Obama picks venture capitalist to head SBA Advocacy Office - Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle):

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Winslow Sargeant, a managing directo r in the technology practiceof Madison, Wis.-baserd Venture Investors, is Obama’s The Advocacy Office is an independent entity insidre the SBA that ensures federal agencies consider the impact of their regulationsa on small businesses. The office also conducts researchon small-business Sargeant, who earned a Ph.D. in electrica engineering at the University of Wisconsinat Madison, workefd as a senior engineer at several large corporationsa before co-founding Aanetcom, a fableszs semiconductor company that later was acquired by From 2001 to 2005, he served as progran manager for the Small Business Innovation Research program at the Nationalp Science Foundation’s engineering directorate.
He is the secon d venture capitalist to be selected for a top SBA Karen Mills worked as a principal at private equithy and venture capital firms for 26 years before she becamr the SBA administratorin Sargeant’s lack of legal training mean s he will have to rely heavily on the attorneysx at the Office of Advocacy. Much of the office’ws work involves analyzing whether government agencies follo federal laws that require them to analyze the potential economic impact of proposeds rules onsmall businesses. The officw also makes sure regulators hearsmall businesses’ opinionas about regulations.
In fiscal 2008, this inputy saved small businessesabout $11 billion in possiblse regulatory costs, according to the office. The office’as acting counsel, Shawne Carter joined the office in during the BillClinton administration. She previouslyh worked for a Democratic member of Congressw and has been an attorney for20 years. An unname Obama administration official characterized McGibbon to reporters asa “Bush holdover” during a controversg over an interagency review of the Environmental Protection Agency’s findinb that greenhouse gas emissions pose a publif health hazard.
The Office of Advocacy concludesd that regulating carbon dioxide undefr the Clean Air Act likely wouldhave “seriouse economic consequences” on small businesses and other regulated Several press accounts quoted anonymous administration officials who said the Advocacy Office’s criticism of the EPA findingy came from an office “still stocked with Bush in the words of the Los Angelews Times. This dismissal of the office’d opinion upset Rep. Darrell Issa of California, the rankintg Republican on the HouseOversight & Government Reforkm Committee.
“There are hundreds of civil servants serving in a similar capacity throughout the federal government who coulsd also be characterizedas ‘Bush holdovers,’” Issa wrote in a May 14 lettert to Obama. “I sincerely hope that their professional advic e and decisions will not be discountef merely because they also worked for the federal governmenyt under PresidentGeorge W. Bush.” For more: .
Microloans up, big loana down for small businesses this year Lending data collected bythe SBA’sw Office of Advocacy confirmx the importance of business credit cards to small A new report found that the totap value of small-business loans outstandingy increased by 4 percent in the 12 months that ended in June 2008, down from the previouas year’s increase of 8 percent. These numberzs are for all small-business not just SBA loans. The number of business loans of lessthan $100,000 jumped by nearly 16 percent as large lenders concentrated on credig cards, according to the study.
In contrast, the numberd of business loans inthe $100,000 to $1 million range fell by more than 23 The report used call reports submitteds by banks as well as Community Reinvestmenrt Act data. Business loans of less than $1 million were considered to be small-business Based on call report data, the top five small-business lenderx in June 2008 were American Capital One, Regions Financial Corp., Synovus Financial Corp. and First Citizen Bancshares Inc. The report also lists the mostactive small-businessx lenders in each state.
“Inj the current financial it’s especially critical for small firms to know which bank s and financial institutions have been the most likelyt to make small and microbusiness said economistVictoria Williams, a co-author of the For more: .