Hector Barreto's Big Challenge at the SBA

Hector V. Barreto is an American success story. The son of Mexican immigrants, he earned his first dollar busing tables at his family's Kansas City (Mo.) diner at the age of 9. He was the first in his family to graduate from college, earning a business degree from Missouri's Rockhurst College, and eventually opened his own business, Los Angeles-based Barreto Insurance and Financial Services. He also was elected vice-president of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, which his father founded.

It is a list of impressive accomplishments, but Barreto's family says the pinnacle of the 39-year-old's career came on July 19, when the Senate's Small Business Committee unanimously endorsed his nomination as the next administrator of the Small Business Administration. The committee's vote clears the way for the full Senate to install the man who co-chaired President Bush's election effort in California.