Submitter:

Name:Owen Ambur

Email:Owen.Ambur@verizon.net

Organization:

Name:Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council

Acronym:SBEC

Description:
The Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council (SBE Council) is an influential voice and advocate for entrepreneurs and small business owners. We focus on securing policies, resources, and educational initiatives that encourage entrepreneurship and small business growth. Our strength and effectiveness are powered by SBE Council members and supporters. When there is something of importance happening in the U.S. or across the globe that may affect small business owners and entrepreneurs, SBE Council is there – we are your voice, your advocate. SBE Council is a 501 c4 nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy and research organization. Contributions to SBE Council are not tax deductible.

Stakeholder(s):

• Entrepreneurs


• Small Business Owners


• Karen Kerrigan: President & CEO -- For nearly twenty years Karen Kerrigan’s leadership, advocacy and training work has helped foster U.S. entrepreneurship and global small business growth. She is president & CEO of the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, and is the group’s chief advocate for its members. Kerrigan regularly testifies before the U.S. Congress on the key issues impacting entrepreneurs and the economy, and has been appointed to numerous federal advisory boards including the National Women’s Business Council, the U.S.-Iraq Business Dialog, the U.S. Treasury’s Taxpayer Advisory Panel, and the National Advisory Committee for Labor Provisions of U.S. Free Trade Agreements. Kerrigan has participated in two Presidential economic summits, and scores of events hosted by the White House, U.S. Small Business Administration and other federal government agencies and departments. She has written hundreds of Op-Eds and newspaper columns, and regularly appears on national television and talk radio programs. She has been called America’s “entrepreneurial envoy” and “small business ambassador” for her extensive work overseas. Kerrigan is a founding member of the World Entrepreneurship Forum, and regularly provides counsel to governments and business associations across the globe regarding entrepreneurial development, capacity building and policy formation and implementation. Kerrigan currently chairs the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), one of the core institutes of the National Endowment for Democracy, which works to strengthen democracy around the globe through private enterprise and market oriented reform. In 2012 and 2011 she was named a Top 100 Champion Small Business Influencer by Blackberry and Small Business Trends. In November of 2009 she was presented with the “Small Business Advocate of the Year” award by the NY Enterprise Report, Among other accolades, Inc. Magazine named Kerrigan to its small business “Best Friends in D.C.” (2006) list as a “power broker and activist” with “serious clout” for entrepreneurs.; Fortune Small Business to its “Power 30” list (2000); and The Hill newspaper to its “most influential small business” list (2006) describing her as “the hardest working woman in show business.” In 1995, National Journal named Ms. Kerrigan to its short list of “K Street” activists most likely to have an impact on Capitol Hill. Campaigns and Elections Magazine named her as one of its “Rising Stars in Politics” in its April 1996 issue. Kerrigan graduated from SUNY Cortland with a B.A. in Political Science, and resides in Northern Virginia.


• Raymond J. Keating: Chief Economist -- Raymond J. Keating serves as chief economist with the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council (SBE Council). He writes, speaks and testifies before Congress on a wide range of issues affecting the entrepreneurial sector of the economy. Keating publishes SBE Council’s “Small Business Survival Index,” the “Business Tax Index” and other state rankings that measure the impact of policies on energy and health coverage affordability for entrepreneurs and small business owners. In addition to policy papers and reports, he pens the weekly SBE Council Cybercolumn, Fact of the Week, Capital & Credit Watch, Technology & Entrepreneurs analysis, and Energy & Entrepreneurs brief for SBE Council. Keating also writes a weekly column for Long Island Business News and The Dolan Company. Previously, for more than 11 years, he wrote a column for Newsday on Long Island. In addition, Keating is an adjunct professor/lecturer in the business school at Dowling College. Keating has written six books – “Chuck” vs. the Business World: Business Tips on TV (2011), Root of All Evil? A Pastor Stephen Grant Novel (2012), Warrior Monk: A Pastor Stephen Grant Novel (2010), U.S. by the Numbers: What’s Left, Right, and Wrong with America State by State (2000), New York by the Numbers: State and City in Perpetual Crisis (1997), and D.C. by the Numbers: A State of Failure (1995). He has contributed essays to four other books. Keating has written hundreds of articles, with pieces published in such periodicals as The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Boston Globe, National Review, Investor`s Business Daily, Chicago Tribune, The Washington Times, New York Post, Daily News, and many more. He also is a contributing editor to FEE’s free-market magazine The Freeman. His areas of expertise include taxation; federal, state and city budget issues; monetary policy; regulation; energy policy; supply-side economics; the economics of sports stadiums and arenas; the U.S. economy; trade; and a host of other small-business issues. Keating holds an MA in economics from New York University, an MBA in banking and finance from Hofstra University, and a BS in business administration and economics from St. Joseph’s College.