Senate Small Business Panel Approves SBA Advocacy Nominee
The Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship has given a thumbs up to Winslow Lorenzo Sargeant, Obama’s nominee to become the Small Business Administration’s chief counsel for advocacy.
Sargeant, who is African American, is managing director of Venture Investors, a Midwest venture capital company that focuses on healthcare and technology company start-ups. Prior to that he co-founded Aanetcom, a technology company now owned by the publically owned PMC Sierra and served as a program manager for the Small Business Innovation Research program in electronics at the National Science Foundation.
During an August confirmation hearing, committee Chair Sen. Mary Landrieu (R-Louisiana) pointed out that Sargeant does not have a legal background, but has apparently decided that doesn’t matter.
“There is no statutory requirement that the chief counsel be an attorney, rather the chief counsel is an advocate for small businesses in the regulatory process and an important source of research on small business and that is exactly what Dr. Sargeant will be,†Landrieu said in a release announcing the committee’s approval of the nomination.