SBA Office of Entrepreneurial Development Associate Administrator Mark Madrid Visits the MSBDC Greater Boston Regional Office

  

Newton — On August 24, Mark Madrid, associate administrator for the SBA Office of Entrepreneurial Development visited the Mount Ida Campus of the University of Massachusetts Amherst to meet with small business owners, SBA resource partners, and to celebrate the establishment of the Massachusetts Small Business Development Center's Greater Boston Regional Office. The Office of Small Business Development Centers is a component of the Office of Entrepreneurial Development.

The Massachusetts Small Business Development Center (MSBDC) was represented by Debra Raisner Thompson, regional director of the Greater Boston Regional Office; Paula Murphy, director of the Massachusetts Export Center; and Dan Lilly, SBIR advisor with the Government Sales Advisory Program.

Issues discussed during the roundtable included cybersecurity challenges, Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR), spurring entrepreneurship across diverse communities, disaster assistance, educational needs of small business owners, and international trade.   

Chrsitian Conroy, interim state director of the MSBDC, remarked, "This was a great opportunity to showcase our newly-opened Greater Boston Regional Office at the Mount Ida Campus. This is a convenient location for Boston-area prospective and existing entrepreneurs to receive free and confidential business advising."

For fiscal year 2021, the MSBDC network provided over 12,000 hours of advising support to 3,265 small businesses and prospective entrepreneurs and training to over 4,700 attendees. With the MSBDC's help, entrepreneurs acquired over $104 million in financing while creating and retaining over 2,600 jobs in Massachusetts.

Bob Nelson, SBA district director, commented, “It was a wonderful meeting and opportunity for us. Mark Madrid was extremely happy! We thank the MSBDC for all of your help and partnership.”