HOW SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION CELEBRATES NATIONAL HISPANIC MONTH PANEL DISCUSSION AT NOON! (2708 hits)
For Immediate Release From Small Business Administration!
******** YOU ARE INVITED **********
Join the U.S. Small Business Administration to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with a virtual event tomorrow, October 14 at 12:00 p.m. ET. The event will feature a panel discussion with SBA Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman and Hispanic business owners. You will hear how they have successfully pivoted throughout the pandemic to adapt to a rapidly shifting environment. You will also hear their truths, how they overcome challenges, and how they face this adversity with “grit and ganas (a drive to succeed)”.
The second part of the event will feature SBA Associate Administrators Bibi Hidalgo and Mark Madrid for a candid discussion about the state of Hispanic entrepreneurship in the United States with Hispanic business leader Ana Valdez, executive president of The Latino Donor Collaborative.
Featured Speaker
Isabella Casillas Guzman | Administrator | U.S. Small Business Administration
Isabella Casillas Guzman serves as the 27th Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and was sworn in on Wednesday, March 17, 2021. Administrator Guzman represents the more than 30 million U.S. small businesses and is committed to helping small business owners and entrepreneurs start, grow and be resilient.
A lifelong proponent of small businesses, Guzman grew up as the daughter of a small business owner and learned at a young age how important small businesses are to the communities they serve, the people they employ, and the economies they help power.
Administrator Guzman previously served as Director of the California Office of the Small Business Advocate, a position she held after being appointed by Governor Gavin Newsom in April 2019. In that role, she served as the voice of small businesses and innovative startups in the 5th largest economy in the world. She administered and advocated for programs and initiatives to help small businesses access capital, markets, and networks for stronger outcomes. She and her team helped connect entrepreneurs in every community with the resources needed. As the economic recovery support function coordinator for the state, she focused on resilience and most recently worked to help small businesses access relief during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In California, Administrator Guzman oversaw a network of small business centers focused on expanding assistance to underserved business groups. She launched new public private partnerships and collaborated to deliver cutting edge resources to small businesses, including through initiatives like Get Digital CA to increase technology and e-commerce adoption and Source Diverse Source Local to strengthen supply chain readiness. She advocated fiercely for financial relief for small businesses, leading to https://www.eventbrite.com/e/testimonies-o...
Moderator
Mark Madrid | Associate Administrator for the Office of Entrepreneurial Development | U.S. Small Business Administration
Mr. Madrid is the Associate Administrator for the Office of Entrepreneurial Development (OED) at the U.S. Small Business Administration. In this role, he leads the OED which is the SBA’s technical assistance arm with a national resource network including Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs), Women’s Business Centers (WBCs), SCORE, and the Office of Entrepreneurship Education.
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Moderator
Bibi Hidalgo | Associate Administrator for the Office of Government Contracting and Business Development | U.S. Small Business Administration
Bibi Hidalgo is the Associate Administrator for Government Contracting and Business Development at the SBA. In her role, she oversees and reviews procurement-related policies for small business contractors hoping to contract with the Federal Government, including Women-Owned, Veteran-owned, Socially Disadvantaged, and HUBZone contractors.
In her prior role, she was the SBA Government Contracting Policy Lead for the Biden-Harris Transition Team, developing policies that President Biden could execute in the first 100 days, with an emphasis on underserved communities.
Speaker
Yvette T. Collazo | Deputy Associate Administrator for the Office of Entrepreneurial Development | U.S. Small Business Administration
Yvette T. Collazo has been appointed to serve as the Deputy Associate Administrator for the Office of Entrepreneurial Development at the U.S. Small Business administration (SBA) in Washington, DC. Prior to this appointment, she served as the District Director of the U.S. SBA Puerto Rico & U.S. Virgin Islands District Office for seven years.
Ms. Collazo’s Federal career spans more than 30 years, most recently she served as the Director of the Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) where she led efforts to ensure chemical safety under the Toxic Substances Control Act.
Ms. Collazo also served as Director for the Office of Technology Innovation & Development at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Environmental Management. In this capacity, she led in the identification and advancement of technologies, processes, and technical practices that improved the performance of waste processing, groundwater and soil, Decontamination and https://www.eventbrite.com/e/testimonies-o...
Panelist
Ryan Bethencourt | CEO | Wild Earth
Ryan Bethencourt is the CEO of Wild Earth, the leading plant based pet food company in the U.S. and India. He’s also a Partner and Co-Founder at Sustainable Foods Ventures, a pre-seed future of food rolling fund and Partner at Babel Ventures, an early stage consumer biotech VC firm. Ryan has years of experience in leading, building and advising high-growth food and biotechnology companies.
Ryan was previously, co-founder, former Program Director, and Venture Partner at IndieBio and has invested in 150+ early stage biotech and food startups and served as the head of life sciences at the XPRIZE Foundation.
Ryan focuses on using biology as a technology to solve some of the world’s most intractable problems including the future of food, medicine, biological computation, consumer biotech and environmental challenges. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/testimonies-o...