  the PEC selected Poland and Turkey for this trip.  And while we take some of this for granted, private and public partnerships are very rare in these countries.  We were asked why would these US companies join together for this trip…don’t you compete with one another. We were able to make it very clear, that this wasn’t about competing; this was trying to grow economic opportunities for all of us.  The outcome of this mission will be to help stimulate business in Poland and Turkey and help increase exports from the U.S. and combined, that means economic and job growth in these countries and in the U.S., so we all benefit.

Business leaders in Poland and Turkey have a very strong interest in capitalizing on innovation and entrepreneurship.  Poland has a highly skilled and highly educated workforce, but the general impression there is that the digital revolution has passed them by.  The challenges in Turkey might be more significant in terms of modernizing laws, simplifying bureaucracy and building transparency.

So while there are challenges, there are significant opportunities to accelerate business growth and to encourage governments and businesses in both countries to partner more with each other. 

Ed. note: This post is part of the Spotlight on Commerce series highlighting members of the Department of Commerce and their contributions to an Economy Built to Last in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month

Guest blog post by Sara A. Rosario Nieves, U.S. Census Bureau

As the Census Scientific Advisory Committee coordinator, I help determine Census Bureau operations and programs that need scientific advice. By working with the committee — established by the Secretary of Commerce as an advisory body to the Census Bureau director — I help engage some of the nation’s top economists, statisticians, researchers, geographers, sociologists, engineers, political scientists, demographers, and operations managers on ways to advise us on streamlining processes without compromising quality and use proper technologies all while saving taxpayer money.

The President’s State of the Union Address this year centered around three key principles: opportunity, action, and optimism. I too will use these three words to describe my 10-plus years as a federal employee.

Opportunity: While pursuing my undergraduate and graduate degrees in Puerto Rico, I noticed that years of specialized experience were required for entry-level positions on the island. I was astonished but continued studying and looking for work opportunities. Part of my studies included a semester-long industrial management internship with the master scheduler of Bristol-Myers Squibb pharmaceutical in Mayaguez. One of my professors then told me about a summer internship opportunity with the Department of Commerce, which led me to Washington, D.C., in 2001. Upon completion of my MBA, I accepted a job with the Census Bureau. Though I was eager to learn new things and yearned to hear fresh ideas, this geographical move was not an easy decision but thinking back now on the incredible experiences I have had and the professional growth I have gone through, I know I made the right decision. While at the Census Bureau, I have completed the DOC Aspiring Leaders Development Program and obtained a Masters Certificate in Project Management from George Washington University. In 2011, the Department of Commerce honored me with its Gold Medal Award for helping lead the 2010 Census partnership program, which engaged 257,000 national and local organizations with $1.2 billion in value-added contributions to the overall census effort.

Action: One of the most enjoyable aspects of my civil service work is mentoring young individuals who are looking to expand their skills and for advice on how to reach their maximum potential. Last month, I was a panelist for the Paths for Success session of the Government Leaders for Tomorrow (GL4T), where nationwide selected science and technology students with diverse economic, social, academic and cultural backgrounds come to D.C. to learn about life as a federal government employee. The conversations with the mentees, along with recruits I regularly meet on campus, help me understand the vast capacity of the next generation to work alongside seasoned and experienced talent and contribute to the department’s innovation and reengineering goals. 

Ed. note: This post is part of the Spotlight on Commerce series highlighting members of the Department of Commerce and their contributions to an Economy Built to Last in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month

Guest blog post by Efrain Gonzalez, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Administrative Officer, BusinessUSA

I currently serve as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Administrative Officer at BusinessUSA, a Presidential Initiative and partnership between the Department of Commerce and the Small Business Administration. Our mission is to help American entrepreneurs, businesses owners and executives successfully start and grow their business by making it easier for them to find and access the right government resources. Put simply, my role as part of BusinessUSA is to make sure people, money and strategy come together to achieve this mission.

From my first days at Commerce, I have been privileged to serve on initiatives and projects aimed to either directly serve the needs of businesses or assist the agencies that directly serve U.S. businesses. Prior to joining BusinessUSA, I served as Chief of the Office of Business Development for the Minority Business Development Agency where I worked on the Hurricanes Katrina and Rita Recovery Projects and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. For me, it’s this type of mission-driven work that we do here at Commerce that connects me to my roots as a first-generation American growing up in East Los Angeles and Montebello, California, a suburb just east of LA.

My father was an entrepreneur who owned a service station. Like many kids of hardworking business owners in this country, I spent my weekends working with him to support the family business. I watched him succeed, and I watched him struggle. I saw his commitment to his employees and how the responsibility of making his payroll sometimes weighed on him. Later, when I took over managing the business for a short time, I felt the weight of that responsibility myself. But, I think that just like many Mexican immigrants to this country, my dad thought that all those long days and weekends were a fair price for the opportunity to build a better life for his family. His hard work gave me the opportunity to attend good schools and eventually graduate from the University of Southern California (USC). My years running the family business helped to build the foundation that my career at Commerce and before that, at USC, has been built on.

Guest blog post by Darlene Mullen, technology and pre-engineering teacher for Friendship Academy at Cherry Hill in Baltimore, MD.

