Dennis R. Chrisbaum
Regional Manager, International Trade Program
U.S. Small Business Administration/U.S. Export Assistance Center
1625 Broadway, Suite 680
Denver, CO 80202
Tel: 303.844.6623 x 18; fax: 303.844.5651
E-mail: dennis.chrisbaum@sba.gov
Mr. Chrisbaum serves as the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) representative at the U.S. Export Assistance Center located in Denver, Colorado, which is staffed by both SBA and U.S. Department of Commerce personnel. In this position, he oversees the SBA’s International Trade Program in the five-state Mountain West region, which includes Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, and Wyoming. In addition to its term loan programs, the SBA guarantees export working capital loans, thereby encouraging banks to provide trade financing to small business exporters. SBA also offers counseling and training programs for new exporters.
During his government career, Mr. Chrisbaum has organized and led trade missions to the People’s Republic of China; Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia; Japan, Korea and Taiwan; Switzerland and Austria; Namibia and South Africa; Mexico and Canada. Prior to moving to Denver in 1987, Mr. Chrisbaum worked in Washington, D. C. for the SBA’s Office of International Trade, where he developed and oversaw a national export promotion program, and the U.S. Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration. In the latter organization, he held various positions with Office of High Technology Export Promotion, the Office of the Under Secretary for International Trade, and the President’s Export Council.
Mr. Chrisbaum currently serves on the advisory board for the International MBA program at the University of Denver and has been an instructor for the University of Phoenix Online, where he taught several courses including Global Business Strategies and Business Communications & Ethics. He previously served on the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Africa Team, which promotes trade and investment in Africa, is a past president of the International Business Association of the Rockies, and remains an active member of the World Trade Center in Denver, where he is a frequent speaker.
Mr. Chrisbaum has Master of Arts degrees from Columbia University in New York City and Atlantic University in Virginia Beach, as well as a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Wisconsin in Madison. He is a founder and board member of the Colorado-Ghana Children’s Fund, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization established in 2003 that sends Street Children in Ghana to school. He lives in Lakewood, Colorado, with his wife, Nancy, who is a documentary film maker and screenwriter.