Leo Reddy (32W)
CEO and Founder, National Council for Advanced Manufacturing (NACFAM) Since 1989, Mr. Reddy has served as the founder and lead executive of NACFAM, an industry-led, non-profit 501(c)(3) education, research and services organization located in downtown Washington, D.C. NACFAM develops national policies and programs to increase the productivity of all tiers of U.S.-based manufacturing through the accelerated development and deployment of advanced, information-based technologies and related workforce skills and knowledge. Mr. Reddy has built NACFAM from a small, grass-roots organization into a large national community of private and public sector organizations. NACFAM has received membership and in-kind contributions from over 1500 corporations, 20 national trade associations, 7 national education organizations, and 350 technology and technical education centers at universities, federal labs, community colleges, and manufacturing extension services. NACFAM has also performed research for many leading organizations, including the U.S. Departments of Defense, Energy, Commerce, Education, Labor, and Agriculture, and the National Science Foundation. (32Y)
NACFAM has helped to build various public-private partnership programs, including the Technology Reinvestment Project, the Manufacturing Extension Partnership program, the Advanced Technology Program, National Skill Standards for Advanced Manufacturing, National Skill Standards for Computer-aided Drafting and Design, and the Tech Transfer Initiative. Mr. Reddy also serves as the industry co-manager of the Manufacturing Skill Standards Council, which is working under the auspices of the National Skill Standards Act to build a nationwide system of standards, assessment, and certification for production and production support workers in all sectors of manufacturing. NACFAM and Mr. Reddy maintain a large network of contacts within both the Executive and Legislative Branches of the federal government among officials with responsibilities affecting the nation’s industrial productivity. (32Z)
Mr. Reddy has testified before Congress more than a dozen times. In addition to its policy and program research activities, NACFAM has also developed services to industry that draw upon the large NACFAM community of public sector organizations. These services are: LabTechAccess, which provides a cost-effective, timely process for companies to locate federal lab expertise; and NetSkillSystems, a technical assistance service enabling companies to develop standards-based workforce development programs customized to their specific needs. (330)
Before entering the private sector to lead NACFAM in 1989, Mr. Reddy had a highly successful, 28-year Foreign Service career in the U.S. Department of State where he rose to the rank of “Career Minister” (the diplomatic equivalent of Lt. General). He was a leading State Department expert on NATO, arms control, and defense policy, serving on the NATO Desk, the National Military Command Center at the Pentagon, and as State Liaison to the National Security Council at the White House. (331)
Abroad, he was as a member of U.S. Delegations to NATO, the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, and the Conventional Force Reductions in Europe Treaty Negotiations. He was also the Senior State Department Representative to the negotiations on the elimination of U.S. and Soviet Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces—the INF Treaty signed by Presidents Reagan and Gorbachev in 1987. Mr. Reddy was in charge of the INF Treaty Ratification Task Force, which secured Senate approval of the Treaty in time for President Reagan’s visit to Moscow in the summer of 1988. (332)
Following INF Treaty ratification, Mr. Reddy was Senior Fellow and Diplomat-in-Residence at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington in 1988-89. At CSIS, Mr. Reddy directed a research project with leading defense contractors on ways to use advanced manufacturing technologies and processes to help these firms to compete more effectively in the commercial marketplace. This work paved the way for his work with industry in building NACFAM. (333)
Mr. Reddy is a frequent lecturer and prolific writer. He has written two books (Defense Reductions and Economic Adjustment, and Burden Sharing) and numerous NACFAM research reports, including a series of “White Papers,” containing detailed recommendations for public policies to strengthen the U.S. manufacturing. His 2003 publications for NACFAM include: “Industrial Transformation: Key to Sustaining the Productivity Boom,” and “The Case for Enhancing American Workforce Skills.” He publishes a bimonthly article in the “US Industry Today,” circulated to 60,000 manufacturing executives in the US and Canada. (334)
Mr. Reddy is a Board member of the Chicago Manufacturing Center and the Doyle Center for Advanced Manufacturing. He is also a member of Defense Industry Affordability Task Force, the Diplomatic and Consular Officers Retired, and the American Foreign Service Association. He has BA and MA degrees from Georgetown University. Before entering the Foreign Service in 1962, Mr. Reddy served as Gunnery and ASW Officer on destroyers in the Sixth and Seventh Fleets, and as a Soviet Affairs analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency. (32X)