NORTH KINGSTOWN, RI, August 03, 2018 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Marquis Who's Who, the world's premier publisher of biographical profiles, is proud to present Lee W. Mercer, JD, LLM, with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. An accomplished listee, Mr. Mercer celebrates over 40 years' experience in both the public and private sectors. Throughout his career, he has been regarded as a highly principled and goal-oriented individual with excellent analytical, writing, oral advocacy, leadership and management skills. Mr. Mercer has been recognized for significant achievements in both government and private sectors. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Mr. Mercer's career highlights include the following. From 1971 to 1980 he was an attorney with Sheehan, Phinney Bass & Green (now Sheehan Phinney), becoming a partner in 1976. While with the firm he specialized in creditors' rights and corporate reorganization and was responsible for associate recruiting from 1976-1980.
From 1981-1984, Mr. Mercer served as legislative director and counsel for U.S. Senator Warren B. Rudman (R-NH). Lee hired and managed the legislative staff for his former law partner and then newly elected Senator. In addition, his responsibilities including counseling the Senator regarding legislative positions and strategies to advance the same, managing implementation strategies, and writing speeches and articles for the Senator. Of note, Lee was the primary legislative strategist and manager of the legislative effort, against substantial large company and university opposition, that resulted in in the 1982 passage and enactment of the legislation that created the U.S. government's agency wide Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. The program is recognized world-wide as one of the most successful R&D & commercialization programs fueled by the innovations of small U.S. small businesses. Through mid-2018, over $47 billion in R&D contracts had been awarded to those businesses, resulting in in the issuance of 137,443 U.S. patents, 3,385 companies receiving private venture capital investments and 841 publicly-traded companies as well as thousands of successful private companies.
From 1986-1990, Mr. Mercer held two high-level political management positions: first as Deputy Under Secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Export Administration as part of the Ronald Reagan Administration; and then as Deputy Undersecretary (and acting Under Secretary) of the Commerce Department's Technology Administration for one year of the George H. W. Bush Administration. Of note was his work with Export Administration, the then 400-employee, $40 million hub of the multi-agency national security export control system then annually processing over 100,000 high-tech products export licenses supporting $100 billion in U.S. Exports. In this position, Mr. Mercer was recognized by industry, technical publications, and the Secretary of Commerce for significant operational and automated systems developments that markedly improved export license processing times. The computer-driven system developed under Lee's management placed 4th in an international systems development competition. In both Commerce positions, Mr. Mercer's responsibilities included general management, budget preparation and administration, policy development, congressional testimony, and industry and public relations.
Mr. Mercer finished is full-time career as president of the National Association of Small Business Investment Companies from 1996-2008, and as consultant during 2009. At that time, SBICs were privately managed venture and private equity firms licensed by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) to invest a combination of private capital and government authorized and guaranteed capital in U.S. small businesses as defined by SBA. Many of America's most well-known companies received early funding from SBICS: including Apple, Cray Supercomputer, Staples, Federal Express, Calloway Golf, and countless others. As president, Lee's responsibilities included association management, representation of SBIC interests before the U.S. Congress and Executive branch, press relations, and developing all association legislative positions and goals.
In this capacity, Mr. Mercer drafted and secured changes in in laws, funding levels, and regulations that were responsible for the greatest growth in the SBIC program's history. During his tenure, over 400 new SBICs were licensed and SBICS invested $39.5 billion during the same period, of which $13.7 billion was raised by the sale of congressionally authorized government-guaranteed securities.
Other companies Mr. Mercer worked for during his career included Digital Equipment Corporation (export controls manager (990-1994), First Phillips Corporation (vice president), Baraka Art and Frame Corp. (president), U.S. Fiber Optics & Telecommunications Corp. (president), and Mercantile Stores Company, Inc. (management trainee/assistant buyer).
Mr. Mercer attended Dartmouth College (BA 1965) and Boston University School of Law (JD 1971 and LLM-Tax 1974). He served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1966-1968.
Mr. Mercer retired from full-time employment in 2009. His post retirement activities have included teaching, consulting for small business seeking to raised growth capital, and serving of the board of directors of the Rhode Island Small Business Loan Fund Corporation, which provides debt financing for qualified RI small business. He is married to the former Deborah A. O'Brien and has three sons (Jim, Charley and Garrett) and three grandchildren (Julia, Kate, and Will).
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