The Innovation Grant Awards program is administered by California's Office of the Small Business Advocate (CalOSBA) and funds small businesses, non-profits, and eligible community organizations that support and promote entrepreneurship across California. CalOSBA administers multiple grant programs supporting sectors such as health technology, clean energy, advanced manufacturing, and artificial intelligence.

Award amounts range from $25,000 to $100,000. Eligible applicants include startups and small businesses in California. Active program cycles are listed on the California Grants Portal; applicants should check for open solicitations, as programs open and close periodically.

Grants and Financing for Small Businesses and Non-Profits Review information about small business grants and loans from both California and federal agencies. CalOSBA administers grant programs for small businesses, non-profits, and eligible community organizations that support and promote entrepreneurship. CalOSBA-administered programs can also be located through the California Grants Portal .

CalOSBA has no active direct-to-business grant programs. Award information for concluded programs is available here . California Small Agricultural Business Drought and Flood Relief Grant Program (CDFRG) The CDFRG Program provided relief to small agricultural businesses that experienced a decline in annual gross receipts or gross profits due to drought or storm flood conditions.

California Small Business COVID-19 Relief Grant Program (SBCRG) The SBCRG Program was established in December 2020 in response to the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The Program provided micro grants ranging from $5,000 to $25,000 to eligible small businesses impacted by the pandemic.

California Nonprofit Performing Arts Grant Program (CANPPA) The CANPPA Program was created to provide grants of up to $75,000 to eligible nonprofit performing arts organizations to encourage workforce development. California Microbusiness COVID-19 Relief Grant Program (MBCRG) The MBCRG Program was administered through designated County agencies or a consortium of nonprofit organizations in 46 counties.

The Program provided competitive micro grants of $2,500 to eligible microbusinesses impacted by COVID-19 and the related health and safety restrictions. California Dream Fund (CDFG) The CDFG Program provided microgrants up to $10,000 to seed entrepreneurship and small business creation in underserved small business groups that are facing capital and opportunity gaps.

California Venues Grant Program (CVG) The CVG Program provided competitive grants up to $250,000 to support eligible independent live events venues that have been affected by COVID-19 to support their continued operation.

California Small Business and Nonprofit COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave Relief Grant Program (CASPSL) The CASPSL Program provided funds to eligible businesses and nonprofits that have incurred costs for COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave pursuant to Sections 248. 6 and 248. 7 of the Labor Code.

Small businesses can take advantage of a wide range of state-backed financing opportunities. California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) The Office of Grant Administration oversees a wide variety of grant programs for farmers and ranchers, non-profits, federal/ state/ local government, institutions of higher education, schools (k-12), and other businesses.

Program types include climate smart agriculture, healthy food systems, economic development and relief, healthy food systems, outreach and education, research, and veterinary programs. Facility Improvements/Green Business Brownfields Revolving Loan Fund Program Provides low-interest rate loans between $200,000 and $900,000 for site mitigation and restorations.

Loans available to eligible public or private property owners, including government agencies, private property owners, and non-profits.

California Pollution Control Financing Authority (CPCFA) Provides tax-exempt bond financing to California businesses, irrespective of company size, for the acquisition, construction, or installation of qualified pollution control, waste disposal, waste recovery facilities, and the acquisition and installation of new equipment.

GoGreen Business Energy Financing Helps small and medium-sized businesses upgrade outdated equipment to more energy-efficient models. Connects you to contractors, project managers and lenders to help implement energy-saving measures including efficient heating and cooling systems, LED lighting, fans, well pumps, cool roofs, insulation, Energy Star appliances, and more.

Industrial Development Bonds Tax-exempt financing up to $10 million for qualified manufacturing and processing companies for the construction or acquisition of facilities and equipment. IDBs allow private companies to borrow at low interest rates normally reserved for state and local governmental entities.

Recycling Market Development Zone (RMDZ) Loan Program Provides loans, technical assistance, and no-cost product marketing to businesses that use materials from the waste stream to manufacture their products and are located in a RMDZ. Zones cover roughly 88,000 square miles of California from the Oregon border to San Diego.

Zero-Emission Truck Loan Pilot Project Designed to provide financing opportunities to small businesses to transition to zero-emission vehicles and charging or fueling infrastructure.

California State Trade Export Program Helps small businesses to begin exporting or grow their existing export sales by providing reimbursable Export Vouchers and implementing STEP Events, which includes organizing state pavilions at international trade shows and trade missions. California Capital Access Programs Programs encourages lenders to make loans to small businesses that may have difficulty obtaining capital.

