“I’ve worked closely with Ashley while I held the position of Secretary of the Treasury and Chief Public Financial Officer for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico mostly in 2014. During that year, the Governor of Puerto Rico, Hon. Alejandro Garcia Padilla, requested that I lead an effort with members of the private and public sector to totally revamp Puerto Rico’s tax system, to simplify it, as well as to find ways to increase revenues while at the same time promoting economic development and job creation in the island.

Ashley was the lead economist of the group of professionals that worked with the Department of the Treasury, the Government Development Bank for Puerto Rico and the Tax Committee to develop a new tax system. [They] assisted us in assessing and redesigning the fiscal revenue-side of our financial system and developed and implemented new empirical and simulation methods to forecast and develop policy recommendations to achieve our goals.

The Project took around 10 months to be completed [and] Ashley was a main player. His deep knowledge on complex economic modeling and economic trends and how to translate that into sound public policies was fundamental for the comprehensive recommendations that were developed as part of the Project.

Ashley has the combination of deep economic and modeling knowledge, sound public policy development as well communication skills that makes him an outstanding professional in this area.”

“I have known Ashley since he was a student at the Centre of Policy Studies at Monash University where he wrote under Prof. Peter Dixon on the application of applied general equilibrium models, and then worked closely with him when he was seconded to my organization at the time, the United States International Trade Commission (USITC), to further develop a large scale general equilibrium model of the US economy for use in the Commission’s economic analysis work.

Ashley was an exceptional addition to the USITC team, though he also did work for other US government departments, such as the Department of Commerce and Homeland Security, while advancing the US economic model at the USITC.

Ashley has a unique ability to cut to the core economic issues embedded in a question and develop sound theoretical and applied solutions to those economic issues.

Dr. Winston is an exceptional economic modeler, very adept at developing highly relevant modeling solutions for issues of significant importance to the understanding and development of sound trade policy. Dr. Winston has a very strong grounding in economic theory, the mathematics and programming of economic modeling as well as a deep understanding of relevant economic and other technical data sources. Dr. Winston developed analytical frameworks for use in work that reached the highest levels of United States trade policy decision making.

While at the USITC Ashley contributed many important innovations to our analytical modeling capabilities, but one effort that stands out was the careful and complex modification of the various energy generating sectors within the US economy. This question was of high importance to our customers trying to understand what the trade related aspects of various approaches to climate change legislation might be, particularly on the composition of the US energy sector, but also the potential competitive impact on energy intensive, trade exposed sectors. This work was daunting, highly technical, and required engaging with various energy experts to ensure the economic modelling of the sectors and their relationships with other sectors was accurate. Ashley’s work was exceptional and resulted in an investment in the core US model that would provide ongoing returns for economic analysis of many issues, but with a much-improved energy representation.

During his time with us he built not only the modeling frameworks but also made significant contributions to the USITC staff’s capabilities to analyze similar questions and to maintain and advance the model development he accomplished. Dr. Winston did this through thoughtful and well-planned sessions where he would carefully work through specific economic and data issues related to the analyst’s expert areas. This involved developing in depth knowledge of the area, the data available, the policies and economic trends and developments in this area of the economy and translating these into a macro economic model at the national income account level. Without exception the analysts and experts commended Dr. Winston’s preparation and ability to engage professionally and expertly. In addition, Dr. Winston developed courses on applied economic modeling at the USITC that were very popular in Washington, and session participants routinely praised the quality of the course and Ashley’s contributions.

Ashley was a highly valued and trusted colleague. I have kept in touch with Ashley regularly since his departure. His modelling capabilities and economic insights are always of great value to me.”

“Dear Chairman Aranoff:

I am writing to thank you for the technical assistance that International Trade Commission staff provided in the development of the interagency report on H.R. 2454’s impact on international competitiveness and emission leakage. The Administration transmitted this report to Congress last month and has begun briefing Congressional staff and stakeholders on the key findings.

