SmallBizResource Blog -- Government

Karen Gordon Mills Wins Unanimous Senate Approval To Lead SBA

Posted by Gayle Kesten Friday, Apr 3, 2009, 10:18 AM ET

The Senate has confirmed by unanimous consent President Barack Obama’s nomination of Karen Gordon Mills as the 23rd Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration.

President Obama nominated Mills, a venture capitalist with a Harvard pedigree, in late December. Speaking before the Senate on Monday, Mills summed up her experience in three sentences (PDF): "I am a believer in American small business. I am a believer in America’s ability to manufacture goods and services that are world class, and I am a believer in America’s spirit of entrepreneurship. This spirit is one of our country’s greatest assets and we need to cultivate it today, more than ever."

Of note, Mills includes leveraging technology among her top priorities, which comprise:

• Executing the plans in the Recovery Act and get capital flowing again through the core SBA loan programs.

• Reinvigorate the SBA by attracting a strong and passionate leadership team.

• Investing in the information technology the agency needs to operate.

• Advocating for small business across the administration, coordinating with other agencies, including Commerce, Labor and Energy, whose programs also affect small businesses.

Mills will also need to look within the SBA itself and figure out what makes its employees tick. As the Portland Press Herald points out, the agency "was ranked dead last among 30 federal departments reviewed in Best Places to Work in the Federal Government, a measure of government workplace satisfaction by American University." Granted, the ranking is from 2007, but with the SBA-budget-cutting Bush administration in place until two-plus months ago, it would be delusional to think that's a happy place to work.

Government