Raimondo, Gina, 1971-

Gina Marie Raimondo (born May 17, 1971) is an American politician and venture capitalist serving as the United States Secretary of Commerce since March 3, 2021.

Born in Smithfield, Rhode Island, Raimondo graduated from LaSalle Academy, in Providence before going on to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree magna cum laude in economics from Harvard College in 1993. She attended New College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, where she received a Master of Arts (MA) degree and Doctor of Philosophy in 2002 in sociology. She received her Juris Doctor degree from Yale Law School in 1998.

Following her graduation from Yale Law School, Raimondo served as a law clerk to federal judge Kimba Wood of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Later, Raimondo acted as senior vice president for fund development at the Manhattan offices of Village Ventures. Raimondo returned to Rhode Island in 2000 to co-found the state's first venture capital firm, Point Judith Capital. On November 2, 2010, Raimondo was elected as general treasurer of Rhode Island, serving from 2011 to 2015.

Raimondo was elected governor of Rhode Island on November 4, 2014, winning 41% of the vote in a three-way race. Raimondo ran for and won reelection to a second term in 2018, becoming the first candidate to secure a majority of votes for that office since 2006.

Following the 2020 United States presidential election, Raimondo was routinely mentioned as a possible cabinet secretary in the incoming Biden Administration. Though first seen as a likely secretary of health and human services, Raimondo announced on December 3, 2020, that she would not be taking that role. On January 8, 2021, Biden announced he would nominate Raimondo to serve as his secretary of commerce. She appeared before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation on January 26. On March 1, the Senate voted 84–15 in favor of cloture on the nomination, and confirmed Raimondo to the position the following day by a vote of 84–15. She resigned as governor on March 2 and was duly sworn in by Vice President Kamala Harris on March 3, 2021.