One year ago, on Martin Luther King Day, I stepped in to lead the Minority Business Development Agency. Today, this same holiday will mark the end of my time at MBDA and a transition of administrations.

I can think of no more appropriate day for this transition than Martin Luther King Day.

Dr. King’s legacy reminds us of the promise of success inherent in a more just and equitable world. And importantly, it reminds us of the headwinds we face along the journey and the devastating consequences of failing to achieve that promise.

I took this job in many ways because of MBDA’s role in that promise.

My tenure was fueled by my love for the people we serve, the MBDA team, and MBDA’s critical mission to empower Minority Business Enterprises (MBEs) to fully participate in the growth of the U.S. economy.

Leading MBDA has been an honor. I am grateful to have been a part of so many historic milestones for the Agency, and the Department of Commerce, during my tenure with the Biden-Harris Administration.

I am profoundly thankful for the opportunity to work with and learn from career civil servants, our partners around the country, and advocates throughout the world who understand MBDA’s work is not only important but is essential to the national security and competitiveness of this country.

The steady gears of government do not usually allow for the rapid transformation of a Federal Agency, which marks MBDA’s evolution over the last four years as truly historic.

To understand how we got here, we must travel back to the first of countless accomplishments for MBEs under the Biden-Harris Administration, namely the passage of the Minority Business Development Act of 2021 (the Act).

The Act made MBDA a permanent federal agency for the first time in its then-52-year history. It granted MBDA historic authorities to make the growth and global competitiveness of minority business enterprises a national priority.

MBDA now has a seat at the table, with the authority, influence, and resources to help expand access to capital, contracts, and networks in order to close the 7.1 trillion-dollar opportunity gap between minority and non-minority business enterprises.

This gap represents between a third and a quarter of the GDP output of our country.

To help address this gap, MBDA grew its national network to over 130 entities across the United States and its territories, expanding our free services to support the growth and development of the nation’s 11 million Minority Business Enterprises.

We entered in historic partnerships with dozens of anchor institutions ranging from civil society groups to private business to government entities. During my time with MBDA I signed memorandums of understanding and established strategic partnerships with nearly 30 organizations and public entities, greatly expanding our Agency’s reach and impact into communities throughout the country.

MBDA released a historic Supply Chain report which compliments the Department of Commerce’s first national security strategy. This report identifies where minority businesses could best help close critical gaps within the domestic supply chain and reinforce the resiliency of the United States.

This past year we released our first language translation tool in Spanish and by the end of 2025, MBDA will have language translation tools for our services in the five most-spoken languages in the United States.

We launched the MBDA Information Clearinghouse because providing empirical data around the equity gap that exists within business and capital markets, along with credible research to remediate these caustic disparities, can be the tool to close the disparity gap that exists in this country.

In 2023, MBDA launched the Capital Readiness Program, the largest-ever federal program of its kind designed to help underserved entrepreneurs grow and scale their businesses. After just one year, MBDA’s Capital Readiness Program incubators and accelerators have already helped thousands of eager entrepreneurs raise over 260 million dollars in capital and start over 2,600 new businesses.

I am proud to announce that three Notice of Funding Opportunities (NOFOs) are now available for applications and two more are going to be released very soon. This new funding will expand opportunities for MBEs in rural America and provide funding to minority serving institutions who are educating the next generation of entrepreneurs.

We recently finalized historic funding to disaster impacted areas to support MBEs recovering from recent disasters like Hurricane Milton. We know that disaster recovery has a more devastating impact for MBEs than other exposed businesses and this investment represents our unique responsibility and capability to aid these communities.

I am also excited about the projected outcomes of the Innovation Lab we were able to create, which will be rolled out for the benefit of Minority Business Enterprises and MBDA’s national network.

This Innovation Lab will plug MBEs into the new ideas, methods, products, services, and technological advances that are happening with elements of the Department of Commerce and at the intersection of industry allowing this community to participate at the ground floor.

I am confident the future is bright for minority business enterprises in this country, precisely because it is so inextricably linked to the future of the American economy. A commitment to their success must be fortified if the United States is to retain its position in the world. For us to out-compete and out-innovate our competitors, we must confront the terrors of bias, racism, and inequality that reinforce the opportunity gaps that harm MBEs. I leave the Minority Business Development Agency hopeful for our country, and hopeful we can achieve our goal of creating a country that works for every business, every community, and every citizen.

That said, hope without positive action is dead. So, I repeat the call that I made every day while serving in this post. Ask MBDA to do hard things. Things that will force us to realize the full range of the Agency’s promise and purpose. Things that will expand the U.S. economy while shrinking disparity. Things that will reinforce our national security and bring us closer to realizing Dr. King’s dream.

With gratitude,
Eric Morrissette, performing the non-exclusive duties of the Under Secretary of Commerce for Minority Business Development.