John C. Austin
John Austin directs the Michigan Economic Center a center for ideas and network-building to advance Michigan’s economic transformation. As a Non-Resident Senior Fellow with the Brookings Institution, the Chicago Council of Global Affairs, and the W.E. Upjohn Institute he leads these institutions' work in support of transforming the Great Lakes/Midwest economy.
In 2020 he organized the Transforming Industrial Heartland Regions Initiative—pulling together the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Georgetown University’s BMW Center for German and European Studies, the University of Manchester, the Ruhr-Konferenz, the Consulate General of the Germany in Chicago, and the European Commission’s Directorate of Regional and Urban Policy in a transatlantic alliance to advance policies, practices, and strategies that foster economic development in industrial heartland regions and diminish support for the polarizing populist and anti-democratic movements threatening Western democracies.
With international security expert Elaine Dezenski Austin developed the concept of “ally-shoring” as the best response to COVID-19 disrupted supply chains, and as a potent strategy to meet multiple economic, foreign policy and national security goals. Aided by explication in Foreign Policy Magazine, The National Interest, Bloomberg Magazine, and Brookings Institution, ally-shoring has taken root, embraced by the Biden Administration.
In 2020 the Chicago Council on Global Affairs released Austin’s report A Global Midwest: The Path to New Prosperity, which provides an updated analysis of the Great Lakes/Midwest Economy from the seminal Brookings 2006 publication The Vital Center also authored by Austin.
Austin also coined the term “Blue Economy” to describe the way our waters, and water innovation contribute to economic growth. MEC's "Blue Economy” Initiative, has catalyzed state and local Blue Economy building work across Michigan and the Great Lakes. His Brookings report Healthy Waters, Strong Economy led directly to billions of federal dollars flowing to support Great Lakes Restoration.
Mr. Austin served as Policy Director for Michigan’s Governor-appointed Commission on Higher Education and Economic Growth and was founding Director of the New Economy Initiative for Southeast Michigan—where he created the Global Detroit program to welcome immigrants,
Austin received his Master’s in Public Administration from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, and a Bachelors from Swarthmore College in Economics & Political Science, with High Honors and Phi Beta Kappa.