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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Entrepreneurs: Building Businesses, Creating Jobs, Strengthening Our Economy
November 15, 2010 at 5:49 PM EDTSBA Administrator Karen Mills highlights some of the ways the SBA and the Obama Administration are helping entrepreneurs and small businesses thrive.
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More Than 5,000 SBA Jobs Act Loans Approved in First Month
October 28, 2010 at 9:58 AM EDTSBA Administrator Karen Mills writes about the early success of the Small Business Jobs Act.
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Helping High Growth Small Businesses Create Jobs
October 6, 2010 at 4:48 PM EDTKaren Mills, Administrator of the Small Business Administration, discusses the importance of high-growth small businesses as an engine for our economy.
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One Week Later, Nearly 2,000 Small Businesses Approved for SBA Loans Due to Jobs Act
October 5, 2010 at 4:04 PM EDTJust a week after President Obama signed the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010, nearly 2,000 small business owners who had been waiting for SBA-backed loans have been approved and will soon have those loan funds – totaling nearly $1 billion – in hand.
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Helping More Women-Owned Small Businesses Compete for Federal Contracts
October 4, 2010 at 2:00 PM EDTSBA Administrator Karen Mills discusses the new Women’s Contracting Rule.
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New Plans Underway to Increase Contracts to Small Business
September 15, 2010 at 10:30 AM EDTA look at the new recommendations, and new resources, on the government's small business contracting.
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Small Business Jobs Bill: No 'Itty Bitty' Thing
September 3, 2010 at 10:04 AM EDTSBA Administrator Karen Mills talks about the real small business owners she's met out on the road who might dispute Republican dismissals of the small business help they've been blocking.
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Economic Recovery for Small Businesses: Now is Not the Time to Pull Back
August 30, 2010 at 2:44 PM EDTKaren Mills, Administrator of the Small Business Administration, discusses the importance of passing the Small Business Jobs Act currently before the Senate to help small business owners get the loans they need to grow and hire.
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SBA Disaster Assistance: Then and Now
August 26, 2010 at 1:02 PM EDTSBA’s disaster loan programs are a critical piece of the federal government’s overall response in the wake of disasters. As part of the ongoing series on Hurricane Katrina, Administrator Karen Mills discusses the vast improvements the agency has made in the past five years and her continuing commitment to strengthening the program.
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Apples and Oranges
July 21, 2010 at 12:16 PM EDTThe Affordable Care Act will address many of the concerns of entrepreneurs and small business owners, including improving the nation’s existing health care system, lowering costs and providing significant benefits for small businesses.
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