Gina Raimondo, a business-friendly Democrat who has served as Rhode Island's governor since 2015, is expected to head to Washington as President-elect Joe Biden's secretary of commerce.
Raimondo was reported to be a top candidate for the position earlier this week before the New York Times broke the news of her appointment on Thursday. As commerce secretary, Raimondo will oversee relations with the business community as well as technology regulation, weather monitoring and the gathering of economic data, among other duties.
Raimondo has prioritized the business community as governor of Rhode Island, working to overturn the state's long-held reputation as one of the nation's worst places to do business. In 2019, prior to the pandemic, the state saw its lowest unemployment rate in 30 years and its first full-year job growth in 13 years.
Raimondo was previously a founding employee at investment firm Village Ventures and co-founded the Boston-based venture capital firm Point Judith Capital, now better known as PJC.
