Dan Swinney is the Founder and Executive Director of Manufacturing Renaissance, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organisation that promotes advanced manufacturing as a springboard for sustainable development.
Dan founded Manufacturing Renaissance in 1982 in response to the Chicago region’s sudden loss of thousands of manufacturing companies and jobs. 
After 20 years of in-depth research, he led the creation of Manufacturing Renaissance’s Manufacturing Renaissance Council (MRC) development model and its implementation in Chicago and the San Francisco Bay Area. As executive director of the Chicago MRC, Dan founded Austin Polytechnical Academy, a world-renowned public high school that prepares students for success in advanced manufacturing and related fields. He also serves as managing director of the National Manufacturing Renaissance Council.
In April 2015, the Centre bought Dan to Victoria to share his experiences in creating unlikely partnerships between the labor movement, manufacturers and their associations, community based organisations, educators and local government, and the creation of public schools that successfully link an inner city school with a regional manufacturing sector.
- Dan visited Shepparton on Monday 27 April, and spoke at a Regional Industry and Skills Symposium alongside Paul Briggs from the Kaiela Institute.
- On Tuesday 28th, Dan spoke in Geelong at a Regional Prosperity Workshop hosted by the Geelong Manufacturing Council and Enterprise Geelong. Key takeaways from this event can be found here.
- Dan presented a public lecture titled ‘Towards a manufacturing renaissance – Social innovation as well as technological innovation‘ at the University of Melbourne on Tuesday 28th April.
- Dan also spoke at the Future of Work conference on Wednesday 29 and Thursday 30th, on a high profile leadership panel exploring what it takes to lead the future of work.
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