These credit enhancement mechanisms minimizes the credit risk for lenders, and makes it possible for new and existing businesses in California to qualify for small business loans. Programs include: CalCAP for Small Business, CalCAP Collateral Support, Americans with Disabilities Act Financing, California Seismic Safety Financing and CalCAP Zero-Emission.

Disaster Relief Loan Guarantee Program Incentivizes lenders to help businesses that have suffered a loss (either physical or economic) due to a a declared disaster. Loans available up to $1 million. Eligible applicants include small businesses with 1-750 employees.

Designed to support direct loans to small farms in California. Loans are backed up to 90% by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Jump Start Microloan Program Incentivizes participating lenders to loan to small businesses in low-wealth and underserved communities such as women, people of color, veterans, the disabled and those previously incarcerated.

Jump Start microloans are available in amounts from $500 to $10,000. Small Business Loan Guarantee Program Incentivizes participating lenders to loan to small businesses that experience capital barriers. The guarantee minimizes the credit risk for lenders, and makes it possible for new and existing businesses in California to qualify for small business loans.

Loans available up to $5 million. Eligible applicants include small businesses with 1-750 employees.

Designed to create a more inclusive venture capital ecosystem, by: Supporting underrepresented venture capital managers Investing in underrepresented and underserved entrepreneurs and business owners Investing in geographic areas that are socio-economically disadvantaged or that receive very limited venture capital funding Promoting climate equity and climate justice United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development Business Programs Provides loans, loan guarantees, and grants are available to individuals, businesses, cooperatives, farmers and ranchers, public bodies, non-profit corporations, Native American Tribes, and private companies in rural communities.

Business Programs are often leveraged with those of other public and private credit source lenders to meet business and credit needs in underserved areas. The Farm Service Agency (FSA) offers loans to help farmers and ranchers get the financing they need to start, expand or maintain a family farm.

Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) Renewable Energy Systems & Energy Efficiency Improvement Guaranteed Loans & Grants in California REAP funds can be used to help those impacted by California’s drought. Projects to assist with irrigation, such as energy efficient pumps, may be eligible for funding.

The official export credit agency of the United States created to ensure that small U.S. companies have access to the financing they need to turn export opportunities into sales. Programs include Export Credit Insurance and the Working Capital Loan Guarantee.

Small Business Administration (SBA) Covers losses not covered by insurance or funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for businesses in a declared disaster area as well as business operating expenses that could have been met had the disaster not occurred. A Small Business Investment Company is a privately owned company that’s licensed and regulated by the SBA. SBICs invest in small businesses in the form of debt and equity.

The SBA doesn’t invest directly into small businesses, but it does provide funding to qualified SBICs with expertise in certain sectors or industries. Those SBICs then use their private funds, along with SBA-guaranteed funding, to invest in small businesses.

Research and Development Grants Fund a diverse portfolio of startups and small businesses across technology areas and markets to stimulate technological innovation, meet Federal research and development (R&D) needs, and increase commercialization to transition R&D into impact. Programs include he Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR).

Helps small businesses get funding by setting guidelines for loans and reducing lender risk. Programs include 7 (a) multi-purpose loans; 504 loans for purchasing or repairing assets including real estate, equipment, and machinery; and microloans of up to $50,000.

California Office of the Small Business Advocate 1325 J Street, Suite 1800 CalOSBA Small Business News Lenny Mendonca is the former chief economic and business advisor to Governor Gavin Newsom. He is also a senior partner emeritus of McKinsey & Company, a lecturer on inequality at the Stanford Business School, and chair and primary owner of the Coastside News Group.

He founded McKinsey's US state and local public sector consulting practice and led the firm's knowledge development efforts, overseeing the McKinsey Global Institute and the firm's communications including the McKinsey Quarterly. He served for a decade on the McKinsey Shareholder Council. Over the course of his career, he has helped dozens of government, corporate, and nonprofit clients meet their most difficult management challenges.

He was formerly the chair of New America and Children Now, co-chair of California Forward, and chair of Fuse Corps. He is chair emeritus of the Bay Area Council and their Economic Institute. He also previously served as the vice chair of Common Cause, the vice chair of the Stanford Graduate School of Business Advisory Council, and a trustee at the Committee for Economic Development.

He served on the boards of Fidelity Charitable, Western Governors University, UC Merced, the Educational Results Partnership, the College Futures Foundation, California Competes, the Opportunity Institute, Commonwealth Club, the National Association of Nonpartisan Reformers, and theguardian. org.

