Honoree Profile: Pravina Raghavan ’01

Pravina Raghavan serves as the Director of the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Program at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Since 1988, MEP's industry experts have worked side by side with their partners in the public and private sectors to strengthen communities and U.S. manufacturing.

Ms. Raghavan has more than 20 years of experience providing advisory services to businesses in the startup, growth, expansion and maturity phases of development. She most recently served as executive vice president in the Division of Small Business and Technology Development for Empire State Development, the New York State economic development agency. In that role, she led and managed the New York Manufacturing Extension Partnership, which provides more than $10 billion in economic impact for the state; created and implemented the $100 million New York Forward Loan Fund and Empire State Digital resource for COVID-19 small business recovery; and designed and implemented the state's $800 million COVID-19 Small Business Recovery Grant Program.

She also served as deputy associate administrator of investment and innovation at the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and was responsible for the Small Business Investment Companies Program, Small Business Innovation Research Program and High Growth Entrepreneur initiatives. She also served as district director for SBA's New York District Office.

Ms. Raghavan previously served as senior adviser to then-Deputy Secretary of Commerce Bruce H. Andrews. In that role, she worked on a large number of economic and operational issues across the department, including strategic planning and policy development on various topics including emergency management, economic development, international trade, weather, budget, contracts, staffing and technology development.

Before joining the federal government, Ms. Raghavan was a vice president with MTV and BET Networks, a founder and owner of a global strategic advisory firm, and business development director for Misys PLC, one of the world's largest banking software companies. She was also an associate at Broadview International, a London investment bank, and worked at AT&T in several finance and management roles, including her last five years as mergers and acquisitions director for Europe and Asia. Ms. Raghavan has an M.B.A. in finance from Seton Hall University and a B.S. in finance from the Pennsylvania State University.