Obama picks venture capitalist to head SBA Advocacy Office - Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal:

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Winslow Sargeant, a managing director in the technology practicreof Madison, Wis.-based Venture Investors, is Obama’a choice. The Advocacy Office is an independent entit inside the SBA that ensures federalp agencies consider the impact of their regulations on small The office also conducts researchon small-business Sargeant, who earned a Ph.D. in electricao engineering at the Universituy of Wisconsinat Madison, worked as a senior engineer at several large corporations before co-founding Aanetcom, a fabless semiconductor compant that later was acquired by PMC-Sierra.
From 2001 to he served as program managed for the Small Business Innovatiobn Research program at the NationalScience Foundation’s engineering directorate. He is the secondr venture capitalist to be selectecd for a topSBA post. Karen Mills worked as a principall at private equity and venture capitak firms for 26 years before she becamew the SBA administratorin April. Sargeant’s lack of legal training means he will have to rely heavily on the attorneysx at the Office of Much ofthe office’es work involves analyzing whether government agencies follow federal laws that requirse them to analyze the potential economiv impact of proposed rules on small businesses.
The office also makes sure regulators hearsmall businesses’ opinions about regulations. In fiscal 2008, this inpuf saved small businessesabout $11 billion in possibled regulatory costs, according to the office. The office’s actingb counsel, Shawne Carter McGibbon, joined the office in during the BillClinton administration. She previously worked for a Democratic member of Congress and has been an attorneg for20 years.
An unnamed Obamza administration official characterized McGibbon to reporters asa “Busu holdover” during a controversy over an interagency review of the Environmental Protection Agency’se finding that greenhouse gas emissions pose a public health hazard. The Officde of Advocacy concluded that regulatinv carbon dioxide under the Clean Air Act likely wouldhave “serious economidc consequences” on small businesses and other regulatexd entities.
Several press accounts quoted anonymous administration official s who said theAdvocacy Office’s criticism of the EPA findin came from an office “stilll stocked with Bush appointees,” in the words of the Los Angelews Times. This dismissal of the office’w opinion upset Rep. Darrell Issa of California, the rankinv Republican on the House Oversight GovernmentReform Committee. “There are hundreds of civil servantes serving in a similar capacityy throughout the federal governmenty who could also be characterizexas ‘Bush holdovers,’” Issa wrote in a May 14 letted to Obama.
“I sincerel y hope that their professional advice and decisionzs will not be discountes merely because they also workede for the federal government under President George W. Bush.” For more: . Microloanx up, big loans down for small businesses this year Lendinb data collected bythe SBA’s Office of Advocacy confirms the importance of business credi t cards to small companies. A new reportg found that the total valueof small-business loans outstanding increased by 4 percentt in the 12 months that endedx in June 2008, down from the previous year’xs increase of 8 percent. These numberes are for all small-business loans, not just SBA loans.
The numbed of business loans of lessthan $100,000 jumped by nearlyy 16 percent as larges lenders concentrated on credit cards, according to the In contrast, the number of business loans in the $100,0090 to $1 million range fell by more than 23 The report used call reportzs submitted by banks as well as Community Reinvestment Act data. Business loane of less than $1 million were considered to be small-businesds loans. Based on call report data, the top five small-business lendersa in June 2008 wereAmerican Express, Capital One, Region Financial Corp., Synovus Financial Corp. and First Citizehn Bancshares Inc. The report also lists the mostactive small-business lenders in each state.
“In the current financial it’s especially critical for small firmz to know which banks and financiakl institutions have been the most likely to make small andmicrobusinessx loans,” said economist Victoria Williams, a co-author of the For more: .