He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the board of trustees for Junior Statesmen of America, and the advisory boards of Y Analytics, QB3 and the Haas Center at Stanford University. This will close in 0 seconds Maria S.

Salinas is the President & CEO of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, the largest business association in Los Angeles County representing member companies and serving the interests of more than 235,000 businesses across the Los Angeles region. Ms. Salinas took the helm of the organization in August of 2018 and became the first woman and Latina to lead the Chamber in its 132-year history.

An accomplished business woman, entrepreneur and a determined community leader, Ms. Salinas' business acumen and financial expertise provides her with the right experience to lead the L. A. Area Chamber.

Ms. Salinas, a steward of the Chamber's new vision, A Thriving Region for All,has reimagined the role of the Chamber. The Chamber looks to the future with a vision to build an inclusive economy and lead in three pillar areas of focus: advocacy work, global engagement and through community collaboration for economic growth and mobility.

The Los Angeles region, which is the 14th largest economy in the world, and the Chamber membership represents a broad spectrum of industries, small businesses, corporations, academic institutions and nonprofits, all are examples that the Los Angeles economy is diverse, dynamic and that business is a force for good.

Ms. Salinas is an appointee to Governor Gavin Newsom's Commission on the Future of Work and named to his Business and Jobs Recovery Task Force. She was appointed to the US Chamber of Commerce's Committee of 100, a distinction reserved for the top 100 Chambers across the country. Salinas represents the Los Angeles business community in state- wide policy initiatives with the Coalition of Regional Economic Association Leaders (R.

E. A. L.)

, she is a member of the Board of Directors of Mobility 21, a regional transportation effort, and an appointee of Mayor Eric Garcetti to the MEXLA Commission, a foreign policy initiative between Mexico and Los Angeles. Salinas serves on the Board of Directors of The Music Center, Pacific Council, UnidosUS and Southern California Leadership Network among others. This will close in 0 seconds Prior to joining Thomas H.

Lee Partners, Gurinder S Ahluwalia was an advisor and COO at Ovo Cosmico, Inc., a VC-backed start-up with a mission of making credit affordable and accessible everywhere. He was also president and CEO of AssetMark, Inc., where he focused the company's strategy on growth through advisor engagement, improved execution, and product and service innovations.

As President and CEO of GE Private Asset Management and Genworth Wealth Management, Ahluwalia transformed the unit from a boutique business to one with industry-leading profitability. He previously served as a Senior Vice President at GE Insurance and Chief Risk Officer at GE Edison Life Insurance. Gurinder S Ahluwalia holds an M.

S. cum laude from New Jersey Institute of Technology in Electrical Engineering, a B. S.

of Computer Science from New York University College of Arts and Sciences, and a B. E. of Electrical Engineering from Cooper Union.

This will close in 0 seconds Allison Kelly is deeply committed to fighting economic inequality through innovation and out-of-the box partnerships at ICA , a venture capital-certified non-profit CDFI where she has served as CEO since June 2019.

Under Kelly’s leadership, ICA has nearly tripled its net assets, quadrupled its number of investments, grown the number of companies served through our programs and more than tripled the organization's revenues. In 2018, Kelly started an initiative called The Wisdom Fund , conceived to create a new debt product around the needs and characteristics of women of color entrepreneurs.

In 2019, CNote took leadership of the initiative; The Wisdom Fund now is a fixed income vehicle for investors that increases capital access and lending for women-owned businesses. In 2022, Kelly led the launch of the ICA Impact Note , an innovative investment structure that helps entrepreneurs prioritize social impacts–like good jobs, workforce diversity, and employee wealth creation–as they grow their businesses.

As companies meet these impact milestones, the investor returns equity ownership percentages back to the company. Through this structure, the investor and the company are able to work in long-term partnership to create social returns for the community by growing local businesses. For more than 15 years, Ms. Kelly has been working within the CDFI industry supporting underrepresented small businesses.

Before joining ICA, Kelly was head of strategy and innovation at CDC Small Business Finance where she led the effort to bring on more than $40 million in new impact investments for non-SBA small business loan products.

Prior to CDC, Allison spent seven years in various leadership positions at Pacific Community Ventures , a nonprofit social enterprise focused on helping small businesses thrive through affordable capital and free business coaching. Ms. Kelly serves on the Board of Goal 5, a women’s apparel company dedicated to gender equity in sport, the CDFI Coalition. Mal Warwick Donor Digital and the Advisory Board of CNote.

