A Maine venture capitalist is expected to be introduced today as President-elect Barack Obama's choice for director of the Small Business Administration.
Karen Gordon Mills of Brunswick, a founding partner of the New York-based equity firm Solera Capital and the chairwoman of Maine Gov. John Baldacci's Council on Competitiveness and the Economy, has been part of Obama's transition team, reviewing the SBA.
Sources confirmed to the Press Herald that her appointment as SBA director is likely to come today, when Obama is expected to formally announce the final members of his Cabinet in Chicago.
Mills, who has been a key adviser to Baldacci on economic matters, is also president of the MMP Group in Brunswick. Her husband, Barry Mills, is president of Bowdoin College. They have three sons.
Her selection by Obama was being reported on some political blogs Thursday night, including by George Stephanopoulos on an ABC News blog.
"I know she has been a great voice for business in our state," said Baldacci spokesman David Farmer. "I know her to be an incredibly smart and dedicated person with a real sense of public service."
Farmer would not say whether Baldacci had advocated for her appointment.
"I don't think it would be appropriate for us to comment on the president-elect's announcement before he's had a chance to make it," Farmer said.
A spokesman for U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, said the state's senior senator had recommended Mills for the post.
The Small Business Administration's mission is to assist and protect the interests of small businesses. It guarantees loans to them and provides direct loans for homeowners and businesses recovering from natural disasters.
Amid the nation's economic downturn, many small businesses are being squeezed. That is one reason Snowe, the ranking Republican on the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, wrote Obama earlier this month and urged him to restore the SBA position to the Cabinet-level status it had in the Clinton administration.
The post was removed from the Cabinet under President Bush, and the SBA's budget was cut sharply, Snowe said.
"The SBA is the primary agency within the federal government tasked with the responsibility of assisting small businesses, and it should have a seat at the table when it comes to revitalizing the economy, a top national priority," Snowe wrote on Dec. 8.
She said the SBA's first priority should be addressing the credit crunch for small businesses.
Arden Manning, executive director of the Democratic Party in Maine, said that if Mills is indeed being named to the prestigious position, it will be great for the state.
"Maine is a state made up of small businesses," he said. "Appointing someone from Maine to work nationally on small business, I think, is very important for the state and hopefully will shine a spotlight on ... what a great place Maine is for small business."
Mills graduated magna cum laude from Radcliffe College, part of Harvard University, with a degree in economics, and received her master's degree from Harvard Business School in 1977.
Her current assignments in the state also include serving on the boards of directors for the Maine Technology Institute and the Maine chapter of the Nature Conservancy.
Staff Writer David Hench can be contacted at 791-6327 or at:
dhench@pressherald.com
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