Power Hour - 1/2010

Debra-Lynne Terrill is the Western Region Business Banking Officer for Xceed Financial Credit Union where she is responsible helping businesses succeed through strategic use of financial resources.  She works with businesses throughout the Western half of the country, from Texas to California.  She began her career in business services as a commercial loan officer for Union Bank almost 30 years ago.  Active in the business community for many years, she has been a past president of the Los Angeles Junior Chamber of Commerce; past board member of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce; and past member of the Workforce Investment Act Board.  She has been interviewed by The Wall Street Journal for her expertise on development of business strategies in China.  She has been engaged in extensive outreach in ethnic business communities; she has appeared on Korean and Farsi language television programs.  She was awarded the California Credit Union League Diversity Award in 2004.  Her prior work experience includes President/CEO of the Manhattan Beach Chamber of Commerce where she was responsible for the development of business community opportunities and Director of Executive Education at The Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA where she was responsible for the international development of educational programming for executives at corporations and government agencies.   She was awarded her Bachelor of Arts degree from GettysburgCollege and her Masters of Business Administration from the University of Southern California.

Herbert Austin is the District Director for the U. S. Small Business Administration (SBA), Dallas/Fort Worth office, covering 72 counties of north, central, and east Texas.  As director, Mr. Austin is responsible for the management and delivery of SBA programs and services which includes oversight of SBA resources – Small Business Development Centers and SCORE Chapters. The district office works with 314 participating lenders to provide access to capital to the small business community. The district covers 22 percent of the land area of Texas, contains 36.3 percent of the population, and has 649,232 small businesses.

Mr. Austin joined the SBA in 1989 as a Business Development Specialist in the Newark, New Jersey Office. In 1991, he moved to the New York District Office as Assistant District Director for Business Development, and then in 1994, he was the SBA facilitator at the first One Stop Capital Shop in Jamaica, New York. From 1995 until 2001, he directed the SBA trade and trade finance programs at the U.S. Export Assistance Center in New York. Later, Mr. Austin returned to the district office as Acting Branch Manager in Melville, Long Island. In 2002, Mr. Austin was designated Acting Deputy District Director in the New York District Office. He became the Acting District Director a few months later where he held both posts until being named Deputy District Director in 2003. The SBA announced his appointment to the Dallas/Fort Worth office in 2008. Before joining SBA, Mr. Austin worked in the private sector as Director of Exporting for companies in the United States and overseas. As Export Manager for a manufacturing firm in Trinidad & Tobago, Mr. Austin’s marketing skills resulted in extensive coverage of the products to countries in South, Central America, and the Caribbean Basin. In addition to his extensive background in International Trade, Mr.

Austin speaks fluent French and Spanish. Mr. Austin holds a B.S. in Marketing from New York University and an MBA from Pace University.