Javier Saade

Javier Saade was appointed by the President to be U.S. Small Business Administration’s Associate Administrator, Office of Investment and Innovation (“OII”). He left his post on October 30, 2015. He led the Small Business Investment Company (SBIC), Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR), Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) and the Growth Accelerator Fund Competition programs. He holds a seat on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Committee on Small & Emerging Companies appointed by Chairwoman White. His portfolio included: 1) capitalizing thousands of high-growth small businesses and entrepreneurial ecosystems, 2) investing billions of R&D dollars across a broad swath of America's STEM-driven innovation economy, 3) enhancing capital formation paths where investment gaps are widest, and 4) providing thought leadership on a broad set of economic issues which in turn drove making policy and executing agenda priorities.

Key multiagency collaborations he led or was instrumental to included USPTO’s Fast-Track Intellectual Property, Advanced Manufacturing Investment, JOBS Act Education, Diverse Asset Management, Rural Investing, Social Innovation, Impact Investing, Clean Energy Investing, and STEM Entrepreneurship. He regularly worked with Congress and the White House on policies that directly affect high growth small businesses across the country.

Before joining the Obama administration, Javier was in the private sector and has over 20 years of global principal investing, general management, strategic consulting and entrepreneurial experience. He was Managing Director at The GEM Group an emerging markets focused principal investing firm (PE|VC|HF) and a Principal at Paradigm Ventures, a venture capital firm. He was also an institutional client advisor at Bridgewater Associates, the largest hedge fund in the world with about $160 billion in assets. Javier spent his foundational career years as a strategy consultant at two firms, McKinsey & Company and Booz | Allen | Hamilton and held several operational, line management and engineering roles at life sciences giant Abbott Laboratories.

He enjoys building new companies, and has co-founded and been a top executive of three: a media broadcasting network, Air America Radio, a solar energy services company, Atenergy and a marketing & branding agency, Brand Maestro. Just prior to his public service, Javier advised two investment firms: Pacific Community Ventures, a $100 million double-bottom line and mission-driven impact VC firm in San Francisco and Aspen Grove Capital a $1.3 billion family office in Vail. He holds an MBA from Harvard, an MS in Operations & Technology from Illinois Institute of Technology, and a BS in Industrial Management & Manufacturing Engineering from Purdue University.