POSTPONED | On Acquisition: Featuring Dr. Laura Taylor-Kale, ASD(IBP)

Dr. Laura D. Taylor-Kale was confirmed in March 2023 as the first Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Base Policy (ASD(IBP)). She advises the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment and other senior defense leaders on all matters pertaining to industrial base resilience and innovation; small business programs; and industrial base development, industrial policy, and international engagement.

Prior to joining CFR, Dr. Taylor-Kale served in the Obama Administration from 2014-2017, as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Manufacturing in the International Trade Administration, 

From 2003-2012, Dr. Taylor-Kale was a career Foreign Service Officer in the U.S. Department of State and served in diplomatic postings in India as a consular officer and special assistant to the ambassador, Côte d’Ivoire as a political affairs officer, Afghanistan as an economic affairs officer, and in Washington, DC in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs as a financial economist. She received multiple awards for her economic analysis and from 2010-2011, was the first Foreign Service Officer to serve as an advisor to the U.S. Executive Director on the boards of the World Bank Group.

Dr. Taylor-Kale holds a B.A. in economics and anthropology from Smith College, an M.P.A. in development economic and demographic studies from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs, an M.B.A. in finance and management from the New York University’s Stern School of Business, and a Ph.D. in management science and engineering with a specialization in Organizations, Technology, and Entrepreneurship from Stanford University’s School of Engineering. Her scholarly research examines grand challenges, ecosystem design, and how organizations leverage technology to build cross-sector strategic partnerships.

Jim Woolsey serves as the President of Defense Acquisition University (DAU), a position he has held since January 2014. In this role, Woolsey leads one of the largest corporate universities in the world—responsible for the training and talent development of roughly 186,000 Department of Defense (DoD) employees. DAU’s students represent a cross-section of the Department’s Acquisition functions, including contracting, business, engineering, logistics, and program management. For the past several years, Woolsey has led DAU’s transformation to a modern learning platform that employs the full range of training modes and that empowers the workforce to tailor learning to their current job needs and future career goals. Woolsey has a bachelor of science in aerospace engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, a master’s in business administration from George Mason University and was a Fellow in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Seminar XXI on International Relations.