Mike Schmidt Keynote Speaker

Mike Schmidt is a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Institute for Progress and Distinguished Visitor at Princeton University.

He served as the founding Director of the CHIPS Program Office (CPO) at the U.S. Department of Commerce, where he led the implementation of a $39 billion grant program to incentivize semiconductor manufacturing in the United States. Under his leadership, CPO executed 20 final award agreements totaling $34 billion in funding, unlocking an unprecedented wave of investment in U.S. semiconductor production — generating more than ten dollars of total investment for every federal grant dollar committed.

Before joining the Department of Commerce, Schmidt led the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s implementation of the Child Tax Credit under the American Rescue Plan. The program delivered monthly payments to over 37 million families and lifted more than 3 million children out of poverty.

He previously served as Commissioner of the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, overseeing the state’s tax system and the collection of over $100 billion in annual revenue. Earlier in his career, Schmidt served as Deputy Secretary for Economic Development in New York, overseeing policy and operations for 12 state agencies and authorities.

He has also held roles in the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Domestic Finance and as a financial analyst at the Yale Investments Office. He holds a J.D. and a B.A. from Yale University.