Competitiveness Council hosts Keith Krach

The BENS Competitiveness Council presents the latest in our Speaker Series – a discussion with Keith Krach, former Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment.

Mr. Krach was the Nation’s preeminent economic diplomat through January of this year, and in his service, rallied the alliance of democracies that successfully tempered Huawei’s expansion of 5G. Prior to Mr. Krach’s initiative, now known as Clean Network, the Chinese state-backed telecommunications company had contracts to build 5G infrastructure in 91 countries – potentially exposing many of the world’s citizens to Chinese state surveillance. Now, through the efforts of Mr. Krach, his team, and the dozens of allied countries and telecom corporations that partnered to form Clean Network, Huawei’s momentum has been stifled down to only about a dozen nations.

Mr. Krach, who also had a successful four-decade private sector career in engineering, technology, and business-to-business commerce – last serving as Chairman, CEO, and President of DocuSign before his appointment to State – will discuss the success of Clean Network and offer further insights on other steps the U.S. should take to maintain the Nation’s economic growth and security in this era of Great Power Competition.