Jovita Carranza, Administrator, U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA)

Jovita Carranza
 – Jovita Carranza

The Deciders

Executives who are out there making impactful decisions that impact markets, artists, shows, tours and companies.
Jovita Carranza
Administrator, U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA)  

As Administrator for the United States Small Business Administration and member of President Trump’s cabinet, it’s hard to find someone in a more impactful position to the concert business right now than Jovita Carranza.

Prior to leading the SBA, Carranza served as Treasurer of the United States at the U.S. Department of the Treasury under Trump, and made a name for herself as the highest ranking Latina in the history of the United Parcel Service (UPS), where she had a distinguished 30-year-career after starting as a night-shift box handler before working her way up to president of Latin America and Caribbean operations.

The SBA is the main administrators of economic recovery efforts such as the Paycheck Protection Program, which had allocated $520 billion worth of loans for nearly 5 million mostly small businesses and nonprofits. 

While there has been controversy with the program, with multibillion-dollar publicly traded corporations acquiring loans, and difficulty of many businesses to follow the necessary steps to see their loans forgiven, the PPP has been a lifeline for many in the concert business, with groups like the National Independent Venue Alliance (NIVA), the closely aligned National Independent Talent Organization (NITO) and many in the production industry continuing to lobby the government to have a voice for live music in congress to help keep the business afloat during unprecedented times. 

The efforts have borne some fruit, with modifications to the PPP that better benefit the live business, with the enactment of the Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act in June.

“This bill will provide businesses with more time and flexibility to keep their employees on the payroll and ensure their continued operations as we safely reopen our country,” Carranza said in a statement along with the June enactment, which lowers the requirement of funds that go to payroll in order to achieve loan forgiveness, increases the maturity of the loans to five years, and extends the deferral period for borrower payments on the loans, among other things. 

A fourth Federal stimulus package is making its way to Capitol Hill this month that could hold the fate of many in the live industry.