BATON ROUGE – Anthony Ravani, principal attorney at the Lotus Law Group PLLC, has been named to the LSU Louisiana Business & Technology Center’s Advisory Board.
With the LBTC becoming a “soft landing” incubator attracting international business, Ravani will contribute to the center’s international business contracts with the Committee of 100 and the U.S. Department of Commerce Export Assistance Center, according to LSU LBTC Executive Director Charles D’Agostino.
“Tony Ravani has built three successful start-up companies and profitably transitioned them through mergers and acquisitions,” D’Agostino said. “With his first start-up, MediaPassage, he built a platform processing more than $700 million in media advertising annually and an organization of more than 120 people assisting advertising agencies with automation of their processes and advertisement placement.”
D’Agostino added that Ravani’s second start-up, Ontain, offered the first gift card/credit card combo for Starbucks and Subway. His third start-up, Cdigix Inc., provided a system to service colleges and universities with their online programs and video needs.
Prior to building his start-up companies, Ravani worked directly with Bill Gates at Microsoft in the early 1990s and built a world-wide licensing and operation organization with more than 200 software engineers working in Europe, Japan and the U.S. In the 1980s, Ravani worked for ExxonMobil, building various information systems & decision sciences models. He became the chief information officer for Exxon Offshore Division while he was there and, in 2007, he founded Lotus Law Group.
Ravani earned his master’s in quantitative methods, now information systems & decision sciences, from LSU in 1980. He earned a J.D. from Seattle University School of Law, was admitted into the Washington Bar and teaches a venture capital backed entrepreneurial start-ups course at Seattle University School of Law.
Lotus Law Group is focused on Business and Family Immigration, including EB-5, H-1B, PERM, L Visa, I-9 Compliance and Investment Green Card.
Ravani is a member of the Globalization Committee of the E. J. Ourso College Dean’s Advisory Council. He appeared as part of the LSU Flores MBA Program Distinguished Speaker Series in fall 2010, and is an adjunct faculty member of the LSU Flores MBA Program who serves as a guest speaker for E. J. Ourso College of Business students often, including the Stephenson Entrepreneurship Fellows and visiting students from Brazil. This spring, Ravani will teach "Fundraising for Start-Up Companies" at the colllege
The Louisiana Business & Technology Center (LBTC), an integral part of the E. J. Ourso College of Business at LSU, endeavors to enhance economic development in Louisiana through the support of existing small businesses and the development of new businesses. The LBTC, acting as a proving ground for technology applications and utilization, will serve to stimulate small business formation, growth, and survival. By fostering growth in the new business segment, diversification occurs, and jobs are created, further expanding Louisiana's economic development.
