Since the Great Recession, minority-owned small businesses, in particular, have been starved for capital. In late 2016, the Small Business Administration and the Milken Institute launched a two-year pilot initiative to identify ways to increase the flow of capital to minority-owned small businesses in Baltimore and Los Angeles. In this session, our panel will consider key questions including:

What are some of the key issues that have surfaced and how are stakeholders trying to improve their small-business environments?
What will it take to reopen the capital spigots and how should we define success?

Moderator
Aron Betru, Managing Director, Center for Financial Markets, Milken Institute

Speakers
Jorge Castillo, Chairman and President, Maryland Hispanic Chamber of Commerce; Founder and Chief Strategist, ¡Onward! Estrategias
John Lewis, Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer, Harbor Bank of Maryland
Mark Robertson, President and CEO, Pacific Coast Regional Small Business Development Corporation
Eileen Sánchez, Director, Small Business and Entrepreneurship, Los Angeles Mayor's Office of Economic Development