by Linda Castillo
Congratulations to Maria Contreras-Sweet, who President Obama recently announced as his nominee to lead the Small Business Administration.
Maria was born in Guadalajara, Mexico immigrating to Los Angeles when she was 5. To her new role, she brings an accomplished resume. She was the first Latina to serve as a Cabinet secretary in California as the secretary of the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency from 1999 to 2003. Additionally, she is the founder of ProAmérica Bank, the first Latino-owned business bank in California in over 30 years focusing on small and medium-sized businesses in Latino neighborhoods.
Maria knowledge to start a small business and past roles helping other small businesses succeed will be vital as the leads the Small Business Administration to create jobs, new opportunities and grow the economy.
“So as we work to keep our economy growing, Maria will be charged with looking for more ways to support small businesses,” President Obama said, “to help them get that good idea off the ground, to expand, to hire, to sell their products and ideas not only in our domestic markets, but also overseas. And I’m absolutely confident that she is going to do an outstanding job as our Small Business Administrator.”
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Linda Castillo is the Founder and Executive Editor of http://www.modernlatina.com/. She writes on topics that empower and inspire Latinas including art, motherhood, green living, culture, travel, and issues transforming the Latino community. Linda has earned a B.S. in Business and a M.S. in Mass Communications from San Jose State University.