Are You Ready to Export? Greater Seattle Export Accelerator Program

Are you interested in expanding your business to reach international customers?

Originally launched in 2023 with funding support from the SBA Growth Accelerator Fund, the Greater Seattle Export Accelerator is accepting applications for their 4th cohort of small business participants. Join this webinar to learn more about program benefits, eligibility, and how to apply.

The Greater Seattle Export Accelerator (GSEA) collaborates with community, state, and federal trade organizations to provide free advanced export training, export advising, and access to international markets support. The program is designed for small and medium-sized businesses located in King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties who have previously exported or currently export goods and services internationally. GSEA empowers companies to expand their global reach. By providing the tools and resources to grow exports, the Greater Seattle Export Accelerator helps businesses to increase profits, diversify risk, and create new job opportunities—fueling economic growth across the region.

Guest Speakers

John Brislin | International Trade & Finance Specialist, SBA Office of International Trade, U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA)

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.

Vern Jenkins | Program Manager, Seattle Export Accelerator Program (GSEA) – Greater Seattle Partner

Vern Jenkins is the Program Manager for Greater Seattle Partner’s – Greater Seattle Export Accelerator Program (GSEA).

He is a NASBITE – Certified Global Business Professional (CGBP) with a Master’s Degree in International Business Management.

Vern has over 25 years of International Business and Trade Experience. He has worked with both SMEs and Fortune 500 companies such as Reebok and Nike to facilitate them towards doing business in Canada, Mexico, Taiwan, China, Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Philippines, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, India, Eastern Caribbean, Western Europe, South Africa, and the Middle East.

For the last decade Vern has worked as an International Trade Specialist for the Washington Small Business Development Center (SBDC) hosted by Washington State University. Vern developed and delivered an award-winning Export Readiness Training Program which has been adopted at both the State and National Levels. He has organized and lead annual out-bound trade missions to Asia for small and medium-sized businesses.

Vern has advised over 800 SMES assisting them with becoming “Export Ready” and implementing their export business plans for successful foreign market entry.

Greater Seattle Partners

Greater Seattle Partners (GSP) was launched in 2018 as the first public/private economic development organization to serve our entire Puget Sound Region. GSP’s mandate is to attract investment, promote international trade, and grow existing industry by marketing the Puget Sound region, recruiting targeted business and trade focused on the region’s assets, using sophisticated data and analytics to tell region’s competitive story, and engaging leadership and funding from both the public and private sectors.