This will close in 0 seconds Brett Melone is the Chief Business Strategies Officer at California FarmLink , a statewide nonprofit Certified Community Development Financial Institution with a mission to invest in the prosperity of farmers and ranchers through lending, education, and access to land. FarmLink also serves fishers throughout the state.

In his role, Melone oversees FarmLink’s education and lending activities serving hundreds of agricultural and fisheries businesses annually. He became a board member in 2004, served as a member of its Loan Committee, and eventually joined the staff as a loan officer in 2013.

Prior to that, Melone held numerous leadership positions at nonprofits serving farmers and rural communities in Latin America and California, with a particular focus on ensuring equitable access to resources, and supporting their business success and natural resource management.

Melone currently serves on the boards of several nonprofit organizations, including Sustainable Agriculture Education, MEarth, and Feed the Hunger Fund, and is an adjunct instructor of sustainable agriculture policy at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies.

He has a BA in International Relations, Business and Spanish from the University of San Diego and a MA in International Environmental Policy from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. Brett Melone grew up in a rural community in South Florida, where his parents worked in agriculture.

That experience has shaped his professional pursuits and his personal commitment to ensuring rural communities, and farmers and ranchers in particular, have access to economic opportunity and the tools they need to steward natural resources.

This will close in 0 seconds Carolina Martinez is the CEO of CAMEO - the California Association for Micro Enterprise Opportunity-, a statewide association representing more than 300 lenders, training programs, chambers of commerce, job creators, agencies and individuals dedicated to furthering Microbusiness development in the state.

CAMEO advocates for its members and builds their capacity to support the more than 84,000 very small businesses they serve. Martinez has more than 15 years of experience working in economic development and business consulting. Her vision has been defined by the variety of experiences she’s had with nonprofits and universities in South and North America.

She has developed bilingual, culturally appropriate entrepreneurial training programs; trained and coached pre-venture and startups; developed international networks promoting partnerships among private corporations that boost industries; provided consulting services to vulnerable communities to explore entrepreneurship as a way to generate wealth; and owned her own business consulting firm.

Martinez served on the Pennsylvania Governor’s Advisory Commission on Latino Affairs as well as on the boards of the Berks County Latino Chamber of Commerce and the Kutztown University Foundation. She serves on the Advisory Boards of two CDFI microlenders: Mission Economic Development Agency Adelante Fund in San Francisco and Accion Opportunity Fund, the largest national microlender.

Carolina serves on the Community Advisory Boards of Comerica Bank and Cathay Bank and is a board member of the Association for Enterprise Opportunity (AEO) and Pacific Community Ventures (PCV).

She served on California Governor’s COVID-19 Small Business and Innovative Startup Recovery Subcommittee and is a Member of the Executive Committee and Chair of the Policy Committee of the California Coalition for Community Investment (CCCI) a statewide coalition of CDFIs. She has an MBA and BA in Industrial Engineering.

This will close in 0 seconds Statewide Supplier Diversity Program Manager As Statewide Supplier Diversity Program Manager within the California Department of General Services (DGS) Procurement Division (PD), Danetta Jackson is a member of the PD executive team focused on developing and implementing statewide strategic objectives, supported by data to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in state contracting.

In Jackson’s previous role as the state’s Business Outreach Program Manager for 13 years, she oversaw outreach engagement strategies, external partnerships, communications, state contracting goal compliance, as well as the department’s Small Business Advisory Council. Ms. Jackson has over 30 years of public service.

Jackson is a passionate leader committed to breaking down barriers in state contracting for California’s diverse small business sector and finding ways to create more opportunities for underrepresented, marginalized micro businesses.

She has formed strategic collaborations with diverse business organizations throughout the state at the private, local, state, and federal levels and has led other government entities in the development of their respective supplier diversity programs.

In September 2021, Jackson was influential in the University of California’s (UC) adoption of their 25 percent diverse business contracting goal and development of their Small Business First Program and certification reciprocity partnership with DGS.

Since Jackson has assumed her leadership role in supplier diversity, she is co-leading the development and implementation of a comprehensive technical assistance and training program to help diverse small and disabled veteran businesses navigate the state’s contracting process specific to procurement and bidding requirements that will launch in the Fall of 2023.

In April 2022, she led the implementation of a voluntary supplier diversity data collection in the state’s Cal eProcure system aimed to capture the demographics of state bidders and suppliers that will help inform where outreach and support is needed among various communities.

