Dilawar Syed is an entrepreneur, board member, and former U.S. cabinet official whose leadership has spanned various public and private sector organizations, including as Deputy Administrator for the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and Special Envoy for Commercial Affairs at the State Department. In a decades-long career in Silicon Valley, Dilawar led and scaled ventures in AI, software, and consumer web. After his public service, he has joined the LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin as Senior Economic Policy Advisor, to lead a new
initiative on advancing U.S. business competitiveness, and as faculty at the LBJ School and UT’s McCombs School of Business. He is advising several technology ventures as a board member.