A Conversation on Refugee Entrepreneurial Success

Global Entrepreneurship Week celebrates and empowers entrepreneurs in every country and community around the world – especially those individuals who face structural barriers or may have never considered the idea of launching their own startup. Entrepreneurial spirit fuels our nation’s economy. That willingness to be innovative –adapt to changing marketplaces, meet customers’ needs and develop new ways to deliver products and services -- has never been stronger.

To celebrate, please join Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman, head of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and the voice for America’s 33 million small businesses in President Biden’s Cabinet, and Hans Van de Weerd, Senior Vice President for Resettlement, Asylum & Integration, of the International Rescue Committee. Together, they will be joined by entrepreneurs from around the world who have overcome incredible odds to seek safety and economic security by starting their own small business. To conclude, hear from subject matter experts within the U.S. Small Business Administration on how you, too, can start your own entrepreneurial journey to small business ownership.

All SBA programs and services are extended to the public on a nondiscriminatory basis. SBA’s support of/or participation in this event is not an endorsement of any product, service, or entity. Reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities will be made if requested at least four (4) days in advance of this event. Please send an email to reasonableaccommodation@sba.gov with the subject header “ACCOMMODATION REQUEST.”

Featured Speakers:

Isabella Casillas Guzman | Administrator | U.S. Small Business Administration

Isabella Casillas Guzman was sworn in as the 27th Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration on March 17, 2021. She serves as the voice for America’s 32.5 million small businesses and innovative startups in President Joe Biden’s Cabinet.

Administrator Guzman has made supporting small businesses her life’s work. From a very young age, working beside her father in his chain of veterinary hospitals in Southern California, she gained a deep appreciation for the small business owners who define Main Streets in neighborhoods across America, deliver our products and services, and innovate to solve global problems.

Administrator Guzman spent her early career in the private sector as a founder, advisor, and consultant. There she learned the crucial role small businesses play in creating paths to the American Dream. She went on to commit herself to public service -- serving as Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor at the SBA, and as Small Business Advocate for the state of California to help advance equity and opportunity for all entrepreneurs.

Under Administrator Guzman’s leadership, the SBA has continued to scale dramatically, while revamping programs and services to address crucial challenges -- delivering hundreds of billions in relief to help millions of small businesses survive the pandemic. Administrator Guzman leads with a customer-first, technology-forward and equitable approach. She will continue to work to transform SBA’s programs and services to meet all small businesses where they are – to deliver the capital, revenue growth opportunities and support networks all entrepreneurs need to start, grow and lead our reimagined economy.

Hans Van de Weerd | Senior Vice President for Resettlement, Asylum & Integration | International Rescue Committee

Hans Van de Weerd is the Senior Vice President for Resettlement, Asylum & Integration (RAI) at the International Rescue Committee (IRC). With a network of 28 US regional offices and 6 European countries, RAI serves more than 100,000 individuals each year in the US and Europe, among them some 10,000 newly arrived refugees.

Prior to his current role, Hans was Executive Director of the IRC’s office in Northern California. Before joining the IRC in 2012, Hans was a General Director for Medicines Sans Frontiers (MSF)/Doctors without Borders, where his work included leading a campaign for access to essential medicines and directing country programs in India and Iraq.

He began his career in the humanitarian field in 2002 at ZOA Refugee Care, where he was Program Director for Afghanistan. Hans built his leadership, management and motivational skills with a decade of experience in global finance and logistics, working for multinational companies in China and Shanghai.

Currently based in New York City, he is a native of the Netherlands. Hans is a board member of IRC’s Center for Economic Opportunity, a national CDFI IRC with a mission to lend to low-income communities through both consumer and business capital access. He holds a Master of Science in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and a Master of Science in European Studies from the University of Amsterdam.