Dilawar Syed

Dilawar Syed is a Pakistani-American businessman, entrepreneur, and government official. He currently serves as deputy administrator of the Small Business Administration. He previously served as Special Representative for Commercial and Business Affairs at the United States Department of State.

Early life and education
Syed immigrated to the United States from Pakistan as a college student to attend the College of Wooster in Ohio. Syed earned his Bachelor of Arts in economics and computer science from the University of Texas at Austin and a Master of Business Administration from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Career
Syed serves as Deputy Administrator at the U.S. Small Business Administration. Prior to joining the SBA, he was Special Representative for Commercial and Business Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. Before working in government, he was an entrepreneur for 20 years; he has built and run companies in the fields of software, health care, and artificial intelligence. He was the president of Freshworks, where he helped scale the software company's products to thousands of small and medium businesses. Freshworks held its Initial Public Offering on NASDAQ in September 2021. He was also the founding chair of the California Entrepreneurship Task Force within the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he served as a member of the Silicon Valley Recovery Roundtable and was tasked with helping lead the region's economic recovery. He served on the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) from 2010 to 2014 and chaired the White House Initiative on AAPIs' Economic Growth Committee. In that role, Syed led the administration's engagement with small businesses across the U.S. after the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Syed also served as a liaison with the Small Business Administration and the United States Department of Commerce on federal initiatives such as the President's Export Council. From 2018 to 2021, he was the president and CEO of Lumiata, an artificial intelligence for healthcare company.

Deputy Administrator of the Small Business Administration
On March 3, 2021, President Joe Biden nominated Syed to be the deputy administrator of the Small Business Administration. He was renominated to the post on January 3, 2023. Following the 2022 elections, Democrats secured a one-seat majority on the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee and voted to advance his nomination on March 22, 2023. This followed nearly two years of delaying attempts by Republican members of the committee. In June 2021 his nomination had been favorably voted out of the Committee in a voice vote but the parliamentarian ruled a roll call vote was required. Since then, Republican members repeatedly did not attend committee meetings denying the quorum needed to take a roll call vote on his nomination in the committee, which was at that point evenly split between Republicans and Democrats. Republicans conditioned his roll call vote on the SBA taking action on loans Planned Parenthood affiliates received under the Trump Administration. Republicans suggested that Syed's Muslim faith and work with Emerge Action implied he might be anti-Israel, but Jewish and other religious and civil rights organizations defended Syed, and GOP senators discontinued this allegation. On June 8, Syed was confirmed by the full Senate with bipartisan support. He was sworn into office on July 10, 2023.

Syed's nomination was backed by more than 200 business, civil rights, and faith groups. In addition, he was endorsed by the United States Chamber of Commerce. As of 2023 he is the highest ranking Muslim-American in the Biden administration.

Special Representative for Commercial and Business Affairs
In February 2022, Syed was appointed as the Special Representative for Commercial and Business affairs in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs at the Department of State. As Special Representative, he drove commercial diplomacy and advances trade, commercial, and economic policies for American companies and workers.

Commercial and economic engagement

Syed drove commercial diplomacy at the State Department. The office's mission is to promote the U.S. private sector abroad and ensure there is "a level playing field for [US] companies to compete and win". In 2022, he embarked on ten bilateral visits to promote U.S. commercial interests overseas. In March 2022, Syed joined Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Senator Roy Blunt on a presidential delegation to commemorate U.S. National Day at the Expo 2020 Dubai.

In July 2022, Syed visited South Asia, touring India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. In India, he emphasized the potential of U.S.-India trade to ease global supply chain challenges, saying that "India can play a big role in plugging the gaps in emerging areas such as semiconductors, pharma, and renewable energy".

In September 2022, Syed co-chaired economic dialogue between the U.S. and the United Arab Emirates in Abu Dhabi. This covered a breadth of topics including sanctions, Open RAN 5G technology, cybersecurity, the digital economy and interoperability, women’s economic empowerment, intellectual property, clean energy initiatives, food and water security, global health security, and health cooperation.

In a November 2022 visit to Japan, Syed pushed for the "revival of the semiconductor industry" in Japan to help alleviate microchip supply chain challenges.

In June 2023, Syed led the U.S.–Iraq Business Council delegation to Iraq, the first commercial delegation to the country since 2018. Syed held meetings with Iraq's Prime Minister, several cabinet ministers, the Iraqi private sector. The visit took place "amid growing interest from U.S. companies in doing business in Iraq" after Iraq passed its highest-ever national budget worth $150 billion, setting aside expenditure for infrastructure. The delegation included companies in the construction, education, energy, finance, health, and technology sectors.

Competition with global powers

Syed visited Portugal in May 2023 to promote U.S. commercial investments, particularly in Lithium processing. He challenged "reliance on untrusted Chinese state-owned companies for critical infrastructure [which] threatens our shared security and values, as well as undermines the free market". Syed asked for the Portuguese to reconsider their commercial relationships with China, stating "[the U.S. wants] our friends in Portugal to make these decisions fully aware of the risks of working with the PRC".

The same month, Syed visited West Africa. In Gabon, he said "Africa belongs to Africans, and not to any power" and pushed for private investment from the U.S. in the country. In Cabo Verde, he also pushed for American investments in digital infrastructure, the maritime industry, and energy.

Commercial Diplomacy USA Tour

Syed launched a domestic tour in 2022 to democratize “access to U.S. government programs in underserved regions and applying a whole-of-government approach to commercial diplomacy” with stops in Irvine, California, Reno, Nevada, Houston, Texas and Detroit, Michigan. He stressed the importance of “strategic competition in critical sectors and emphasized the importance of entrepreneurship and innovation to America’s global leadership”. Syed’s visit showcased industries such as biotech and auto design in Irvine and Orange County. In Reno, he met with Hillary Schieve and industry leaders to emphasize Nevada’s role in boosting local lithium production and closing the lithium supply chain gap with China. In Houston, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce hosted Syed for a discussion on the role of U.S. suppliers in the global energy sector and to ensure energy security.