Dirk Pilat
Deputy Director, Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation, OECD,
Dirk Pilat, a Dutch national, is Deputy Director of the OECD
Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation. He supports the
Director of STI in overseeing OECD’s work on innovation, business and
productivity dynamics, science and technology, digital economy policy,
consumer policy as well as the statistical work associated with each of
these areas. He also helps ensure this work contributes to the strategic
objectives of the Organisation to support and develop better policies
for better lives.
Dirk joined the OECD in February 1994 and has worked on many policy
issues since then, including innovation, the role of digital technologies
for economic growth, climate change and environmental innovation,
labour markets, regulatory reform, global value chains, productivity
and entrepreneurship, as well as health innovation. He is currently
helping to coordinate the OECD’s new Going Digital project, which is a
multidisciplinary, cross-cutting initiative that aims to help policymakers
better understand the digital transformation that is taking place and
help articulate recommendations for pro-active policies that will help
to drive greater growth and societal well-being.
Dirk was responsible for the OECD’s Committee for Scientific and
Technological Policy from 2006 to January 2009, and for the Committee
on Industry, Innovation and Entrepreneurship from February 2009 to
December 2012.
Before joining the OECD, he was a researcher at the University of
Groningen, where he also earned his PhD in Economics, working
primarily on productivity and economic growth.