SEED’s Gooch-Smith named financial services champion for Mass., N.E.

MARIA GOOCH-SMITH, executive director of the South Eastern Economic Development Corporation, was honored May 13 as the U.S. Small Business Administration's 2014 Financial Services Champion for Massachusetts and all of New England for her work on behalf of small businesses in the region. / COURTESY SOUTH EASTERN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
MARIA GOOCH-SMITH, executive director of the South Eastern Economic Development Corporation, was honored May 13 as the U.S. Small Business Administration's 2014 Financial Services Champion for Massachusetts and all of New England for her work on behalf of small businesses in the region. / COURTESY SOUTH EASTERN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION

TAUNTON – Maria Gooch-Smith, executive director of the South Eastern Economic Development Corporation, has been named the 2014 Financial Services Champion for Massachusetts and New England by the U.S. Small Business Administration.
The award is presented annually to individuals who increase access to financial services in the region for small businesses, through both providing financing as well as advocacy, according to a statement from the SBA’s Massachusetts district office.
Specifically, the SBA looked at the candidates for the award through the following lens: the quantity and quality of assistance given to small businesses to obtain financing, above and beyond standard business duties; advocacy for financial services industry changes that would help small business; encouragement of investments in small ventures; support of governmental action designed to help small business; and actual results from advocacy efforts that improved the business and regulatory atmosphere for small businesses.
SEED received the 2008 SBA Excellence in Lending Award from the Massachusetts district office of the SBA for helping infuse more than $100 million into the region’s economy through SBA programs and private capital in fiscal year 2007.
Gooch-Smith founded SEED in 1982, providing technical assistance to borrowers in the region. The organization has since grown its offerings to include the SBA 504 loan program, the SBA 7(a) program, the SBA microloan program and the Revolving Loan Fund. SEED began making microloans in Rhode Island in 2009.
SBA Massachusetts District Director Robert H. Nelson credited SEED with more than $16.5 million in loans in fiscal 2013, calling Gooch-Smith “a true friend to the small business community in Massachusetts,” in a statement.
In addition to managing SEED’s programs and its staff of 14, Gooch-Smith is a member of the Massachusetts Small Business Advisory board. The organization is also a Community Development Financial Institution under the U.S. Department of the Treasury through which it provides technical assistance to borrowers in the region.

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