Jackson serves on various collaborative workgroups, such as the UC Supplier Diversity Advisory Council, Governor’s Minority Small Business Procurement Task Force, California Statewide Coalition on Diversity Initiatives, and the Health in all Policies Task Force. Jackson’s education includes a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from CSU, Sacramento and certificate in their Management and Executive Leadership Programs.

Jackson currently serves as a subject matter expert panelist on the Source Diverse Source Local Initiative administered by California Office of the Small Business Advocate.

This will close in 0 seconds David Fazio is the Founder, and President, of Helix Opportunity LLC, a social enterprise that specializes in the inclusion of persons with disabilities in the workforce, as well as the consumer marketplace, through organizational development and inclusive design consulting, training, and staffing.

He is also an Invited Expert to the World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Accessibility Initiative, where he develops global digital accessibility standards alongside multiple Working Groups. Mr. Fazio is a person with cognitive, and mobility, disabilities, having survived a softball-size hemorrhagic stroke, at the age of 13, that left him completely paralyzed on the entire left half of his body, along with severe brain damage.

Through Helix Opportunity David has worked with major global corporations to “Unlock the Power of Human Inclusion” by achieving what he calls “Harmony at Work”, that perfect intersection between accessible and meaningful experience. It is his belief that all human beings are unique, each of us with differing functional, and sensory, strengths and weaknesses. Yet, there are ways in which all people are alike.

The essential aspects of the human experience, such as birth, death, love, struggle, and emotion, unite us all. Products, environments, services, and economies, can connect all people through their shared human experience by engaging each person's strongest combination of senses and abilities. This is the essence of what it means to achieve Harmony at Work.

It is the core of who David is and what he does. All of Mr. Fazio’s work, from organizational development to product design, is driven by this vision. This will close in 0 seconds Debra Gore-Mann is the President & CEO of The Greenlining Institute.

Debra has over 25+ years of leadership experience in nonprofit and private research universities and over twelve years of private sector business development expertise having worked in investment banking, international infrastructure development and engineering.

She serves on multiple nonprofit and foundation boards that work to serve communities whose works include criminal justice, nonviolence, youth educational opportunities, supporting young adults in sports and economic opportunity. Debra received her B. S.

in Management Sciences and MBA from Stanford University. This will close in 0 seconds Drew began his professional career in the United States Marine Corps, stationed at Camp Pendleton and serving in the Artillery unit Alpha 1/11. Drew’s experience with the Marines took him to Africa, Kuwait and the Philippines.

Deployed as a Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), Drew led a 10-man crew and participated in additional training missions with Allied Forces. Following the Marines, Drew entered the construction industry serving as an operator, foreman, estimator, and manager before founding Amerivet Contracting. Amerivet Contracting is one of the fastest growing DVBE/DBE/SBE/MBE companies in California.

The Company self-performs a unique combination of diverse services and owns an array of specialized equipment. The company’s construction division specializes in PSA & PLA projects, with a distinctive capability to fill scope gaps. The company’s disaster relief division is a market leading provider of emergency mobile support equipment and services.

The company also provides procurement services for government entities. Amerivet recently received a 2022 Veteran-Owned Small Business of the Year award from the SBA. This will close in 0 seconds As an accomplished founder, investor and real estate developer, Eric Hiatt builds the foundations for communities to thrive.

Born and raised in Redding CA with a burning passion for Far Northern California, Eric has taken his self-made success and invested it back into the economic development of his region. He has established and guided his own companies from idea to exit, he invests in local founders, while also overseeing prominent real estate developments that revitalize cities.

He co-founded Security One Lending, building it into the country’s largest reverse mortgage originator before it was acquired by Walter Investment Management Corporation in 2012. Eric then co-founded Synergy One Lending, which was acquired by Mutual Of Omaha Bank in 2018.

In the midst of playing in the lending game, Eric also founded Reverse Focus, which he continues to oversee as CEO, a company providing software solutions for the reverse mortgage banking market with over 4000 active monthly users and 200 banks and broker firms on its books.

The financial rewards of Eric’s journey have given him a rare opportunity to extend his impact through his role as Founder/Executive Director and investor with the angel investment group, Shasta Angels. Eric led the group through its first investment, Limelight Health, which sold for $75 million. Eric’s commitment to building environments that facilitate success takes on a literal form, too.

As the co-founder of Downtown Collection, Eric has a list of property developments across commercial, retail, industrial and housing markets, playing a major role in the revival of downtown Redding.

This will close in 0 seconds As Executive Director and Chief Impact Officer, Erin oversees strategy and operations of Beneficial State Foundation and facilitates the development of social and environmental impact standards for Beneficial State Bank and for banking systems change. She is thrilled to be working to address social and environmental injustices in the banking system.