The quality of the final report is a direct testament to the hard work of your staff […] and Dr. Ashley Winston, and to their close collaboration with staff from other agencies and the White House. Quite simply, without their contributions, we could not have produced much of the analysis we offered the Senate in the report. Moreover, our ability to produce a high-quality work product depended on the close coordination between [them] and staff of the various agencies that brought different expertise and skills to the table. As a result of the collaboration between [ITC staff] and Dr. Winston and technical staff at other agencies, the Administration produced an analysis that combined high quality modeling with the most accurate emission data available and a detailed understanding of the key provisions of the legislation being modeled. Your staff’s continuous communication with staff at other agencies made it possible to improve the modeling in ways that would not have been possible if interactions were more limited and less frequent.

I hope that we can continue this kind of collaboration in the future. The interagency report serves as an initial step in the Administration’s engagement on the issue of international competitiveness and emission leakage. We expect to continue our analytical efforts and hope that the interagency group can continue to draw on your staff’s expertise to address questions about the competitiveness impacts of comprehensive energy and climate legislation.”

“I first met Ashley in the early-1990s when he was a member of my undergraduate classes at Monash University. Subsequently, I was the main adviser on his Ph.D. thesis and his supervisor during his post-doctoral work at Monash University’s Centre of Policy Studies (CoPS). Ashley also spent several years based the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) representing CoPS in work with several US federal agencies. I have continued to follow his career closely.

Ashley has enormous wide-ranging talent. He was an outstanding student and wrote a highly original, technically advanced Ph.D. thesis on the modeling of investment and finance markets. He made major contributions to the work of the US International Trade Commission including being the backbone of several of their two-yearly flagship publications entitled Economic Effects of Significant U.S. Import Restraints. He also worked for the USITC and other agencies including the Departments of Commerce, Energy and Agriculture on trade, energy, agriculture and environment policy reforms. In 2009 he received a commendation from the White House for his contribution to modeling of the Waxman-Markey bill on greenhouse gas reduction as part of a select federal inter-agency policy team. This must rank as a spectacular achievement for a young visiting foreign-national.

Ashley’s work has three hallmark characteristics: sound theoretical basis; mastery of detail; and policy relevance.

On theory, re-reading parts of Ashley’s thesis reminded me of how good he is at absorbing sophisticated theory and modifying it ingeniously to whatever is the problem at hand. His thesis combines 50 years of finance theory, starting with Modigliani and Miller, with 50 years of applied general equilibrium modelling, starting with Johansen, to develop a framework for understanding how changes in business taxes are likely to affect investment, output, capital and employment across industries.

On detail, Ashley is always in command of the relevant data. He achieves this through high-level computer skills combined with a willingness to delve into statistical sources. Coping with detail is critical in policy advising. Outstanding illustrations of Ashley’s ability to understand, model and present highly detailed policy issues can be found in his papers on U.S. energy substitution possibilities, tariff-quota regulation on U.S. imports, and the tax systems of Australia, the U.S., and several other countries.

On policy relevance, this is what motivates Ashley’s work. He could have pursued a successful academic career. However, he wants to make a positive difference to the world. He sees his best options for doing this as policy advising and commissioned research that answers questions that the market is asking.

In addition, Ashley has superb political and business skills. These include persuasive presentation techniques, and being able to get to the essence of a problem quickly in a meeting situation and guide a negotiation to a mutually beneficial outcome. He can handle complex detail and has the analytical skills to synthesize and communicate effectively either verbally or in written form. He explains the big picture.

Added to his political and business skills, Ashley has extensive experience. He has worked for organizations in numerous countries on major topics in economic development, tax policy, energy, environment, infrastructure financing, trade and macroeconomic management.

Because of his skills in theory and data and his keen interest in policy analysis, Ashley is superbly qualified for leadership in policy research and advising. He covers all bases. In dealing with clients he can persuasively convey what needs to be done and then present results that are understandable to clients and meet their needs.
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