As director of Government Affairs and head of the Applied Materials’ Washington, D.C. office, William supports Applied's Government Affairs activities from developing policy positions to the day-to-day implementation of the company’s state, federal and international public policy concerns.
"We're going to take our money elsewhere." Maybe those words will have the impact that “global warming,” “climate change,” “green economy” and others have failed to make on skeptical U.S. policymakers. And who uttered the line above – Mr. Kevin Parker, head of Deutsche Bank’s asset management division – is no less important than what was said.
Applied Materials hosted a delegation of nine Bundestag (Germany’s Parliament) Members in Santa Clara, California last week. The visit was part of a familiarization trip to learn more about the company and our operations in Germany.
Germany is home to several hundred Applied Materials employees and numerous customers, not to mention being the largest economy within the European Union (EU). Applied Materials’ executive vice president Franz Janker, briefed the Bundestag Members on Applied’s overall business and footprint in Germany. They also learned about our solar and other energy and environmental technologies.
The first-ever Clean Energy Ministerial brought together ministers and stakeholders from 24 nations in Washington, D.C., last week to collaborate on policies and programs that accelerate the world's transition to clean energy technologies. Participants included executives from top global companies – including Charlie Gay of Applied Materials.
Charlie, who is president of Applied's solar business, was a panelist at an event that occurred on the first day of the two-day Ministerial, hosted by U.S. Energy Secretary Stephen Chu.
Applied Materials’ chief financial officer, George Davis, met with Sens. Kerry (D-MA) and Lieberman (I-CT) today to discuss what is required to address the world’s energy and environmental challenges.
The fourth installment of EU Sustainable Energy Week (EUSEW) took place the week of March 22, mainly in Brussels but with satellite events throughout many of the 27 EU Member States. To this observer from Washington, the week's program evoked the old saw, "where you stand depends on where you sit." Brussels and Washington, sitting or standing, are definitely not in the same place.
“Asia’s rising ‘clean technology tigers’— China, Japan and South Korea — are poised to out-compete the United States for dominance of clean energy markets due to their substantially larger government investments to support clean technology research and innovation, manufacturing capacity, and domestic markets, as well as critical related infrastructure.” So begins Rising Tigers, Sleeping Giant, released on November 18 by the Breakthrough Institute and the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation.
The western visitor to Asia is greeted by a mélange of different sensory inputs that sometimes can be disorienting. But the disorientation that I found at the APEC CEO Summit in Singapore was of a whole different sort, and far more worrisome, than not understanding a menu or wondering what that smell could be.
The cause for my concern is that the United States is falling behind the countries of the Asia-Pacific region economically, and they are not looking back or waiting for us to catch up.