Healthcare Strategist Certified as a Minority-Owned, Small Business Enterprise

Online, January 13, 2010 (Newswire.com) - January 14, 2010 (San Francisco, California) The Northern California affiliate of the National Minority Supplier Development Council awarded theStrategist, LLC the distinction of certified Minority Business Enterprise (MBE). theStrategist is a healthcare advisory firm that designs strategies to jumpstart or turnaround high dollar, high risk healthcare projects in three niche arenas: Medicare, Medicaid, and military healthcare.

"I fit the definition of a minority business enterprise perfectly," revealed Noe Foster, CEO and founder of theStrategist. "Three of my grandparents were born in Pago Pago, American Samoa and my other grandmother is Native Hawaiian."

In August 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama directed that the Commerce Department and Small Business Administration (SBA) launch an aggressive outreach campaign to entice minority business owners, like Foster, to complete the rigorous MBE certification process. Two hundred recruiting events in ninety days were planned.

"Small businesses employ half of the nation's private sector workforce; create a large share of the Nation's new jobs; and introduce many groundbreaking ideas into the marketplace," stated President Obama in an August 2009 SBA news release. "Small and minority-owned businesses must play a significant role in our efforts to restore economic growth."

"I attended a two day certification briefing in Honolulu conducted by the Northern California Minority Council in late August," commented Foster. "I was surprised to learn that only twenty-two Hawaii businesses were MBE certified. Nationally, there are 15,000 MBE certified businesses out of a total of 4 million minority-owned U.S. businesses."

To qualify for MBE certification, a for-profit business must be 51 percent owned and operated by an ethnic-minority, U.S. citizen. The intensive process involves four major phases: submission of the application packet, evaluation by the Certification Committee, site visit and final approve by the council's board of directors.

"Government contracts can play a key role in helping small businesses turn the corner in terms of expansion and job creation," acknowledged SBA Administrator, Karen Mills. "But make no mistake, the benefits the government receives are equally as impressive - working with small businesses allows the federal government to work with some of the most innovative companies in America- with direct line to the CEO."

"Before I began the certification process, I was already working on a healthcare project for a Fortune 25 company, who is an MBE sponsor corporation. In all there are 3,500 sponsor corporations ready to be matched with minority owned businesses like mine," stated Foster. "Investing time and energy to get MBE certified is a brilliant lever for my healthcare advisory firm, theStrategist."

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