VETRN’s President, Lee Goldberg, Program Manager, David Ferrara, and Walter Schuppe are proud to announce that On April 12, 2025, VETRN graduated eleven veteran, service-disabled veteran and family member participants from eight states across the USA from its 2024 VETRN MBA Online program.
Barbara Ashe, National Director of the highly successful Veteran Institute of Procurement (“VIP Program”) gave the keynote speech to our graduates. Guests included Elias Hernandez, Associate Administrator of the SBA Office of Business Development (“OVBD”) in Washington, DC, Tim Green, Deputy Associate Administrator of OVBD, Mark Williams and Jerry Godwin, also of the SBA OVBD office in Washington, DC. Additional guests included VETRN Board members, and eight representatives from the SBA and VBOC communities to support VETRN graduates from their local geographic market area, including SBA District Directors and regional VBOC Directors.
VETRN is proud to be an SBA Grantee and SBA Resource Partner and that it has been able to expand its programming outreach to the veteran and service-disabled veteran community throughout the USA.
As we look forward to 2025, VETRN has received more than 20 qualified applicants for its May 2025 VETRN Program, and, after an interview process, has accepted 16 of those applicants for its upcoming May cohort. To be accepted, applicants must have been in business for one or more years, have a sustainable revenue model and be ready to scale. Applicants who do not meet the qualifications for the VETRN Program are referred to the SBA for further resources and assistance in their local geographic market area.
The 2024 VETRN graduating class represents the 11th year of successful programming for VETRN with more than 130 graduates to date and over 100 professional resources now available to support the VETRN graduates as they continue their journey to grow their businesses and become successful.
During this coming year, VETRN will also be conducting webinars, networking opportunities and other programs of interest to the VETRN graduates and veteran small business community.
VETRN wishes to thank all its graduates, mentors, guest experts, professional resources, board members and advisors for your continued support of our program, with a special thank you to the SBA for recognizing the value of the VETRN Program by including VETRN as an SBA Grantee and Resource Partner.