Sandy K. Baruah

President and Chief Executive Officer,
Detroit Regional Chamber

The Honorable Sandy K. Baruah is President and CEO of the Detroit Regional Chamber, one of the largest in the country. Under Baruah’s leadership, the Chamber focuses on three strategic priorities: economic development, regional collaboration and education reform.

Baruah joined the Chamber in 2010 after a distinguished career in Washington, D.C. He served as President George W. Bush’s last Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). In this role, he was responsible for the SBA’s $18 billion small business loan portfolio. Baruah was one of the senior officials shaping the federal government’s response to the 2008 credit crisis and assistance to the U.S. automotive industry.

Prior to leading the SBA, Baruah served as U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce. He led the Economic Development Administration (EDA), served as the Senior Advisor to Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez regarding the 2010 Census and represented the U.S. at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris, France.

Before serving in the Bush Administration, Baruah was a corporate mergers and acquisitions consultant for the Performance Consulting Group. He also served in the administration of President George H. W. Bush (1989–1993) and was on the staff of U.S. Senator Bob Packwood (Oregon).

After leaving government service in early 2009, he was a Distinguished Fellow at the U.S. Council on Competitiveness, a Washington, D.C.- based think tank comprised of corporate CEOs, university presidents and labor leaders.

Baruah holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Oregon and a Master of Business Administration from Willamette University. Sandy and Lisa Baruah have one son and live in a household run by the family pets.