Tomicah Tillemann
Tomicah Sterling Tillemann-Dick is an American diplomat and technologist who leads initiatives in the fields of civic innovation and social finance. He is the Executive Director of the Digital Impact and Governance Initiative (DIGI) at New America, Chairman of the Responsible Asset Allocator Initiative, a member of the World Economic Forum's Council for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and an internationally recognized leader in the deployment of frontier technologies to address governance and social impact challenges. He previously worked for Joe Biden on the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and served at the State Department as a speechwriter and senior advisor to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of State John Kerry.
Tomicah Tillemann | |
|---|---|
| Born | Tomicah Sterling Tillemann-Dick New Haven, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Education | Yale University (BA) Johns Hopkins University (MA, PhD) |
| Occupation | Executive Director, Digital Governance and Impact Initiative (DIGI) at New America |
Advisor to Joe Biden
In 2005, Tillemann joined the professional staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee where he managed a portfolio of over 50 countries on behalf of then-Committee chairmen Joe Biden. Tillemann's immediate supervisor on the Committee was Antony Blinken. Tillemann was the sole staffer to travel with Biden on his sensitive mission to Tbilisi, Georgia at the height of the 2008 Russian invasion days before Biden was nominated as Vice President. Tillemann then spearheaded passage of a billion-dollar assistance package that helped the country rebuild following the conflict.
State Department service
After the 2008 election, Tillemann was recruited to serve as speechwriter to Hillary Clinton.[1] He collaborated with Clinton on over 200 speeches, including landmark addresses on technology, democracy, and civil society, and accompanied her frequently on international travel. He worked closely with Jake Sullivan. One of Clinton's emails later released by the State Department showed that Tillemann once went almost 100 hours without going to bed in order to finish a highly regarded speech on Internet freedom.
In October 2010, Clinton promoted Tillemann to Senior Advisor. He led a team reporting to the Secretary of State that developed major initiatives to strengthen democracy and civil society. His office mobilized talent, technology, resources, and partners across government to translate promising ideas into policy outcomes. He delivered over 20 major projects on behalf of the President and two Secretaries of State, including the State Department's Diplomacy Lab, the LEND Network a peer-to-peer platform to facilitate cooperation among leaders in new democracies, and revitalization of the Community of Democracies. Tillemann also chaired the State Department's Global Philanthropy Working Group and the Department's Federal Advisory Committee on engagement with non-state actors. [2] [3] Tillemann was awarded one of the Department's highest honors in recognition of his work.
Post-government activities
Tillemann left the State Department to join New America, where he built out a series of global initiatives to address social impact and governance challenges funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, Gates Foundation, Omidyar Network, and federal grants. He helped pioneer the use of modular, open-source technology to power more effective public institutions, and developed technology projects with the World Bank, Harvard, MIT, the State Department, the Department of Justice, and a broad range of other partners. He authored a series of research papers on how to harness frontier technologies to increase the accountability and efficiency of democratic institutions. After participation in a technology summit on Sir Richard Branson's Necker Island, Tillemann launched multiple successful efforts to use decentralized technology to combat public corruption and increase government accountability. He helped deploy the world's first land registry based on a decentralized platform and managed development of open source technology platforms for city, state, and federal agencies in the U.S..
He also launched the Bretton Woods II initiative, and now chairs the project in its current form as the Responsible Asset Allocator Initiative (RAAI). The effort tracks over $20 trillion in assets held by government funds worldwide and ranks them based on use of best practices for managing social, governance, and environmental risks.
Tillemann is a co-holder of four patents that received major awards from NASA, Dow, and ConocoPhillips. He remains active in politics, and publicly supported Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign.[4] He served as a member of the Biden 2020 National Finance Committee and national co-chair of Innovators for Biden.
Personal life and education
Tillemann was born to Timber Dick and Annette Tillemann, and grew up the eldest of eleven children in Denver, Colorado.[5] An Eagle Scout, he was accepted to college at age 14 and received his BA magna cum laude from Yale University.[2] He served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Budapest, Hungary.[6] He went on to earn a doctorate with distinction from the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University (SAIS).[7] Tillemann is the oldest grandson of Tom Lantos, the former Chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs and the only Holocaust survivor ever elected to the U.S. Congress. Lantos was a close advisor and friend of Joe Biden, having arraigned Biden's wedding to Jill Biden at the UN Chapel in New York. Tom and Annette Lantos accompanied the Bidens on their honeymoon to Hungary. Tillemann represents the third generation in his family to have advised Biden. Tillemann's paternal grandmother, Nancy Dick, served as the first woman Lieutenant Governor of Colorado. Tillemann is married with five children and currently resides in Northern Virginia.[6][4]
References
- Profile, thecable.foreignpolicy.com; accessed February 26, 2015.
- Profile, politico.com; accessed April 18, 2015.
- "LEADERS Interview with Dr. Tomicah Tillemann, Director of Bretton Woods II, an initiative of New America". www.leadersmag.com. Retrieved Apr 25, 2019.
- "My View: What Mormons should know about Hillary Clinton". DeseretNews.com. 2016-10-14. Retrieved 2018-09-22.
- "Denver inventor Dick dies after crash". The Denver Post. 2008-04-11. Retrieved 2018-09-22.
- "Missionary Service "Set Trajectory" for State Dept. Adviser - Church News and Events". ChurchofJesusChrist.org. Retrieved 2018-09-22.
- Profile, baltimoresun.com, May 21, 2009; accessed February 26, 2015.