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The Latest From The Commerce Blog

Spotlight on Commerce: Efrain Gonzalez, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Administrative Officer, BusinessUSA

Submitted on October 6, 2014 - 1:37pm
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Efrain Gonzalez, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Administrative Officer, BusinessUSA

Ed. note: This post is part of the Spotlight on Commerce series highlighting members of the Department of Commerce and their contributions to an Economy Built to Last.

Guest blog post by Efrain Gonzalez, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Administrative Officer, BusinessUSA

I currently serve as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Administrative Officer at BusinessUSA, a Presidential Initiative and partnership between the Department of Commerce and the Small Business Administration. Our mission is to help American entrepreneurs, businesses owners and executives successfully start and grow their business by making it easier for them to find and access the right government resources. Put simply, my role as part of BusinessUSA is to make sure people, money and strategy come together to achieve this mission.

From my first days at Commerce, I have been privileged to serve on initiatives and projects aimed to either directly serve the needs of businesses or assist the agencies that directly serve U.S. businesses. Prior to joining BusinessUSA, I served as Chief of the Office of Business Development for the Minority Business Development Agency where I worked on the Hurricanes Katrina and Rita Recovery Projects and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. For me, it’s this type of mission-driven work that we do here at Commerce that connects me to my roots as a first-generation American growing up in East Los Angeles and Montebello, California, a suburb just east of LA.

My father was an entrepreneur who owned a service station. Like many kids of hardworking business owners in this country, I spent my weekends working with him to support the family business. I watched him succeed, and I watched him struggle. I saw his commitment to his employees and how the responsibility of making his payroll sometimes weighed on him. Later, when I took over managing the business for a short time, I felt the weight of that responsibility myself. But, I think that just like many Mexican immigrants to this country, my dad thought that all those long days and weekends were a fair price for the opportunity to build a better life for his family. His hard work gave me the opportunity to attend good schools and eventually graduate from the University of Southern California (USC). My years running the family business helped to build the foundation that my career at Commerce and before that, at USC, has been built on.

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President’s Export Council Espouses Commercial Diplomacy

Submitted on October 6, 2014 - 10:45am
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Robert Wolf, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of 32 Advisors

Guest blog post by Robert Wolf, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of 32 Advisors.

As a member of the President’s Export Council (PEC), I had the good fortune of going to Poland and Turkey with a group led by Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker along with CEOs from Archer Daniels Midland, Lockheed Martin, Marriott, UPS, Vermeer and Xerox as well as representatives from other member firms.  The PEC, comprised of companies with an aggregate market capital of over $850 billion, chose Poland and Turkey for our inaugural trip with the Secretary as we view these countries, first and foremost, as high priority economically important growth markets in addition to being strategically significant.

During the trip I wore two hats: one as an ambassador for US businesses broadly promoting the President’s National Export Initiative and US foreign direct investment priorities and, second, as a businessman in representing a cross-border advisory on a fact finding mission to explore Poland and Turkey as good places to enhance our business relationships and our client’s growth initiatives.

I learned that both Poland and Turkey want many of the same things as the US: transparency, public/private partnerships, infrastructure investment, an all-in energy approach and a skilled labor force/education.

What I found while visiting with both public and private leaders was that there are some incredible market opportunities for US businesses. Given the impressive strides both countries have made in recent years, I am not particularly surprised.

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Eighth-Grade Students Explore S.T.E.M Careers and Opportunities On Manufacturing Day

Submitted on October 3, 2014 - 4:00pm
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Darlene Mullen (in yellow), technology and pre-engineering teacher for Friendship Academy at Cherry Hill in Baltimore, MD, is joined by her students at a Manufacturing Day 2014 event

Guest blog post by Darlene Mullen, technology and pre-engineering teacher for Friendship Academy at Cherry Hill in Baltimore, MD.

 

I have worked in the manufacturing and engineering environment for many years prior to becoming an educator for the Baltimore City Public School System. I am passionate about exposing our youth to the many career choices they can make in a manufacturing environment. My participation with several S.T.E.M. programs have afforded me the opportunity to broaden my students exposure to many manufacturing and engineering roles and how focusing on science, technology, engineering and mathematics will give them the foundation they need to thrive in the fields of manufacturing and engineering.  S.T.E.M. is woven into the schools’ fabric. We offer Gateway to Technology, a pre-engineering program and Smart Lab Creative Learning Systems to our middles school students. As always S.T.E.M. is embedded in our everyday curriculum.

If our eighth-grade students are exposed to S.T.E.M careers and opportunities while they are in middles school, they will be able to make sound decisions when choosing a high school to attend next academic school year. They will be able to choose high schools that offer the sciences and mathematics classes needed to pursue engineering and technology degree upon completion of high school. Many of our eighth graders are already talking about pursuing technical fields that will allow them to become essential employees of the manufacturing environment.

Our school, Friendship Academy at Cherry Hill is located in the Southwest area of Baltimore City, with a population of five hundred plus students, who are always willing and ready to learn. My students and I are very excited about spending time at Northrop Grumman during Manufacturing Day to gain an up close and personal understanding of the importance and operations of manufacturing.