Top 10 Female Entrepreneur Receives Recognition From The President

Inspired by Theresa Alfaro Daytner’s success story, Obama praised her for what she’s done as an entrepreneur reports The Baltimore Sun.

“I love Theresa’s story,” the president said before an audience that included billionaire investor Warren Buffett, hundreds of women entrepreneurs and 75 girls who aspire to become engineers, U.S. senators or professional race car drivers.

The event in the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington was Fortune Magazine’s “2010 Most Powerful Women Summit,” and Daytner was named one of the periodical’s 10 most powerful women entrepreneurs this year.

The president spoke of how Daytner struggled to raise capital for her contracting and construction business while raising six children and caring for her elderly parents.

“Eventually, she ran out of options,” Obama said. “She applied for a home equity loan. And this resonates with me, this story. She handed her husband the application, and said to him, ‘Here, Honey, sign this but don’t read it.'”

Daytner Construction Group made $16 million in revenue so far this year, but “folks like Theresa, they shouldn’t have to mortgage their family home to build their family business,” Obama said, mentioning the administration’s work to provide small business loans and tax cuts.

“I’m not an accidental entrepreneur,” Daytner said after hearing the president’s “flattering” speech. “I’ve been very calculated in terms of wanting to be a successful businesswoman.”

Despite Daytner’s success and the success of women like her, Obama said he’s not naive about the work still ahead for women business leaders.

“I also know that thanks to decades of struggle and sacrifice — a lot of it quiet and a lot of it behind the scenes — many of the obstacles that my grandmother faced no longer exist,” he said.

Photo from Daytner Construction Group

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