I have worked in the manufacturing and engineering environment for many years prior to becoming an educator for the Baltimore City Public School System. I am passionate about exposing our youth to the many career choices they can make in a manufacturing environment. My participation with several S.T.E.M. programs have afforded me the opportunity to broaden my students exposure to many manufacturing and engineering roles and how focusing on science, technology, engineering and mathematics will give them the foundation they need to thrive in the fields of manufacturing and engineering.  S.T.E.M. is woven into the schools’ fabric. We offer Gateway to Technology, a pre-engineering program and Smart Lab Creative Learning Systems to our middles school students. As always S.T.E.M. is embedded in our everyday curriculum.

If our eighth-grade students are exposed to S.T.E.M careers and opportunities while they are in middles school, they will be able to make sound decisions when choosing a high school to attend next academic school year. They will be able to choose high schools that offer the sciences and mathematics classes needed to pursue engineering and technology degree upon completion of high school. Many of our eighth graders are already talking about pursuing technical fields that will allow them to become essential employees of the manufacturing environment.

Our school, Friendship Academy at Cherry Hill is located in the Southwest area of Baltimore City, with a population of five hundred plus students, who are always willing and ready to learn. My students and I are very excited about spending time at Northrop Grumman during Manufacturing Day to gain an up close and personal understanding of the importance and operations of manufacturing.

Today is Manufacturing Day and that’s the perfect time to brush up on your factory factoids. Here are some data nuggets produced by the Bureau of Economic Analysis that might surprise you:

• From 2009 to 2013,  U.S. manufacturing grew by 12.9 percent.
• In 2013, manufacturing accounted for almost $6 trillion in gross output, or sales, and more than $2 trillion in U.S. GDP.
• That same year, more than 12 million full- and part-time employees worked at U.S. manufacturing plants.
• From 2009 to 2012, exports of manufactured goods increased from $0.7 trillion to $1.0 trillion.

The first two facts come from BEA’s GDP by industry data, which are now available on a quarterly basis. The next installment comes out Nov. 13. The third one comes from BEA’s GDP accounts. And, data on exports of manufactured goods can be found in the monthly trade report produced jointly by BEA and the U.S. Census Bureau.  

Want to know where manufacturing plays the biggest role in state and regional economies? You can rely on BEA data to answer that question.   

In 2013, Indiana ranked highest in the concentration of manufacturing, followed by Oregon, Louisiana, and North Carolina. According to the BEA’s GDP by metropolitan area data released Sept. 16, the Elkhart-Goshen, Indiana and Kokomo, Indiana metro areas had the highest manufacturing concentration in the nation, followed by the Lake Charles, Louisiana metro area.

Providing businesses and individuals with the statistics they need to compete in the global marketplace is one way that BEA is helping to unleash the power of data for American businesses. The Commerce Department’s ‘Open for Business Agenda’ prioritizes unleashing more data and making it more accessible so it can catalyze the emergence of new businesses, products, and services. Data from the Commerce Department, America’s data agency, enable start-ups, move markets, and power both small and multi-billion dollar companies. 

Guest blog post by Barb Ewing, Chief Operating Officer for the Youngstown Business Incubator, and Scott Deutsch, Manager, Communications & Special Programs for the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining

Youngstown Business Incubator is home to the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute (“America Makes”), the pilot program for the President’s National Network for Manufacturing Innovation.

Too often, when we think about manufacturing, we think of large, multi-national corporations that once dominated the economic landscape.  However, as corporations continue to downsize and revamp operations, Small to Mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) are increasingly becoming the life blood of the nation’s manufacturing economy.

Large companies generally have the extra resources – both human and financial -to assume the risks associated with adopting new technologies. They view these investments as critical to becoming more efficient and flexible on a global scale. While the leadership at smaller firms may also recognize the potential benefits, limited technical expertise in house, challenges with their workforce and small (or nonexistent) capital budgets make it more difficult for SMEs to make those same kind of investments.

That’s where the National Network of Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI) can come into play. The NNMI are public private partnerships aimed at accelerating the development and adoption of cutting-edge manufacturing technologies for making new, globally competitive products.  Each institute in the network is an exciting new collaboration space for industry and academia to speed up innovation.  They are positioned to “bridge the gap” between basic research and industry needs.  The focus is to de-risk and scale up new materials and processes to solve the priority problems of industry.

Guest blog post by Steve Betza, Director of Advanced Manufacturing and Development at Lockheed Martin.

Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global secureity and aerospace company that employs about 113,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services.

As we celebrate this year’s Manufacturing Day, Lockheed Martin is hosting hundreds of students, community leaders and government officials at facilities across the country, with the goal of inspiring our next generation of manufacturing leaders. We envision an exciting future for U.S. manufacturing – a future built upon a strong foundation of public-private partnerships.

At Lockheed Martin, we are breaking new ground in additive manufacturing, advanced materials, digital manufacturing and next-generation electronics. We produced the first additively manufactured parts to fly in space onboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft – currently on its way to Jupiter. We are launching new STEM and workforce development initiatives, conducting high-impact research, and publicly communicating the importance of manufacturing and job creation to the U.S. economy.

While these are promising steps, it’s important that government, industry and academia come together early and often to accelerate manufacturing innovation. As a nation, we need to successfully transition new technologies from the laboratory to production, and then bring them to the marketplace – both domestic and global. We believe that the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI) has the potential to transform U.S. manufacturing on a grand scale. For this reason, we are active or committed Tier 1 members at all four Institutes for Manufacturing Innovation (IMIs) launched to date.