Executive Vice President, Division of Small Business and Community Economic Development, Empire State Development

Pravina has 15+ years of experience in providing advisory services to businesses in the start-up, growth, expansion and maturity phases of development. Pravina Raghavan is the Executive Vice President, Division of Small Business and Community Economic Development for Empire State Development (New York State).  Prior to joining Empire State Development, Pravina was the Senior Advisor to the Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce where she worked on a vast number of economic and operational issues across the Department of Commerce.

Prior to joining the Department of Commerce, Pravina was the Deputy Associate Administrator of Investment and Innovation at the U.S. Small Business Administration and was responsible for Small Business Investment Companies Program which provides investment funds to private equity funds with $22 BN under management, Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR) and High Growth Entrepreneur initiatives and she was also the District Director for SBA New York District Office which supported around $1BN in small business lending and assisted over 3M small businesses in NYC.

Before joining the federal government, Pravina was a Vice President with MTV and BET Networks in Content Distribution and Marketing, where she was responsible for contract negotiations and marketing for 23 channels. Previously, she was a small business owner of a strategic advisory firm that assisted companies in their quest for growth.

Prior to owning her own business, Pravina was the Business Development Director for Misys PLC, one of the largest banking software companies in the world. She was also an associate at an investment bank, Broadview International, in London. Prior to Broadview, Pravina worked for seven years at AT&T in several finance and management roles, including her last five years as M&A Director for Europe.

Pravina has an MBA in Finance from Seton Hall University and a BS in Finance from Pennsylvania State University. She has worked in over 15 countries around the world and is familiar with five languages.