Newport lender to receive honor

Andrew Edwards

After almost three decades connecting small businesses to lenders,

Newport Beach’s Steven Stultz was named Financial Services Champion

of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Administration.

“I just did what I do for a living for 30 years and somebody

noticed it,” Stultz, 58, said.

Stultz started his own company, Stultz Financial Inc., in 1976 in

Newport Beach. He is also a founding member and current chairman of

the National Assn. of Government Guaranteed Lenders, a lobbying group

that represents banks that offer loans guaranteed by the Small

Business Administration.

Stultz’s lobbying activities were a large part of what qualified

him for the national award, said Sandy Sutton, director of the

administration’s district that includes Orange County.

“To be a national winner, you have to have done something that has

national impact,” Sutton said, citing Stultz’s activities in

testifying before Congress in support of the Small Business

Administration.

Stultz was nominated by one of his former employees, Stacey

Sanchez, who now works for CDC Small Business Finance, a Santa

Ana-based lender, and claims that Stultz saved the Small Business

Administration.

Sanchez was referring to a mid-1980s proposal by Ronald Reagan and

his budget chief, David Stockman, to eliminate the agency. Stultz

helped create his lobbying group in response to the proposal.

“I was just one of many people who were contacting as many people

as we could,” Stultz said of his efforts at the time.

Stultz is set to travel to Washington, D.C., in April to receive

his award. Though modest in describing his professional life, he

acknowledged being energized by the win.

“I was pretty excited to get the letter in the mail,” he said.

The Small Business Administration guarantees loans provided to

small businesses by banks. The agency’s standards for how small a

company must be to be a small business varies by industry. Borrowers

who receive loans with the agency’s aid typically have more time to

pay the loan back but do not have special interest rates, Sutton

said.