SBA NEWS RELEASE
Press Office
Release Date: April 30, 2009
Contact: Cecelia Taylor (202) 401-3058
Release Number: 09-24
Ana Harvey Named to Lead SBA’s
Office of Women’s Business Ownership
WASHINGTON – Ana Recio Harvey, an experienced entrepreneur and recently the president of the Greater Washington Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, has been named as head of the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Women’s Business Ownership, SBA Administrator Karen G. Mills announced today.
As associate administrator of the Office of Women’s Business Ownership, Harvey will manage the agency’s efforts to promote the growth of women- owned businesses through programs that address business training and technical assistance, and provide access to credit and capital, federal contracts and international trade opportunities.
“Women business owners play a huge economic, cultural and social role in every part of American life,” said Mills. “Women business owners are at the forefront of change and progress in this country. Addressing their special needs and helping them break down obstacles are critical to the nation’s economic recovery. Ana Harvey is the right person to help SBA accomplish that task.”
The National Women’s Business Council, which advises SBA, estimates that in
2008 there were 7.2 million majority-owned, privately-held, women-owned businesses in the United States. These firms employ 7.3 million people and generate $1.1 trillion in sales.
Harvey will direct the SBA’s network of Women’s Business Centers, which provide training and counseling to thousands of women business owners across the country from 112 centers in nearly every state. The program office also works with women’s business ownership representatives in every SBA district
office, and the Online Women’s Business Center.
Harvey holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Houston. After working as a translation consultant from 1991 to 2000, she established Syntaxis, a multilingual communications company serving clients that included Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, and non-profit organizations.
Over the course of seven years, she built the company to 75 employees handling communications and translations in 25 languages.
After a two-year stint as Latino programs director with Cultural Tourism DC, Harvey became president and CEO of the Greater Washington Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in 2007.
