Biography

Tom Guevara joined the Indiana University Public Policy Institute as its fifth director in April of 2017. He also holds an appointment as a lecturer in IU’s O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Prior to coming to PPI, Tom spent six years as deputy assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration. In his role there, he led the federal economic development agenda, promoting innovation and competitiveness to help U.S. workers and businesses compete globally.

Tom has worked in a variety of state and local executive government positions in Indiana in addition to a six-year career with Crowe Horwath LLP in Indianapolis, where he was a director in the Public Sector Services division. His Indiana government experience includes appointments as assistant state budget director of the Indiana State Budget Agency, chief information officer of the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration, and controller for the city of Bloomington, Indiana.

He is a board member of Velocities, a regional venture development organization serving south central Indiana. He currently co-chairs the Innovation Policy Forum of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine in Washington, DC, and he is a nonresident Senior Advisor to the Renewing American Innovation project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Tom received his M.P.A. from the Indiana University O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs and a B.S. in Business from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business.

Awards

  • Distinguished Hoosier (2000)
  • Government Finance Officers Association Award of Financial Reporting Achievement (2003)
  • Department of Commerce Silver Honors Award (2015)