BEST - Building Engineering and Science Talent

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John Yochelson has served a president of Building Engineering and Science Talent (BEST) since its establishment in 2001. BEST is a San Diego-based national public-private partnership launched to follow up the recommendations of the Congressional Commission on the Advancement of Woman and Minorities in Science, Engineering, and Technology. BEST has provided three reports to Congress on the nation’s most effective programs in K-12, higher education, and the workplace to broaden the participation of historically under-represented in technical fields.

From 1995 –2001, Mr. Yochelson served as president of the Washington DC-based Council on Competitiveness, a non-partisan forum of corporate chief executives, university presidents and labor leaders known for its work on strengthening the foundations of the U.S. economy. He led the Council’s widely recognized national initiatives on innovation and was awarded the NASA Public Service medial for leadership in technology, education and workforce development.

Previously, he was president of the Edmond de Rothschild Foundation and a senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Before his work at CSIS, he spent three years at the Department of State. He was a research fellow at the Center for International Affairs at Harvard University and at the Brookings Institution. He has been a consultant to the Joint Economic Committee of the U. S. Congress and a collaborator of the late Jean Monnet. President George H.W. Bush appointed Mr. Yochelson to the President’s Export Council in 1990, and he also served as a member of the Department of State’s Advisory Committee on International Investment.

Mr. Yochelson is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and of the Executive Advisory Council of HENAAC. He served as an army officer with U.S. forces in Europe. He holds an M.P.A. degree from the Woodrow Wilson School of Princeton University and a B.A. from Yale