Biden Picks California Official Isabel Guzman to Head SBA
President-elect Joe Biden picked California official Isabel Casillas Guzman to lead the Small Business Administration, according to people familiar with the decision.
Guzman served as a deputy chief of staff and senior adviser to the administrator at the SBA during the Obama administration, and has run her own small businesses.
Since April 2019 she’s been director of California’s Office of the Small Business Advocate, part of that state’s Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development.
Before working at the SBA Guzman was a director of strategic initiatives at ProAmerica Bank, a commercial bank that served small and mid-sized businesses, according to her LinkedIn biography. ProAmerica was acquired by Pacific Commerce Bancorp in 2018.
Guzman is a graduate of the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.
She’s the first Latina named to a cabinet-level post by Biden, adding to the diversity of a team he’s pledged would “look like America.”
Her nomination will require Senate confirmation.
The president-elect has already chosen three Hispanic men: Alejandro Mayorkas as secretary of homeland security, Xavier Becerra as secretary of health and human services, and Miguel Cardona as secretary of education.
