Ronnie Chatterji will oversee the program from the White House’s National Economic Council, managing interagency coordination of an effort that aims to subsidize construction of computer-chip factories and research facilities in the United States. Chatterji was previously chief economist at Commerce and a professor at Duke University’s business school.
Michael Schmidt will lead the new Chips Program Office at Commerce, which is expected to vet industry applications for chip-factory construction. He previously managed implementation of the Child Tax Credit program at the Treasury Department.
A separate Chips Research and Development Office at Commerce that will vet applications for R & D funding will be overseen by Eric Lin. He has a doctorate in chemical engineering and was previously director of the Material Measurement Laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
The leadership, which is still hiring additional staff, will be “essential to bolstering our supply chains, spurring historic investments in research, strengthening our national security, and creating good-paying jobs for the American people,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in a statement.
