Economic development team welcomes Rao

Ashwini Rao has joined our Wisconsin team as a senior community and economic development manager. She has over 15 years of experience in trade facilitation and promotion, small business development and strategic marketing. Ashwini has extensive knowledge of global development challenges, a strong commitment and interest in nurturing partnerships to strengthen opportunities, and a desire to grow local economies.

Most recently, Ashwini was an international trade consultant for food and food ingredients at the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP). In this position, she provided international trade and business development assistance to Wisconsin’s small and medium-sized agricultural businesses. She helped food/food ingredient companies identify business development strategies to expand into international markets, connected companies with international buyers and coordinated successful trade promotion activities in Latin America and the Middle East.

Prior to her involvement in international development, Ashwini was a program manager for the Wisconsin Entrepreneurs’ Network (WEN) at University of Wisconsin Extension. The role required her to establish and foster relationships with potential partners – chambers of commerce, technical and business experts and UW faculty – to enhance business assistance programs for early-stage technology businesses.