Events

Are You Ready to Export?

Join us this week for a conversation with Zara Castillo, Director of the Export Finance Assistance Center of Washington (EFACW). The EFACW was created by the Washington State legislature in 1983 to provide free export finance advice and counseling assistance to small and medium sized exporters or prospective Washington State-based exporters.

The EFACW provides consultation services in payment risk mitigation and export finance including credit insurance, letters of credit, foreign exchange, Export-Import Bank and Small Business Administration export finance guaranty programs. EFACW offers businesses information how to finance and get paid for their export sales and also acts as a matchmaker for their banking relationship.

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About Zara Castillo
A native of Manila in the Philippines, Zara continued her education in Washington State at the University of Washington. Zara holds a certification in Global Finance Management and Global Marketing Strategies from Thunderbird School of Global Management.

Prior to joining EFACW as the Director, Zara’s experience with trade and international affairs included Washington State Department of Commerce and the American Chamber of Commerce in Manila, Philippines.

Zara is a member of The Department of Commerce Trade Finance Advisory Council (TFAC) appointed by the Secretary of Commerce to provide advice in identifying effective ways to expand access to trade finance for U.S. exporters
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Wednesday Webinars
Wednesday Webinars with SBA Seattle is an ongoing series of free, virtual, webinars covering a variety of topics to benefit small business owners. On the fourth Wednesday of each month, we will be focusing on export assistance, featuring conversations with different members of the Washington Export Outreach Team (WEOT). Established in 2013 following a national mandate to do more to support international trade, WEOT is a collaborative team of local, state, regional, and federal export assistance agencies who provide you the tools and resources you need to sell internationally.

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About the Host
John Brislin is SBA's International Trade & Finance Specialist (Export Finance Manager) for Washington State, Northern Idaho and Alaska. He has over 23 years of private-sector international banking and trade finance experience working at Bank of Boston (Bank of America) and Bank of California (U.S. Bank). John has over 12 years of public-sector export trade finance and risk mitigation experience working at Export Finance Assistance Center of Washington (EFACW), Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM Bank) and SBA Office of International Trade (SBA OIT). He looks forward to working with Small Businesses so they can turn their export opportunities into actual sales and to achieve the ultimate goal of getting paid—especially on time—for those sales.