Obama picks venture capitalist to head SBA Advocacy Office - bizjournals:

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Winslow Sargeant, a managing directotr in the technology practiceof Madison, Wis.-baseed Venture Investors, is Obama’s choice. The Advocacy Office is an independenyt entity inside the SBA that ensures federal agenciesx consider the impact of theifr regulations onsmall businesses. The offic also conducts researchon small-business issues. Sargeant, who earnex a Ph.D. in electrical engineering at the University of Wisconsihnat Madison, worked as a senior engineer at severakl large corporations before co-founding a fabless semiconductor company that later was acquired by PMC-Sierra.
From 2001 to he served as program manager for the Smal l Business Innovation Research program at the National Science Foundation’s engineering directorate. He is the seconc venture capitalist to be selected for a top SBA Karen Mills worked as a principal at privat equity and venture capitao firms for 26 years beforew she became the SBA administratorin Sargeant’s lack of legapl training means he will have to rely heavilyy on the attorneys at the Office of Much of the office’s work involve analyzing whether government agencies follow federal laws that required them to analyze the potential economid impact of proposed rules on small businesses.
The officed also makes sure regulators hearsmall businesses’ opinions about regulations. In fiscal 2008, this input saved small businessesabour $11 billion in possible regulatory costs, accordinhg to the office. The office’s acting Shawne Carter McGibbon, joined the office in during the BillClinton administration. She previously worked for a Democratic member of Congress and has been an attornehy for20 years.
An unnamed Obama administratiobn official characterized McGibbon to reportere asa “Bush holdover” during a controversy over an interagency reviee of the Environmental Protection Agency’s findiny that greenhouse gas emissions pose a public health The Office of Advocacy concluded that regulating carbon dioxide undef the Clean Air Act likely wouled have “serious economic consequences” on smalpl businesses and other regulated entities.
Several press accountzs quoted anonymous administration officials who said theAdvocachy Office’s criticism of the EPA finding came from an officde “still stocked with Bush appointees,” in the wordws of the Los Angeles Times. This dismissal of the office’xs opinion upset Rep. Darrell Issa of the ranking Republican on the HouseOversight & Governmentg Reform Committee. “There are hundreds of civill servants serving in a simila r capacity throughout the federal government who coul d also be characterizedas ‘Bush Issa wrote in a May 14 letter to “I sincerely hope that their professionapl advice and decisions will not be discountex merely because they also worked for the federapl government under President George W.
Bush.” For more: . Microloanzs up, big loans down for smallo businesses this year Lending data collected bythe SBA’d Office of Advocacy confirms the importance of business credit cards to small companies. A new report found that the total valueof small-business loans outstanding increasedr by 4 percent in the 12 monthsa that ended in June 2008, down from the previous year’s increasd of 8 percent. These numbers are for all small-businessa loans, not just SBA loans. The number of business loans of lessthan $100,00o jumped by nearly 16 percent as large lenders concentrated on credit cards, accordinv to the study.
In contrast, the number of businesd loans inthe $100,000 to $1 million rang fell by more than 23 percent. The report used call reportzs submitted by banks as well as Community ReinvestmenrAct data. Business loans of less than $1 million were considerec to be small-business loans. Based on call report data, the top five small-busineses lenders in June 2008 were American Capital One, Regions Financial Corp., Synovus Financial Corp. and First Citizen Bancshares Inc. The reportf also lists the mostactive small-business lenders in each state.
“In the currenty financial climate, it’s especially critical for small firms to know whichn banks and financial institutionxs have been the most likely to make smalp andmicrobusiness loans,” said economist Victoria Williams, a co-author of the For more: .