WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Senate confirmed Jovita Carranza on Dec. 9, as the deputy administrator of the Small Business Administration.

Nominated by President Bush, Carranza previously worked at UPS as vice president of air operations having been with the worldwide shipping giant since 1976. At one point, she was regional manager for international relations and president of Latin American and the Caribbean operations at the company. She was also named Hispanic Woman of the Year by Hispanic Business Magazine in 2004. A native of Chicago, she earned her MBA from the University of Miami. SBA Administrator Steven Preston said he welcomes Carranza's confirmation. "Her combination of drive, insight, personnel management and business process experience offers a tremendous value to the SBA as we work toward a higher degree of customer responsiveness and operational sophistication at the agency," Preston said.

Carranza said she hopes to bring a "goal-oriented management philosophy with a history of successes on two continents" to the agency.

Carranza was unanimously endorsed by the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship including Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), chairman of the committee and Sen. John Kerry, (D-Mass.), ranking member, according to SBA.

Carranza succeeds Melanie Sabelhaus, who left the agency in June 2005 after three years of service to return to the private sector.