The President’s final State of the Union was barely over before members of his cabinet were sent to travel to key cities throughout the country to expound on his message from their agency’s perspective. Maria Contreras-Sweet, U.S. Small Business Administrator and appointed member of President Obama’s cabinet headed to Atlanta with her first stop at the Pro Business Channel Studios in Buckhead to speak on President Obama’s behalf regarding the impact small business has in driving our national economy.

 

Contreras-Sweet became the 24th Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) on April 7, 2014. The SBA is charged with supporting America’s small businesses, which create nearly two out of three net, new private sector jobs in our economy and employ half of our nation’s private sector workforce.

 

The SBA Administrator sat down with the hosts of Georgia Business Radio, Rich Casanova and Craig Williams for an exclusive interview regarding the State of the Union address and what  it meant for business both locally in Atlanta and nationally.

 

“I really liked the forward looking tone of the State of the Union address. The President spoke to the future of the country and our innovation that we have spurred around the world. I am proud that we are at 70 consecutive months of job growth and 2/3 comes from Small Businesses. The SBA continue to spur the innovation that not only grows the Mom and Pap’s, but also the ones that are  scaling and becoming the global leaders of our nation through Capital funding,  Counseling and Contracting,” said Contreras-Sweet.

 

The SBA has had record level lending throughout the United States with a $120 billion portfolio of which over $20 billion has been made available for the southeast region focusing strongly on Atlanta and its expanding markets. The SBA administrator cited Georgia’s tax credit program had really brought a lot of new business to the region, especially in the automotive industry with Porsche and Mercedes-Benz moving corporate offices to Atlanta, as well as the entertainment industry taking a share of the revenues from her home state of  California with multiple new movies and television series being produced in Georgia.

 

Following the interview on Georgia Business Radio, Mrs. Contreras-Sweet went on to meet the Mayor of Atlanta Kasim Reed along with additional events planned on her two day stop in Atlanta.

 

To learn more about the SBA you can visit:  http://SBA.gov

 

To listen to the full interview visit:  http://www.GeorgiaBusinessRadio.com