As Director of the Office of the HUBZone Program at the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), Lori Gillen leads a team of professionals dedicated to assisting small businesses in historically under-utilized business communities succeed in the federal procurement marketplace and was recently asked to lead SBA’s effort to establish a new hub focused on supporting small manufacturers.
Prior to joining the HUBZone Program, Lori served as the Director of the All Small Mentor-Protégé Program, where she helped expand a new program designed to enhance the capacity of small businesses to compete for federal government contracts through formal Mentor-Protégé Partnerships. She joined SBA in 2014 as a career senior executive in the Office of Entrepreneurial Development to help administer SBA’s primary counseling and training programs, including Small Business Development Centers, Women’s Business Centers, SCORE, and SBA’s on-line Learning Center.
Prior to joining the federal government, Lori co-founded a Women’s Business Center, started her own W/MBE-certified consulting business, ran a small business incubator, established a micro-loan fund with regional banks, and led several high impact economic development initiatives focused on boosting local entrepreneurial ecosystems and job creation.
Lori earned an MBA from Johns Hopkins University and a BA in Urban Affairs from George Washington University. As a recent “empty nester” with two children in college, she and her husband have been traveling and getting reacquainted with the D.C. region’s many treasures.