Wilfredo J. Gonzalez was appointed director of the U. S. Small Business Administration (SBA) North Florida District Office in December 1996. As district director, Mr. Gonzalez is responsible for directing the activities of a federal government staff in support of small businesses in a 43 county area of northern Florida with over 6,121 active outstanding business loans totaling $1,295,313,060; an 8(a) program portfolio of 185 firms, and eight Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) chapters. He is also responsible for the oversight of 5 regional Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs), located at state universities and a community college, and 10 SBDC subcenters.
Before accepting his position at the North Florida District Office, Mr. Gonzalez was district director of the SBA's Washington, D.C. district. Prior to joining the SBA in May 1994, he held the position of regional director with the Department of Commerce's Minority Business Development Agency in Atlanta, Georgia. He has also served as director of business development and as a government marketing consultant in the private sector, as the staff director with the U. S. Commission on Civil Rights, and as associate director of EEO and Civil Rights with the U. S. Department of State.
From 1985 through 1988, Mr. Gonzalez held the position of associate administrator for Minority Small Business and Capital Ownership Development (MSB&COD) at the SBA, National Office in Washington, D.C. Entering the Federal Government as an HEW Fellow in 1976, he subsequently served as special assistant to the Deputy Assistant Secretary at the Department of Labor; country director of the Peace Corps in Ghana, West Africa; chief of operations for Peace Corps' Latin America Region and deputy director of the Peace Corps in
Bogota, Colombia.
Mr. Gonzalez's educational background includes a B.A. from the University of Puerto Rico (Magna Cum Laude) and studies at both the University of Puerto Rico Law School and Baruch Graduate School of Public Administration in New York. He also attended the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass and the Federal Executive Institute in Charlottesville, VA .
Mr. Gonzalez is currently a member of the Regional Community Institute (RCI) of Northeast Florida, Inc., the Board of Directors for the Police Athletic League (PAL), and the Sports & Entertainment Board (JEDC).
Mr. Gonzalez previously served on the Board of Trustees of the University of North Florida, the Board of the Jacksonville Zoological Society, the Citizens Forum of the Florida Bar, the Judicial Nominating Commission for the 4th Judicial District, the Board of Directors of Habitat for Humanity, Jacksonville (HABIJAX), the Board of Directors of the National Council on Community and Justice, the Jacksonville Mayor's Hispanic American Advisory Board, the Florida State Advisory Committee for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and the oversight committee for the Better Jacksonville Plan.
Mr. Gonzalez is a Veteran of the United States Navy. He and his wife, Rocelia, are the parents of three children and reside in Jacksonville.