President-elect Joe Biden said he will nominate Isabel Guzman to lead the Small Business Administration.
Guzman currently serves as the Director of the Office of the Small Business Advocate within the California Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz). A lifelong proponent of small businesses, Guzman grew up as the daughter of a small business owner and served within the Obama-Biden Administration as Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor in the U.S. Small Business Administration.
In her current role, Guzman helps connect entrepreneurs in every community with the resources and capital needed for success, and supports small businesses to weather the COVID-19 pandemic. She serves as the voice of small businesses and innovative startups to help them access capital, markets and networks. In addition to overseeing a network of small business centers, Guzman’s office has launched the Shop Safe Shop Local initiative aimed at helping small businesses reopen safely, and its Get Digital CA initiative to help businesses adopt technology to safely and successfully operate in the pandemic.
Prior to her career in public service, Guzman was a small business entrepreneur herself, an advisor to fellow founders, and an advisor at ProAmérica Bank, the first California-chartered Latino-formed business bank to form in Los Angeles in over 35 years. She earned a Bachelor of Science from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business.
