Robert D. Atkinson is founder and president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), the world’s leading think tank for science and technology policy. He is an internationally recognized scholar, a widely published author, and a trusted adviser to policymakers around the world, with expertise in the broad economics of innovation and specific policy and regulatory questions around new and emerging technologies. Rob’s most recent book, co-authored with Michael Lind, is Big Is Beautiful: Debunking the Myth of Small Business.

Before founding ITIF, Atkinson was Vice President of the Progressive Policy Institute and Director of PPI’s Technology & New Economy Project. He received his Masters in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Oregon and was named a distinguished alumnus in 2014. He received his Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1989.