Mills leads a team of 3,000 employees whose mission is to help entrepreneurs and small business owners grow and create jobs by providing greater access to capital, counseling, federal contracting opportunities, disaster assistance and more. Among its priorities, the SBA has a portfolio of more than $90 billion in loan guarantees. Each year, the agency helps leverage nearly $100 billion in federal contracts to small businesses and supports free counseling and technical assistance to more than 1 million entrepreneurs. In addition, SBA provides disaster assistance to homeowners, renters, and businesses with the help of 2,000 additional on-call employees.
Throughout her career, Mills has owned, managed, mentored, and invested in small and growing businesses across the country.
As an investor and owner, she helped several small manufacturers improve their competitiveness and ultimately survive the downturn of the early 1990s. This included producers of hardwood flooring, refrigerator motor manufacturers, plastic injection molding companies, and more. More recently, she was President of the MMP Group, which invested and grew businesses in sectors such as consumer products, food, textiles, and industrial components.
In 2007, Maine Gov. John Baldacci appointed Mills to chair the state’s Council on Competitiveness and the Economy, where she focused on attracting investment in rural and regional development initiatives, including a regional economic cluster with Maine’s boatbuilding industry. She also served on the Governor’s Council for the Redevelopment of the Brunswick Naval Air Station.
In her current position, Mills has helped expand access to capital through SBA lending, increase small business’ share of federal contracts, strengthen SBA’s network of more than 14,000 affiliated counselors, and oversee critical disaster assistance operations across the country.
Mills earned an A.B. in economics from Harvard University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School where she was a Baker Scholar. Additionally, she served as a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and was vice chairman of the Harvard Overseers.
She and her husband, Barry Mills, president of Bowdoin College, live in Brunswick, Maine. They have three sons.
Karen Mills's Posts
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Helping Job Creators Get the Capital They Need
December 8, 2011 at 11:45 AM EDTThe Obama Administration is taking action to support small businesses through creating an environment where they have access to capital markets to help facilitate growth at every stage.
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Support Your Local Businesses on “Small Business Saturday”
November 23, 2011 at 1:00 PM EDTWhen you buy a product or service from a small business, your money goes right back into the local economy. That's why the Small Business Administration is asking Americans to shop small for some holiday shopping this weekend
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Small Businesses Creating Jobs is the Core of the American Jobs Act
September 9, 2011 at 7:00 AM EDTThe head of the Small Business Administration says America's small businesses are counting on Congress to act now
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The SBA 100
August 2, 2011 at 1:56 PM EDTKaren Mills, Administrator of the Small Business Administration, announces a showcase of 100 small business that created at least 100 jobs each with SBA assistance, helping drive our economy forward and putting more Americans back to work.
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Turning Innovation Into Jobs: SBA Licenses First Impact Investment Fund Partner
July 26, 2011 at 12:05 PM EDTKaren Mills, Administrator of the Small Business Administration, announces the first public-private partnership of the Impact Investment Fund, which will focus on growing businesses in Michigan
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Small Manufacturers are Creating Good American Jobs
June 16, 2011 at 10:58 AM EDTThe US Small Business Administration holds a roundtable with manufacturers, focusing on the manufacturing workforce to encourage American exports and spur job growth.
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National Small Business Week is Here!
May 16, 2011 at 6:00 AM EDTKaren Mills, Administrator of the Small Business Administration, discusses the release of The Small Business Agenda: Growing America’s Small Businesses to Win the Future report. The report details the many things the Administration has done over the past two years to help small businesses do what they do best: create jobs.
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Helping Small Businesses in the Supply Chain as they Grow and Create Jobs
May 10, 2011 at 9:50 AM EDTKaren Mills, Administrator of the Small Business Administration, travels to Dayton, Ohio to talk with small suppliers about how to make America's supply chains as innovative as possible.
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Disaster Assistance for Last Week’s Storms
May 4, 2011 at 11:35 AM EDTKaren Mills, Administrator of the Small Business Administration, talks about her recent trip to storm-damaged areas of the Deep South, and what the SBA and other Obama Administration agencies are doing to help residents rebuild and recover.
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Repealing the 1099 Reporting Requirement: A Big Win for Small Business
April 14, 2011 at 5:19 PM EDTKaren Mills, Administrator of the Small Business Administration, discusses the benefits to small businesses of President Obama signing a law to repeal the Affordable Care Act's 1099 reporting requirement.
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