April 14, 2022 – El Paso County is excited to announce that the Pikes Peak Small Business Development Center Executive Director Aikta Marcoulier has been appointed as Region VIII Small Business Administration (SBA) Regional Administrator by President Joe Biden.
Aikta Marcoulier will be a key player to the President’s efforts to help small businesses most impacted by the pandemic recover and rebuild. She brings a wealth of expertise to the role. She will continue to support small businesses to ensure they receive the resources and support they need while fostering strong collaborative relationships with federal, state, tribal, and local leaders.
“My appointment by the Biden-Harris administration to the Region VIII administrator position is truly an honor. I have worked, boots on the ground as the Pikes Peak SBDC Director for just under 10 years,” said Aikta Marcoulier, Pikes Peak SBDC Executive Director. “As an SBDC we worked with small businesses across all industries, minority groups and veteran populations. I have had the opportunity to learn of the day to day needs, struggles and successes of small business as well as the necessities of disaster relief – fires, floods and now the pandemic. The opportunity to support the organization that provided us with the resources my team and I worked on each day, is a dream. Supporting SBA policy and resources at an administration level is an exciting opportunity.”
“Aikta Marcoulier, with her extraordinary passion and energy, will serve as a strong advocate and voice for SBA programs to support and advance small businesses,” said Crystal LaTier, El Paso County Executive Director of Economic Development. “I’ve had the great pleasure of working closely with Aikta, and I am excited she will be bringing her vast experience and many regional partnerships to her new role. Her experience and knowledge make her the right person at the right time to help small businesses and entrepreneurs recover and rebuild after the pandemic.”
Aikta Marcoulier joined the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) team as the director of the Pikes Peak Center in May 2012. Prior to the SBDC, she was the Director of Partnership Marketing with the Professional Bull Riders. Marcoulier is also the program creator and manager of the Colorado SBDC’s Cyber: Cover Your Assets program providing education, training, and one-on-one consulting to small businesses throughout Colorado. She also serves as a regional coordinator for the NorthStar CMM program.
Marcoulier is involved in the El Pomar Emerging Leaders Program and is an active board member of the Pikes Peak Workforce Development Board and vice-chair of the Better Business Bureau of Southern Colorado. She is on the Pikes Peak Community College Business Advisory Board and is president of the Colorado Business Development Foundation. She serves on numerous committees for the Colorado Springs Business Journal and is on the technology and capacity committees for the Colorado SBDC Network. Additionally, she is a member of ROAR (Relationships, Opportunities, Acumen, and Readiness Committee) for the UCCS College of Business. Marcoulier received her MBA in global management from the University of Phoenix and undergraduate degrees in both economics and psychology from the University of Iowa.
She has received several awards, including the University of Iowa Leadership Award in 2011, and was named one of the Colorado Springs Business Journal’s Rising Stars for 2013 and Women of Influence and is the 2021 Leadership Pike Peak Modeling the Way Award winner.
Region VIII serves Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming.
Aikta will start her new role on May 23, 2022. Her last day with the Pikes Peak Small Business Development Center will be May 20, 2022.
See Official White House announcement here:President Biden Announces Key Regional Appointments for USDA and SBA
For media questions or request for interviews, please contact Pikes Peak Small Business Development Center Executive Director Aikta Marcoulier at 719-466-0774.
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