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EGILS MILBERGS  is the Center for Accelerating Innovation CEO and a founding director of the Healthy Communities and Wellness Alliance of Tucson, Arizona. He is an experienced governmental, entrepreneurial, and nonprofit leader. He served as Executive Director of the Washington Economic Development Commission, implementing an innovation-based economic strategy to recover from the Great Recession, including recruiting 30 university-based entrepreneurs in residence and designating 18 Innovation Partnerships Zones across the state. He has been president/CEO of the National Council for Advanced Manufacturing and the Institute for Illinois. He worked for the Reagan administration as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Productivity and Technology Innovation (U.S. Commerce Department), implementing the Bayh-Dole technology transfer act across all federal agencies. He was appointed executive director of the President's Commission on Industrial Competitiveness, which brought to national attention the critical importance of investing in workforce skills, emerging technologies, manufacturing infrastructure, and fair trade agreements. His career started with the Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget, and as a research director in futures studies, information technology, and the federal R&D system at SRI International, Menlo Park, California. He is a graduate of Harvard College in economics.