Former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo analyzed the critical role of private- and public-sector partnerships in maintaining American technological innovation and dominance during a discussion at Dartmouth on May 9.
The talk was the seventh in the nine-part 100 Days Series sponsored by Dartmouth Dialogues and the that is bringing prominent public figures to campus to examine the first three months of the second Trump presidency.
Raimondo, who was on campus to give the , spoke to an audience of 150 at the Arthur L. Irving Institute for Energy and Society, with another 250 .
A Rhodes Scholar and Yale Law School graduate, Raimondo worked as a venture capitalist before entering politics. She served as the Democratic governor of Rhode Island from 2015 to 2021 before then-President Joe Biden named her commerce secretary in 2021, a role in which she served until January 2025. When Raimondo got the nod from Biden, she said she had to research the role of the U.S. Department of Commerce in government.
“What you quickly realize is that people call the Commerce Department the ‘Department of Miscellaneous,’” Raimondo said.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Office of Space Commerce, the Census Bureau, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology are some of the divisions within the Commerce Department that are vital to the functioning of American government, business, and society, Raimondo said.
Although the U.S. has been regarded globally as the post-war leader in scientific and digital research and innovation, Raimondo said, the percentage of the country’s GDP that has been invested in core research and development is a “straight downward slope for the past 50 years. That is a huge problem. I would have given us an A, and now I give us a low pass. We’re not going to win that way.”
What concerns Raimondo is that the U.S.’s “ability to lead depends upon the strength of our economy, the strength of our social fabric and democracy, and the strength of our innovation ecosystem. And so we have to win. And to do that, we have to out-innovate the world, including and especially China.”
Forty to fifty years ago in the U.S., there was greater collaboration between the private and public sectors, “which laid the foundation for all the innovation that we’re still benefiting from. It is the private sector in partnership with government that fuels innovation,” Raimondo said.
Those innovations helped to fuel an American belief that government, business, and science were working towards a greater good. That belief is complicated today by the partisanship and cynicism that many Americans feel towards government and political polarization.
“I think what you’re seeing play out in American politics is a legitimate anger that so many institutions are broken,” Raimondo said.
In answer to a student question on the subject of the transfer of enormous wealth to an increasingly narrow percentage of Americans, Raimondo answered that the “one percent’s” accumulation of capital has wide-ranging implications for society as a whole.
“This is the trillion-dollar question. How do we revive the American dream? Can we have a vibrant democracy with the capitalism that has brought about such extreme concentration of wealth in the hands of so few? And I think the jury’s out; it’s playing out right now in our politics. Unless we figure out how to have more equal opportunity, it’s going to be really rough to maintain our democracy,” she said.
The key is to propose actual solutions, “so that the average American can feel the American Dream is truly alive and well,” said Raimondo, who recently acknowledged that she is in 2028.
If the public and private sectors do not or cannot execute changes in the American system, “I think we’re going to keep seeing this sort of messed-up politics, which at the end really does erode our democracy,” Raimondo said.
One solution, Raimondo said, would be to invest in universal job training. Four-year-college is not a formula that works for everyone, she said, as “40% of people who go drop out because it’s too expensive, and then they wind up with no degree, in a lot of debt.” Or, students make it through but carry burdensome debt and are not qualified for a job, Raimondo said.
The advantage of universal job training is that it would not “ bankrupt you or your family, and it actually leads to a job. And the root of that has to be a public-private partnership,” Raimondo said.
The private sector needs to play a larger role in training for jobs; and the public sector needs to become more innovative, she added.
Raimondo never specifically mentioned President Donald Trump by name during her Dartmouth talk, but said she was opposed to how he had implemented tariffs “willy-nilly.”
“There is a place for tariffs for countries that don’t play by the rules. If every country played by the rules and there were a level playing field, America could compete and win, and we wouldn’t need these tariffs. But that isn’t the case,” she said.
When Tuck School of Business Dean , who was moderating the event, asked what advice Raimondo would give students today, she said, “I think you should find a problem that matters to you, or that affects your daily life, and go try to solve it. It could be something small—or if it’s a big thing, go at it.”
“And if that leads you to run for office, fine; if it leads you to start a nonprofit, fine. But it’s the only way that we’re going to get anywhere. So be a striver. Because America needs you to be,” Raimondo said.
After her talk, David Kim ’27 said that “it was a great event and I love it that Dartmouth is bringing leaders in the country to speak at the school.”
Sreshta Shetty, who is in the Thayer School of Engineering’s Master of Engineering Management program, said she found the talk “very inspiring.” She agreed with Raimondo that a universal policy to prepare students to be job-ready would be beneficial, adding that Raimondo was “empathetic towards students and very respectful.”
Cosponsors included Tuck’s Center for Business, Government and Society and the Center for Entrepreneurship, Dartmouth Democrats, the Dartmouth Conservatives, and the Dartmouth Political Union.