Ex-Im Bank Revamps Environmental Exports Web Portal, Expands Environmental Staff with Western U.S. Representative
WASHINGTON, D.C. - United States exporters of environmental goods and services will find it easier to learn about and apply for financing from the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) using the Bank's new user-friendly Environmental Exports Program portal on its web site. The Bank also has added to its environmental exports staff.
Ex-Im Bank enhanced its web portal to make it easier for companies and lenders to apply for financing online, to access detailed information about the Bank's environmental exports mission, programs and financing tools, and to use links to switch easily from one section of the portal to another.
Increasing financing for renewable energy and environmental exports is a top priority for Ex-Im Bank, said Ex-Im Bank Vice Chairman Linda Conlin. The combination of our revamped, more comprehensive web site, and a new appointment to our Office of Renewable Energy & Environmental Exports, will greatly widen our reach within this growing industry, supporting jobs at small businesses and entrepreneurial firms.
Ex-Im Bank expanded its Office of Renewable Energy & Environmental Exports by appointing Rob Guthrie as a business initiatives specialist based in Newport Beach, Calif., where he will serve as the Office's West Coast representative, reaching out to regional companies.
Guthrie joins Craig O'Connor, director of the Office, who works with U.S. exporters, international buyers, trade associations, and other state and federal government agencies to increase the Bank's support for renewable energy and environmental exports.
Rob's proximity to and familiarity with the expansive cleantech market in California, and the Western Region as a whole, will help further our mission to create and sustain U.S. jobs, and strengthen the global competitiveness of U.S. renewable energy and environmental technologies, Conlin said. We are delighted to bring such talent and experience to the environmental exports team, and look forward to Craig's leadership in expanding our environmental portfolio.
Guthrie previously was a business development officer at Ex-Im Bank's Western Regional Office in Newport Beach, California, where he had responsibility for export transactions originating in central California, Santa Barbara, Ventura, and north Los Angeles Counties, as well as the states of Montana, and Utah.
The Office of Renewable Energy & Environmental Exports works with a wide variety of companies across a number of environmental sectors, ranging from renewable energy, where Ex-Im Bank has supported companies such as Southwest Windpower and United Solar Ovonic, to water and waste water treatment, where the Bank has supported exports by Energy Recovery Inc., and Aquatech.
O'Connor has served as the Bank's Environmental Liaison Officer since 1994, a position in which he created and managed the Bank's Environmental Exports Program that grew from 5 transactions in 1994 to 71 transactions in 2007, with a total current portfolio in excess of nearly $3 billion. In the last three years alone Ex-Im Bank has supported over $350 million in renewable energy exports.
Companies interested in learning more about Ex-Im Bank's new environmental web site portal and its Office of Renewable Energy & Environmental Exports can go to www.exim.gov.
Ex-Im Bank is the official export-credit agency of the United States. The independent, self-sustaining federal agency, now in its 74th year, helps create and maintain U.S. jobs by financing the sale of U.S. exports, primarily to emerging markets throughout the world, by providing loan guarantees, export-credit insurance and direct loans. In fiscal year 2007, Ex-Im Bank authorized $12.6 billion in financing to support an estimated $16 billion of U.S. exports worldwide.