Rick Switzer

Rick Switzer is the deputy United States trade representative. Prior to his appointment, he was the founder and principal of ProjX Technology Consulting. During his 20-year career as a member of the Foreign Service, he served as the State Department visiting professor at the National Intelligence University, teaching graduate courses on China’s economy and innovation system. He was also a member of the secretary of state’s policy planning council, and a senior State Department adviser to the Department of Defense, working with the Air Force and the Army.

Other highlights include serving as the environment, science, technology and health counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, the largest science section in the world. While on sabbatical from the State Department, he spent a year as a senior fellow at the Special Competitive Studies Project, a nonprofit founded by the former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. Before his government service, Switzer co-founded a wireless technology startup and also conducted innovation policy research at the University of California.