She has a Master of City Planning from MIT, teaches Social Impact Measurement at Mills College, and serves of the boards of the CDFI Coalition and the Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation, where she chairs the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee.

She loves smart comedy, biking, paddling, and anything that involves playing in lakes, rivers, mountains, and beaches with her fabulous husband, Beau and her feisty Australian Shepherd, Scout. This will close in 0 seconds Geri Yang-Johnson is the Director of Green Jobs and Entrepreneurship for Dream. org - Green For All.

Geri’s decades of experience improving communities through advocacy, philanthropy, and community development are integral to the work within Green For All. Geri leads the Green For All Business Council, a council composed of Black and Brown cutting-edge CEOs in the clean energy and green sector while working alongside Climate Pledge companies to ensure they make more equitable pledges and commitments.

Previously, Geri served as the Vice President and Social Impact and Sustainability Sr. Specialist at Wells Fargo, where she implemented the company’s community and economic development programs. In this role, she maintained the company’s social impact and sustainability initiatives that support underserved populations and represented the company in all aspects of community relations.

Geri is a 2017 Bankers Without Borders Global Fellow and a 2014 Funders Network PLACES Fellow. She currently serves on the board of The California Wellness Foundation and the James B. McClatchy Foundation where she oversees efforts implementing solutions to California’s most pressing social and economic issues.

Geri also served as an Executive Committee Member for Fresno DRIVE, the boards of The Women’s Foundation of California, Access Plus Capital (Fresno CDFI) and Reinvent Stockton Foundation. In 2021, Geri was recognized with the Fresno State Top Dog Alumni Award for her “contributions to her profession, the University, and the community.

” In 2019, Geri was recognized with the Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics (LEAP) Margaret Ashida Leadership Award for demonstrating leadership in her work. In 2015, the City of Fresno honored Geri with the Women Leading the Way Award. In 2018, Geri founded the Mala Scholarship Fund with Central California Asian Pacific Women to support first-generation AAPI students in their pursuit of higher education.

Geri is a first-generation Hmong American who was raised by a refugee, farmworker family in the Central Valley. Geri has profound interest in rural and agricultural-based economies worldwide. She has traveled to India to work with Navdanya, a network of seed keepers, and organic producers.

Geri earned her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Women Studies from California State University, Fresno.

This will close in 0 seconds President & Chief Executive Officer, California Association for Local Economic Development (CALED) Gurbax Sahota has led the California Association for Local Economic Development (CALED) – California’s largest economic development association – for the last ten years and believes in the importance and need to collaborate and create meaningful partnerships in order to accomplish the goal of creating healthy, wealthy communities.

She turns this belief into action by bringing together and leading multiple organizations aligned with the goal of helping businesses thrive in order to create economic opportunity for California’s residents. Gurbax holds senior positions with CALED, the California Academy for Economic Development, and the California Enterprise Development Authority.

She uses her commitment to thoughtful leadership and organizational knowledge, as well as collaboration with her 800 economic development member peers throughout California, to support the start, growth and sustainability of private enterprise in California.

Having worked her way up through CALED, Gurbax has either worked on, created, or had a significant role in most of the organization’s successes over the past two decades including the creation of key tools to support economic development in California.

Most notably, she: Originated and implemented the creation of meaningful publications with practitioner-based best practices to support economic development in California, including: The Economic Development Recovery and Resiliency Guide Growing Thriving Rural Economic Development Corporations Primer on California’s New Tax Increment Financing Tools California Rural Infrastructure Financing Guide Led the development & launch of a California-specific Economic Development Certification – the Accredited California Economic Developer Certification (ACE), which includes a focus on entrepreneurship as an economic development strategy.

Fostered the growth of the California Enterprise Development Authority (CEDA) by building and maintaining relationships with strategic business partners to support financing for growing California manufacturers and nonprofits. Created a strategic and effective approach that has led to multiple legislative successes to support the work local economic developers do to grow the economy.

As CALED’s President & CEO, she is focused on helping communities as they adapt their economic development strategies to stay ahead of the a changing economy as well as on building strategic partnerships to promote the value of economic development.

Gurbax believes by creating a stronger voice for economic developers at the state and local level, she can share and champion practical solutions that grow the economy in a way that creates opportunity for all. This will close in 0 seconds Jason Paguio is the President and CEO of the Asian Business Association San Diego and the Asian Business Association Foundation. Jason was appointed by Governor Gavin Newsom to