The director of the Santa Cruz Small Business Development Center, who has assisted local small businesses for 26 years, will be retiring in March. Teresa Thomae and a dozen staffers have provided free, one-on-one counseling to 9,450 entrepreneurs and business owners, helping many connect with needed financing.
In 2018, Thomae’s clients landed $11.7 million in loans and equity investments — more than double the amount in 2009, the worst year of the recession.
Besides the one-to-one assistance, about 20,000 people have attended small business center workshops.
The 59-year-old Thomae, of Aptos, says she plans to retire in March, and the center says a search if underway for her successor.
