Dilawar Syed has been nominated by US President Joe Biden to be the Deputy Administrator of the Small Business Administration (SBA). Syed is a Pakistani immigrant who came to America as a student.
Lumiata, an AI for healthcare company focused on lowering healthcare costs and improving patient outcomes, is led by Dilawar Syed. Syed was previously President of Freshworks, where he assisted in the scaling of the tech company’s products to thousands of small and medium businesses. Syed has led civic campaigns focused on economic development and entrepreneurship at the federal, state, and local levels. Dilawar is the founding Chair of the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development’s California Entrepreneurship Task Force, which promotes inclusive entrepreneurship by connecting the state’s coastal regions with the state’s rural heartland.
Syed has a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and a bachelor’s degree in economics and computer science from the University of Texas at Austin. As a freshman, he moved to the United States from Pakistan to attend The College of Wooster in Ohio.
Previously, the Pakistani immigrant chaired the White House Initiative on AAPIs’ Economic Growth Committee and served on President Obama’s White House Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs). After the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Syed led the administration’s interaction with small businesses across the country. On government programmes such as the President’s Export Council, he also worked as a liaison with the Small Business Administration and the Department of Commerce.