Capital crusader
Photo/Jan Holder
Jeanne Hulit, SBA regional chief, says part of her job is to relay small business concerns to folks in Washington
With a background in banking and economic development, including a stint at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Jeanne Hulit says she’s well prepared for the challenges facing her as the Small Business Administration’s New England administrator.
Hulit, who was appointed to the post by the U.S. Small Business Administration on Aug. 10, takes over at a time when the SBA is trying to reestablish its reputation and relevance.
Not so long ago the SBA was perhaps best known for administering loan programs with bulky, time-consuming paperwork for both banks and borrowers at rates that hardly made it worthwhile. Now that the faucet has been turned off on free-flowing capital and loose lending terms in the private market, Hulit says the SBA has the chance to serve as a lifeline to small businesses in trouble.
“As a lender, I didn’t recommend or suggest SBA for any of my deals, because it was perceived as being cumbersome and expensive. Clearly times have changed and the SBA has more relevance,” says Hulit, who previously served as senior vice president of commercial lending at Citizens Bank in Portland. Before that, Hulit was a middle-market lender at KeyBank National Association.
“When the markets froze, lending fell off a cliff,” Hulit says. “But since the recovery act was passed in February, the SBA received $730 million in loan guarantees and eliminated fees for borrowers, which generated a rather rapid increase in SBA lending.”
Since the passage of the economic stimulus package, SBA lending has increased about 70% nationwide and 230% in Maine, she says.
Though headquartered in Boston, Hulit says she’s only there one or two days a week. The rest of the time, Hulit, who lives in Falmouth, says she’s traveling in one of the six New England states she serves.
Hulit says her experiences have enhanced her ability to connect with the people using SBA programs.
“At all the different events I attend, I’m always approached by at least one business person afterwards who says without the SBA, they wouldn’t still be in business,” Hulit says. “A woman from Bath, at a recent event in Maine, said she was laughed out of a bank with her business plan. She went into [an SBA] small business center and now she says she employs more than a dozen workers.”
Hulit says she has been most surprised by the amount of respect business people grant her, considering she’s in a government position.
“It is the agency that is the voice of business in U.S. government and I think they respect the fact that people are in this job to help them,” she says, adding that part of her role is to relay the concerns banks and small business owners have to the administration.
“The majority of staff [in the SBA] come out of banking jobs and the private sector, so they really understand the business, perhaps more so than regular government officials,” Hulit says.
Maine small businesses have many strong voices in government, Hulit says, with Karen Gordon Mills of Brunswick in the SBA’s top spot and Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe as the ranking member and former chair of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. In fact, the past six New England administrators have hailed from Maine, a list that includes Charlie Summers, Pat McGowan and Susan Collins.
The preponderance of Mainers at the SBA does come with a price, Hulit says.
“Clearly Maine is a small business state and that has been recognized, though we do get ribbed a little bit.”
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