Suzan G. LeVine

Ambassadorship

Suzan "Suzi" LeVine served as the United States Ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein from June 2014 until January 2017 during which time she expanded foreign direct investment (FDI) into the U.S.,^[8][9] helped counter violent extremism,^[10] enabled American citizens in Switzerland to regain access to banking services,^[11] and advanced the global diversity dialogue.^[12] She also championed female participation in entrepreneurship and technical fields, supporting women in both corporations and universities.^{[13][14][15][16]}

Apprenticeship advocate

While in Switzerland, she was instrumental in the signing of a Joint Declaration of Intent between Switzerland and the United States to collaborate on apprenticeship^[17] and partnered with 30 companies to bring and/or expand their Swiss style apprenticeship model into the United States.^[18] She also secured billions of dollars in investment and hundreds of jobs into the United States^[19] – with $3B alone announced at a special White House round table she catalyzed with Swiss business and government leaders.^[20]

During their time in Switzerland, Ambassador LeVine and her husband, Eric LeVine, hosted a number of visitors from the United States to view the Swiss system. Most notable was a delegation from Colorado led by Governor John Hickenlooper.^[21] This helped her understand the appeal and applicability of the Swiss system in the United States which she wrote about in The Ambassadors Review and the Commerce Department Blog.

Since returning from Switzerland, LeVine and her husband have been speaking across the U.S. and around the globe at events, round-tables, and with individuals in government, academia, business, and philanthropy about what can be learned, derived, and applied from the Swiss dual education system.^[22][23] She and her husband are convinced that there are many pathways to success, and that an "Apprenticeship Renaissance," as she calls it, is a key to the long-term economic growth in the United States and a key to more people than ever achieving their American Dream.^[24] She shared these insights at a presentation at EPFL in October, 2017.

She now serves on the CareerWise Colorado board,^[25] the Markle Foundation's Rework America Task Force,^[26] ETH's CEMETS International Advisory Board,^[27] and the Seattle Region Partnership. She also served on Governor Inslee's Career Connect Taskforce^[28] which completed its work and made its recommendations Feb 20, 2018.^[29]

Technology

Her career started in technology with college summer internships at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Carnegie Mellon's Data Storage System's Center. She then started her first full-time job working on operating systems at Microsoft in 1993 where she worked on MS-DOS and then helped launch Windows 95. She ran communications for the Expedia IPO and stayed with Expedia until 2005, becoming Vice President of Sales & Marketing in the Luxury Travel Division. In 2009, she went back to Microsoft and focused on education until 2012.

Non-profit

In 2006, she and Rabbi Rachel Nussbaum co-founded The Kavana Cooperative, a post-denominational innovative approach to building meaningful Jewish community. At the same time, she co-founded the advisory board for the Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences (I-LABS) at the University of Washington with Bill Henningsgaard^[30] - one of the world's leading early learning research institutes.

She is a member of the Council of American Ambassadors.^[31]