March 21, 2005
On the road again | Charlie Summers takes over as the Small Business Administration's regional administrator for New England
By Taylor Smith
After losing the First District congressional race to Democratic incumbent Tom Allen last November, Republican challenger Charlie Summers figured he'd allow himself some downtime to recover from the months of constant campaigning. But just a few weeks later, Summers was back on a campaign trail of sorts as he pursued the Small Business Administration's regional administrator post for New England, a position vacated when Jeffrey Butland died in August.
After nearly three months of interviews and confirmations in Maine, Boston and Washington, D.C. ˆ time punctuated by a one-month active-duty training stint in the Naval Reserve ˆ Summers in early March was sworn in as the new regional administrator during a ceremony at the State House. In his new job, Summers, 45, will be responsible for spreading SBA's gospel throughout the six New England states, a task he says is tailor-made for what he describes as his meet-and-greet, high-energy style. Summers expects to spend at least half of his time on the road, away from SBA's New England headquarters in Boston. "You'll see me at Rotary clubs, at chamber of commerce events," he says. "The benefit of going out on the road is to get a better sense of the region and the nuances of other states, but also to establish a level of confidence with the employers in each state."
Whether he's visiting Farmington, Maine or Farmington, Conn., Summers says he expects complaints about the small-business environment to revolve largely around taxes, regulation and health care costs. And while many of the solutions to those problems are outside Summers' purview, he says it's his job as the SBA regional administrator to understand what the hot-button issues are for small-business owners.
Meanwhile, Summers' small-business background is likely to pay dividends as he works to build a rapport with business owners across the region. He grew up working with his family at the Kewanee, Ill., hotel his parents bought out of bankruptcy in 1962, and in 1982 moved to Maine and began managing the Bangor Motor Inn. During the next two decades, Summers ran a South Portland hotel, started a coffee retailing company and operated a convenience store in Biddeford. He even recalls the frustration of trying to fill out a complex SBA loan application years before the agency streamlined its application process. "I know what it's like to sign the front of the check as well as the back of a check," he says.
Summers is no stranger to the political arena, having served two terms as a state senator and working as Sen. Olympia Snowe's state staff director for nine years until embarking on his 2004 congressional campaign. Summers says his experience working with Snowe ˆ who heads the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship ˆ helped him during the vetting process, as Snowe's recommendation of him "lent a lot of weight."
What's more, Summers' work with Snowe helped him better understand the role the SBA plays in small-business development in Maine and elsewhere. But during that time, he also noticed that a lot of Maine companies just weren't aware of the services ˆ financial and otherwise ˆ offered by the agency. "Olympia Snowe used to say that the SBA offers the best bang for the buck, but is the best-kept secret in the federal government," he says. "I want to prove her right on the first, and prove her wrong on the second."
Summers singles out the SBA's 504 loan program, which offers businesses long-term, fixed-rate loans for big capital purchases such as land, buildings or machinery, as one that often isn't fully understood by the business community. He wants to make sure people are aware of the program, in large part because he says such loans often translate into new jobs. "In so many ways, the SBA is a good-news agency," says Summers. "It's been said that the best social program is a good job."
After nearly three months of interviews and confirmations in Maine, Boston and Washington, D.C. ˆ time punctuated by a one-month active-duty training stint in the Naval Reserve ˆ Summers in early March was sworn in as the new regional administrator during a ceremony at the State House. In his new job, Summers, 45, will be responsible for spreading SBA's gospel throughout the six New England states, a task he says is tailor-made for what he describes as his meet-and-greet, high-energy style. Summers expects to spend at least half of his time on the road, away from SBA's New England headquarters in Boston. "You'll see me at Rotary clubs, at chamber of commerce events," he says. "The benefit of going out on the road is to get a better sense of the region and the nuances of other states, but also to establish a level of confidence with the employers in each state."
Whether he's visiting Farmington, Maine or Farmington, Conn., Summers says he expects complaints about the small-business environment to revolve largely around taxes, regulation and health care costs. And while many of the solutions to those problems are outside Summers' purview, he says it's his job as the SBA regional administrator to understand what the hot-button issues are for small-business owners.
Meanwhile, Summers' small-business background is likely to pay dividends as he works to build a rapport with business owners across the region. He grew up working with his family at the Kewanee, Ill., hotel his parents bought out of bankruptcy in 1962, and in 1982 moved to Maine and began managing the Bangor Motor Inn. During the next two decades, Summers ran a South Portland hotel, started a coffee retailing company and operated a convenience store in Biddeford. He even recalls the frustration of trying to fill out a complex SBA loan application years before the agency streamlined its application process. "I know what it's like to sign the front of the check as well as the back of a check," he says.
Summers is no stranger to the political arena, having served two terms as a state senator and working as Sen. Olympia Snowe's state staff director for nine years until embarking on his 2004 congressional campaign. Summers says his experience working with Snowe ˆ who heads the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship ˆ helped him during the vetting process, as Snowe's recommendation of him "lent a lot of weight."
What's more, Summers' work with Snowe helped him better understand the role the SBA plays in small-business development in Maine and elsewhere. But during that time, he also noticed that a lot of Maine companies just weren't aware of the services ˆ financial and otherwise ˆ offered by the agency. "Olympia Snowe used to say that the SBA offers the best bang for the buck, but is the best-kept secret in the federal government," he says. "I want to prove her right on the first, and prove her wrong on the second."
Summers singles out the SBA's 504 loan program, which offers businesses long-term, fixed-rate loans for big capital purchases such as land, buildings or machinery, as one that often isn't fully understood by the business community. He wants to make sure people are aware of the program, in large part because he says such loans often translate into new jobs. "In so many ways, the SBA is a good-news agency," says Summers. "It's been said that the best social program is a good job."
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