Karen Mills
Karen Mills
Karen Gordon Millsserved as the 23rd Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration. She was nominated by President-elect Barack Obama on December 19, 2008, confirmed unanimously by the Senate on April 2, 2009, and sworn in on April 6, 2009. During her tenure, her office was elevated to the rank of Cabinet-level officer, expanding her power on policy decisions and granting her access to cabinet meetings. On February 11, 2013 she announced resignation as Administrator and left the post on...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPublic Servant
Date of Birth14 September 1953
CountryUnited States of America
The morale when I came in was not the best. It was because the agency had not been valued.
Small businesses have told us that having cash in their pocket is one of the primary things that they need.
Small businesses are really the engine in the economy.
I saw the S.B.A. with just enormous potential, and that's what I told the president - this is really a jewel.
Health care is the No. 1 concern of small businesses and the status quo is untenable.
I grew up in a family business... that really has provided the core of my belief in American small business, and in America's ability to grow and operate important businesses that can compete and be successful.
President Obama vowed in his State of the Union address to make assisting domestic manufacturers a top priority for his second term.
It's not government that creates jobs; it's small business. Our job is to make sure they have the access to capital, the access to contracting opportunities, and the help, advice and mentoring that they need to go out and be successful.
We've gotten tremendous support. Everybody now understands how critical it is to help small businesses get out of this recession and into recovery.
We are very much engaged across the government, very much engaged in streamlining and simplifying our activities with borrowers and lenders, because that saves time and saves costs and we believe we can do that while maintaining the same or increased levels of oversight and risk management.
As you probably know, half of the people who work in this country work for small businesses. And it's more than that, because two out of every three net new jobs come from small business. So we mean it when we talk about small business being the engine for the economy.
We are not going to be the agency where large businesses can masquerade as a small business and get a contract. We are closing down on fraud, waste and abuse.
We were able in the Recovery Act to get a program where we increased our loan guarantees to 90 percent. Because we had that program, a bank wouldn't have to take that much risk.
We see entrepreneurship and small businesses and supply chains as a critical part of the economic growth and competitiveness agenda.