Victor M. Rivera has had a long and distinguished career in the business and economic development arena. While carrying out the following responsibilities, he has acquired considerable experience in managing business development programs at the local, national, and international level; and in the preparation, review, and approval of business plans and financing proposals:
- Director of the Office of Economic Research for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Economic Development Administration in New York (Continental Operations).
- At the U.S. Small Business Administration, he served as the New York District Director; the SBA Regional Administrator for the six-state Rocky Mountain Region, based in Denver, Colorado; and Government-Industry Relations Advocate at the SBA's Office of the Chief Counsel for Advocacy.
- At the U.S. Department of Commerce in Washington, DC, he was the National Director of the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA).
- In the international arena, Mr. Rivera was in charge of the Latin America and Caribbean Bureau at the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID) where he was responsible for administering the $1.5 billion U.S. economic assistance program for Latin America and the Caribbean. This position required U.S. Senate confirmation.
- He served as a consultant in Washington, DC to an investment banking firm, federal government agencies, telecommunications firms, and the World Bank.
- Mr. Rivera has also served as an adviser to the President of the University of Puerto Rico on entrepreneurship development. At UPR, he was a Co-Principal Investigator for the Partnerships for Innovation Program (PFI), a National Science Foundation funded project designed to promote innovation, technology transfer and commercialization in Puerto Rico.
- He has also served as a consultant to the Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company (Office of Science and Technology) and the Puerto Rico Science, Technology & Research Trust, where he was responsible for developing support programs and services that assisted local inventors and technology entrepreneurs seeking to develop and commercialize their new
technology/products.
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