Nikolis Smith

Mr. Nikolis R. Smith is the former Senior Advisor to the Ambassador and U.S. Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy in the State Department’s Bureau of EconomicandBusinessAffairs(EB). Inthisrole,Mr.Smithwasresponsiblewithdevelopingand advising the Ambassador on U.S. international policy positions related to Internet, ICT, telecommunications, economic and trade issues, intellectual property, cyber security, data privacy, regulatory affairs and Internet governance. 

Prior to joining the Economic Bureau, Mr. Smith served as the Budget Performance Officer for theBureauofEastAsiaandPacificAffairs. Hemanageda$1.4billionbudgetformulationprocess in the Office of Regional and Security Policy (EAP/RSP) and administered the final submission to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for the President’s annual Congressional Budget Justification (CBJ). 

Mr. Smith served as the Special Assistant to the Administrator for Federal Procurement Policy at the White House Office of Management and Budget, where he assisted with developing and implementing government-wide acquisition polices supporting over $500 billion in spending by the United States government for three fiscal years. In this capacity, he also advised the former U.S. Chief Information Officer, and represented OMB with E-Gov initiatives in bilateral meetings for Japanese delegations focusing on Information and Communication Technology. 

Before joining the Obama Administration, he served as a Special Liaison to Shotaro Yachi, former Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, and current Secretary General of Japan’s National Security Council. 

Mr. Smith received a Masters in Global Studies from Sophia University, Tokyo Japan. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Minor in Mandarin Chinese from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.