Fred Hochberg
The North Texas GLBT Chamber of Commerce has announced that Export-Import Bank Chairman and President Fred Hochberg will be the keynote speaker at the group’s 8th annual Business Excellence Awards Dinner.
Hochberg is the first openly gay president and chairman of the Export-Import Bank and the highest-ranking gay person in the Obama administration. President Bill Clinton appointed him to head the Small Business Administration in 1998.
When President Barack Obama tapped Hochberg to head the Export-Import Bank, he was serving on the board of the Human Rights Campaign. He served as chair of HRC.
His partner, Tom Healy, is a poet and a director of arts programs at Columbia University. He was appointed by Obama to the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board and became its chairman.
As head of the Export-Import Bank, Chairman Hochberg plays an essential role in Obama’s plan to double U.S. exports by the end of 2014. Under his leadership, the the Export-Import Bank set export finance records in 2012 for a fourth year in a row in a number of areas including an increase of 16.5 percent in authorizations for minority- and woman-owned businesses.
“The Business Excellence Awards Dinner recognizes ‘the best of who we are as business and community leaders’” said Ron Watterson, chairman of the North Texas GLBT Chamber Board of Directors. “Chairman Hochberg’s body of work in business, philanthropy and public service embodies the spirit of the Business Excellence Awards and the Chamber.”
The dinner is co-chaired by Thom DeWitt and Judy Sherman.
“When Thom DeWitt and I began planning the 8th Annual Business Excellence Awards Dinner our goal was to spotlight and celebrate the important and meaningful work being done every day by GLBT and allied owned businesses,” Sherman said. “To have an individual of Chairman Hochberg’s position accept our invitation to speak, someone who has accomplished great things in business and has given so generously of his time and talents, is an affirmation our goal.”
The theme for the dinner is, “A tapestry of business equality.” Marketing Committee Chair Leo Cusimano said linen and lace are the traditional gifts for an 8th anniversary.
“We’re all the threads that connect us together through the Chamber,” Cusimano said.
He said community leaders will be making a video to illustrate how community leaders are all part of the tapestry.
The Business Excellence Awards Dinner takes place at eM The Venue, 1500 Dragon St. in the Design District on April 25.
