Yolanda Garcia Olivarez, administrator of the U.S. Small Business Association Region VI, stopped by the Brownsville Chamber of Commerce Tuesday afternoon during a whirlwind tour of the Rio Grande Valley to promote SBA programs among business groups and small business owners.
Olivarez, appointed to the post by President Barack Obama and SBA Administrator Karen Mills in 2009, met with Brownsville chamber board members and graduates of the chamber’s Women Entrepreneurs Small Business Boot Camp.
Olivarez was also invited to witness the signing of a Strategic Alliance Memorandum (SAM) by Sylvia Zamponi, director of the SBA Lower Rio Grande Valley District Office, and chamber Vice President Andrea Benton, formalizing ties between the SBA and the chamber.
“We’ve always worked together, but this is kind of like a marriage today,” Olivarez said. “Connecting with chambers: It’s such a significant outreach for (the SBA). To me, this means I will have an opportunity to meet 600-plus small businesses through your connections.”
The Corpus Christi native is in charge of delivering SBA’s financial, entrepreneurial development, government contracting and international export initiatives in five states and 10 district offices.
Zamponi likened the agreement to a “handshake in writing,” adding that SBA’s outreach in Brownsville is all about economic development.
“If we can help to stir some of the activities that are important, bring some of the resources through our agency to help you access capital, to access professional counseling that comes to you through the agency and through our office, and also access opportunities with federal contracting, I think we’ve done what we’re supposed to be doing here,” she said.
Also on Tuesday, Olivarez delivered a keynote address to a gathering of the Asociacion de Empresarioes (AEM), met with Dean Mark Kroll of the University of Texas at Brownsville School of Business and Lily Tercero, president of Texas Southmost College, and toured the Port of Brownsville and met with port officials.
Olivarez served 12 years as a port commissioner for the Port of Corpus Christi, and was the first woman and Hispanic to chair the Port Authority Commission in its 75-year history.
Her itinerary today’s called for a visit to the Women’s Business Center in Edinburg and the signing of another SAM, this time with the Rio South Texas Economic Council, followed by a trip to the VA Clinic in Harlingen.
Olivarez said SBA’s services are especially relevant in a city with the economic challenges Brownsville faces — particularly in terms of access to capital for small business.
“We partner with some significant lenders here in the Brownsville area,” she said. “You know, lending for the whole Lower Rio Grande Valley is actually up 51 percent from last year to this year. We did pretty close to $51 million worth of SBA lending in this area. People are tapping into it.”
