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More from Through the Gate Super intentions Fine tuning She really means business Marching home Sounds like the right mix To listen to Melanie Sabelhaus' confirmation hearing before the Senate's Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship, visit the U.S. Senate Web site. When the RealPlayer menu pops up, advance the fast-forward bar to catch her testimony, which is about two and a half hours into the hearing.   Write to us! Care to comment on an Ohio Today story? Or share a memory about your days on campus? Then drop us a letter to the editor. Here's how: E-mail Send e-mail to ohiotoday@ohio.edu By regular mail Letters Ohio Today 102 Scott Quad Ohio University Athens, OH 45701-2979 Fax Fax letters to (740) 593-1887 Letters to the editor may be edited for space and style

By Joan Slattery Wall When a friend suggested she pursue the No. 2 position in the U.S. Small Business Administration, Melanie Sabelhaus thought, "Why not?" She already had grown her own business, turning a $15,000 investment into a $10 million, 75-employee operation. And although she had retired in 1998, she saw the SBA position as an opportunity to share with other business owners what she'd learned in her own career.     Melanie Sabelhaus, shown here with her husband, Bob, whom she met at Ohio University, is the new deputy administrator of the U.S. Small Business Association. "I've experienced what many entrepreneurs are searching for: The American dream -- turning an idea into a prosperous business while employing people in my community," she told senators at her confirmation hearing in February. "And now I have this incredible opportunity to work with entrepreneurs around the country, to help them turn their visions into reality." In seeking the SBA's deputy administrator post, Sabelhaus, BSJ '70, expressed her passion for helping business owners -- particularly women business owners -- and explained what it would take to bring her out of retirement. "This is going to have to be a very important job where I can make a difference," she told officials at the Office of Presidential Personnel. "They said, 'We can do this.'" They did indeed: Sabelhaus was confirmed to the position in April, and now she's running the SBA's day-to-day operations alongside Administrator Hector Barreto. Judging from his comments in the U.S. Senate hearing, Barreto has plenty of confidence in his new colleague's credentials. "She is somebody who will help me to, as the president says, create an environment where small-business people are willing to take risks; where small-business people are willing to make an investment; where people are heralded for their entrepreneurial ability and they're celebrated," Barreto told senators of Sabelhaus. A few hours after the hearing, in a telephone interview with Ohio Today, Sabelhaus excitedly explained how her career path led to the SBA. "The thought of taking what I learned -- the good, the bad -- and being able to share that with entrepreneurs around the country just absolutely turned me on, invigorated me," she says. The idea for her company -- to provide furnished temporary housing for executives and others -- sprang from experiences she had with her husband, Bob Sabelhaus, BBA '70, as the two pursued careers and raised their now-grown children, Alexa and Bobby. She was a marketing manager with IBM, a position that allowed her to relocate with Bob as his financial services career with Merrill Lynch and Legg Mason advanced. But they spent plenty of time in hotels between the moves, a reality that was expensive for their companies and inconvenient for their family. Sabelhaus saw a niche for her own business. "I started with my own guest house right here on my property (in Maryland), and it was history after that," she says. Eventually she consolidated her business, Exclusive Interim Properties Ltd., with four others across the country, forming a worldwide, public company called Bridgestreet Accommodations Inc. It provides housing for relocated executives, professional athletes, motion picture crews, litigation teams, families needing housing while relatives are hospitalized and others. "It was the biggest thrill of my life," she says of her entrepreneurial experience. "I really mean that. There is nothing like having your own business." Even after she retired in 1998, Sabelhaus couldn't sit still. She immersed herself in volunteer work, founding the Women's Initiative of the Alexis de Tocqueville Society, which in two years prompted women to contribute more than $1.25 million to United Way. She's also active in the Baltimore area Alzheimer's association, a cause especially dear to her because both her mother and aunt suffer from the disease. Her efforts earned her the 2002 award for Maryland Philanthropist and Volunteer of the Year from the Association of Fundraising Professionals. She and her husband serve on the Ohio University College of Business Executive Advisory Board, and in 1997 she won an Outstanding Achievement in Business Award from the college. She's eager to use the skills she honed in her business and volunteer efforts as she does the work of the Small Business Administration, and she's clearly humbled by the opportunity. "I am so honored to work for the president," she says. "I just think this is the greatest honor citizens can have placed on them." Joan Slattery Wall is assistant editor of Ohio Today.