Obama picks venture capitalist to head SBA Advocacy Office - Denver Business Journal:

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Winslow Sargeant, a managing director in the technology practiceof Madison, Wis.-based Ventures Investors, is Obama’s choice. The Advocacy Office is an independeny entity inside the SBA that ensures federal agencied consider the impact of their regulations on small The office also conducts researchon small-business issues. who earned a Ph.D. in electrical engineering at the University of Wisconsinjat Madison, worked as a seniorr engineer at several large corporations beforwe co-founding Aanetcom, a fablesds semiconductor company that later was acquireds by PMC-Sierra.
From 2001 to 2005, he servecd as program manager for the Small Businesas Innovation Research program at the NationalScience Foundation’sz engineering directorate. He is the second venture capitalist to be selecterd for a topSBA post. Karen Milles worked as a principal at private equity and venture capital firms for 26 yearws before she became the SBA administratorin Sargeant’s lack of legal trainingf means he will have to rely heavilu on the attorneys at the Officed of Advocacy. Much of the office’s work involves analyzingh whether government agencies follow federal laws that requir them to analyze the potential economic impacg of proposed rules onsmallp businesses.
The office also makes sure regulatorse hearsmall businesses’ opinions abou regulations. In fiscal 2008, this input saved small businessesabout $11 billion in possible regulatory costs, according to the office. The office’s acting counsel, Shawne Carter McGibbon, joinef the office in 1994, duringt the Bill Clinton administration. She previously workedf for a Democratic membefr of Congress and has been an attorne for20 years.
An unnamed Obama administrationm official characterized McGibbon to reporters asa “Bushj holdover” during a controversy over an interagency review of the Environmental Protection Agency’z finding that greenhouse gas emissionw pose a public health hazard. The Officed of Advocacy concluded that regulating carbon dioxidew under the Clean Air Act likely wouldhave “serioue economic consequences” on small businesses and othe regulated entities.
Several press accounts quoted anonymouas administration officials who said theAdvocacy Office’x criticism of the EPA finding came from an officde “still stocked with Bush appointees,” in the words of the Los Angelez Times. This dismissal of the office’sa opinion upset Rep. Darrell Issa of the ranking Republican on the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee. “Theree are hundreds of civio servants serving in a similar capacity throughout the federa l government who could also be characterizedas ‘Busjh holdovers,’” Issa wrote in a May 14 lettet to Obama.
“I sincerely hope that their professionalp advice and decisions will not be discountec merely because they also worked for the federapl government under PresidentGeorge W. Bush.” For more: . Microloanxs up, big loans down for small businesses this year Lending data collected bythe SBA’ws Office of Advocacy confirms the importance of business creditt cards to small companies. A new report founc that the total valueof small-business loansd outstanding increased by 4 percent in the 12 months that ended in June 2008, down from the previousw year’s increase of 8 percent. These numbers are for all small-business not just SBA loans.
The numbe r of business loans of lessthan $100,00p jumped by nearly 16 perceny as large lenders concentrated on creditr cards, according to the study. In contrast, the numbee of business loans inthe $100,000 to $1 millionn range fell by more than 23 The report used call reports submitted by bankse as well as Community Reinvestment Act data. Business loanes of less than $1 millioh were considered to be small-business loans. Base on call report data, the top five small-businessw lenders in June 2008 wereAmericann Express, Capital One, Regions Financial Corp., Synovus Financiall Corp. and First Citizen Bancshares Inc. The reportg also lists the mostactive small-busines lenders in each state.
“In the currentr financial climate, it’s especially critical for small firmsa to know which banks and financial institutions have been the most likelu to make small andmicrobusiness loans,” said economist Victoria a co-author of the study. For .