ARLINGTON (July 21, 2010) — The U.S. Industry Coalition (USIC) announces the following changes in its executive leadership:
James E. Thompson, Dean, College of Engineering, University of Missouri Columbia, has been elected Chairman of the Board of Directors. Dr. Thompson has served on the USIC Board of Directors since its inception in 1994 and for the past two years served as the Vice Chair of the Board. Dr. Thompson earned his PhD in Electrical Engineering from the Texas Tech University and an honorary doctorate degree from the Institute of Electrophysics, Ekaterinburg, Russia.
Dr. Thompson’s work has spanned the fields of high voltage, electro-optics, pulsed power systems, lasers, high power switches and dielectric materials. He is a Fellow of the IEEE and has served on educational, industrial, government, and national laboratory committees, edited professional society journals, and authored over 100 technical journal articles. Dr. Thompson has well-established contacts within the international scientific and technical community and an in-depth knowledge of technical institutes and academic institutions within the FSU.
Dr. Thompson states:
“USIC has many years of experience working with the institutes and scientists of the FSU, the DOE National Laboratories, the DOE, and very importantly, U.S. businesses. The USIC staff and members have business experience, contacts, and networks and are actively engaged in assisting to develop meaningful and productive international relationships to improve the innovation capabilities and profitability of U.S. companies and to start and grow business partnership in the FSU and other countries.
“It is, and will be, USIC’s goal to accomplish the DOE and IPP objectives and to develop opportunities which support these objectives. USIC will also continue to be committed to the formation and growth of U.S. companies by facilitating technical innovation and international partnerships.”
John W. Peel, III has been named President of USIC. Dr. Peel came to USIC in 2008 with more than 30 years of experience in government and industry, including more than 20 years in nonproliferation/ nuclear weapons projects. He earned his PhD in Environmental Health and Health Physics from Purdue University.
In the public sector, Dr. Peel worked for the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and the U.S. Department of Energy. He served as the DOE National Program manager for the Low Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Program. Under the Reagan Administration, Dr. Peel managed the preparation of the President’s NEPIII energy plan and served on the White House Cabinet Council for Regulatory Reform. In addition, he supported Presidents Carter, Ford, Bush and Clinton on various energy and environmental initiatives.
In the private sector, Dr. Peel worked in the area of business development and marketing for several large corporations including Westinghouse, Jacobs Engineering, and TetraTech. As a Senior Vice President at TetraTech, he participated in a successful IPO and oversaw $150 million growth in 5 years.
Gerson S. Sher has been named Executive Vice President. Dr. Sher came to USIC in 2006. He was the founding President of the U.S. Civilian Research and Development Foundation (CRDF) and in the early 1990s he was Chief Operating Officer of George Soros’s International Science Foundation, which disbursed emergency relief of over $100 million to former Soviet Union scientists and engineers.
He is retired from the U.S. National Science Foundation, where he was Program Coordinator for U.S.-Soviet and East European programs. At the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy in the mid-1980s, he initiated a National Security Study Directive, signed by President Reagan, which resulted in National Security Decision Directive 189 declaring all basic research to be unclassified.
Dr. Sher received his B.A. in Russian Studies from Yale University and a Ph.D. in Politics in 1975 from Princeton University. In 2008, he was awarded an honorary PhD from the Moscow Engineering-Physics Institute (MEPhI).