VETRN’s President, Lee Goldberg and Program Manager, David Ferrara are thrilled to announce the graduation of the 2023 VETRN MBA class on March 30, 2024. The 2023 online cohort included 10 veteran small business owners, service-disabled veterans, and family members from 8 different states across the USA. VETRN, in its 10th year of operation, has now completed nine VETRN MBA training programs, teaching veterans, service-disabled veterans, National Guard and family member participants how to successfully grow their veteran owned small business. With this class, VETRN has now graduated more than 100 veteran small business owners and family members from the VETRN program, with many accolades, successes, and successful pivot stories to date. The VETRN MBA program is free of charge to all veteran participants.
At the graduation, each VETRN participant presented a three-year growth plan to a distinguished panel of judges and accepted congratulations along with receipt of their Certificates of Completion. The Keyonte Speaker was Larry Stubblefield, Deputy Associate Administrator for the SBA Office of Government Contracting and Business Development. Larry is now in charge of all veteran certification. Also in attendance was Jerry Godwin of the SBA Office of Business Development, VBOC representatives, and several SBA District Directors and Regional Representatives from the states where our graduates reside or operate their businesses.
VETRN is now in its second year as an SBA Resource Partner and Grantee. As a result of our SBA affiliation, VETRN has received more than 100 E-mail requests this year for participation in our 2024 MBA program. Of that number, 40 meet the minimum requirements for participation and the remaining veteran inquiries are referred to Ray Milano of the SBA Office Veterans Business Development, who provides them with contact information for SBA and VBOC representatives in their geographic market area to assist them with their business needs.
VETRN wishes to thank the numerous professionals who serve as guest experts, instructors, and panel judges for its MBA programming, as well as the mentors who provide advice, guidance, and feedback to our veteran participants. This year, I would especially like to thank Tim Heard snd Steve Goldberg of the Seacoast SCORE Chapter in New Hampshire for providing VETRN with a significant number of mentors for our veteran participants. There are too many names to mention here, but please know that you are all an important part of the VETRN family in providing the training, resources, and mentorship necessary for the success of our VETRN graduates.
So, as David Ferrara, Walter Schuppe and I look forward to interviewing the many applicants who have applied to the 2024 VETRN MBA program, we are very appreciative of everyone involved and are excited about teaching this next year’s 2024 cohort. We look forward to continuing the important training and mentorship we provide to the veteran and service-disabled veteran small business community, our veteran network and our VETRN graduates in the years ahead.