In 1979, I was turning 21 and began to develop my first real taste for small business. The economy was a mess under the direction of Jimmy Carter and this led me to a natural interest and ultimate involvement in political action. Ronald Reagan intrigued me with his flair for speaking and American optimism. And so I committed to helping him become elected. There were many detractors and the public opinion at the time was that he was just a second rate movie actor not suited to be our nation’s leader. Happily for me he won and then President Reagan motivated us and made us proud once again to be Americans.

Throughout those years and since, I have been involved on many levels with both small business innovation and bi-partisan political initiatives, at a regulatory level – locally, regionally and nationally. I have experienced numerous ups and downs in personal and professional economics as well as dramatic shifts in technology and governmental process along the way. To me, the one constant that has remained throughout and still is self-evident today is the American Spirit to dream, innovate and achieve.

Throughout the 1990′s and first part of the current decade we networked globally with people everywhere who were trying to develop solutions. We felt certain there was a rising tide of consciousness between 1998-2000 to bring the solutions to the problems and build the better world we envisioned however 9-11 and the things that occurred thereafter seemed to destroy both that interest and any productive thinking that was prevalent at the time.

My career until mid 2007 consisted of helping small businesses gain traction with new ideas. I patented, transferred, funded, built and commercialized U.S. government environmental technologies into the small business sector, including grain based technologies developed at the U.S.D.A. Peoria Lab and defense technologies with the Department Of Energy – Brookhaven National Lab. Below are those projects -

Along the way I lobbied in Congress for better conditions for Small Business.

“Today’s bearish market underscores how important it is that Congress and regulators do everything in their power to promote capital formation. The SEC has a critical mission to protect investors, but also to minimize obstacles to capital formation for small businesses and large businesses alike.”

Chairman of the Financial Services Committee Michael G. Oxley said this at my Congressional Testimony Hearing

Congressional Testimony for Oversight on Small Business

June 25, 2001

Internet Entrepreneur Tells Congressional Oversight Panel How SEC Registration Process Restricts Emerging Companies’ Access To Capital Markets.

June 25, 2001

Kelly Subcommittee Examines SEC’s Role in Capital Formation

June 26, 2001

Reuters

Congress told Net would lessen SEC red tape

June 26, 2001

Bloomberg News

SEC Hinders Small Companies’ Stock Sales, Firms Tell Congress

June 27, 2001

SEC Today

House Subcommittee Holds Hearing on

SEC’s Role in Capital Raising Process

July 9, 2001

Investment News

Red tape said to strangle small-business IPOs

February 16, 2004

White House To Meet With Small Public Company Leaders April 1st – Leadership Council To Honor Greg Halpern of Circle Group

April 5, 2004

Leadership Council Honors Greg Halpern of Circle Group – Successful Meeting Follows On Capitol Hill

June 26, 2001

JOAN SWEENEY CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, ALLIED CAPITAL CORPORATION BEFORE THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES SUBxCOMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND INVESTIGATION OF THE COMMITTEE ON FINANCIAL SERVICES

June 26, 2001

THE TESTIMONY OF GREG HALPERN, CEO OF CIRCLE GROUP INTERNET, INC., TO THE SUBCOMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND INVESTIGATIONS OF THE COMMITTEE ON FINANCIAL SERVICES OF THE U.S. HOUSE REPRESENTATIVES

June 26, 2001

ORAL TESTIMONY OF GREG HALPERN, CEO OF CIRCLE GROUP INTERNET, INC., TO THE SUBCOMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND INVESTIGATIONS OF THE COMMITTEE ON FINANCIAL SERVICES OF THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

June 26, 2001

CHAIRMAN MICHAEL G. OXLEY OPENING STATEMENT COMMITTEE ON FINANCIAL SERVICES SUBCOMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND INVESTIGATIONS HEARING ON THE SEC’S ROLE IN CAPITAL FORMATION: HELP OR HINDRANCE?

June 26, 2001

CHAIRWOMAN SUE KELLY STATEMENT HOUSE COMMITTEE ON FINANCIAL SERVICES SUBCOMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND INVESTIGATIONS HEARING ON THE SEC’S ROLE IN CAPITAL FORMATION: HELP OR HINDRANCE?

Here is a link to a Position Paper I submitted to Congress on “Naked Short Selling and Stock Manipulation”

http://www.advancedsmallbusiness.org/positionpaper.htm

I founded a 501c6 organization to go lobby congress on behalf of small business by myself. I realized that 22 million small business professionals can’t take time out of their work day to go lobby Washington because, for them, every day is a work day. They generate the majority of new jobs every year, contribute a majority of the taxable revenue to the treasury and come up with nearly all the innovation that improves our lives. That seems pretty important to me.

Many politicians talk about how important small business is. Then after they are elected, not much gets done to improve conditions. That’s most probably because when they get into the business of politics they discover it is more of a big corporation mentality so it is tough to build a bridge in Washington between helpful ideas and small business. Here is my organization -

Muhammad Yunnus won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 and the planets began to line up for us. It was a major example of turning philanthropy into legitimate new economies of scale, proving that doing good for others would work better if it were combined with business economics and joined harmoniously to create a sustainable solution to a problem. In the past decade, trillions of dollars went into philanthropy, yet not one major problem became much closer to being solved. I believe this is because most organizations are supported by special interests that are working to preserve the status quo rather than bring solutions to problems.

When our inspirational journey collided with our desire for a better planet, our personal beliefs and life work became congruent and So Act Network was born.

The world has the immediate potential to become everyone’s backyard thanks to the Internet and Information Technology. There is a convergence today between a rising consciousness about the problems on earth and the feeling that there is an urgent need to fix them. Socially aware innovators, inventors, scientists, explorers, philosophers, investors, helpful dreamers of all shapes and sizes, in essence, creative thinkers around the world are working on developing legitimate world-improving solutions. It is believed by many that beyond basic material wealth, helping others is one of the most rewarding things humans can engage in and individuals who are working now on the world’s problems are in the front of the line leading the charge to help the most people and do the most good for all of our futures. This where So Act can bring us together.

Life on Earth in 2010 could be summarized as a series of problems to be solved. The better we solve problems the more success and positive feedback we could experience in our lives. To make the world better and more productive we must all solve problems effectively. This requires creativity at a high level but it also takes a lot of resources. So Act Network is an outgrowth of the belief that there is a social and professional demand for its platform as one of the key resources to influence positive change because solution makers face big challenges when trying to create major solutions to critical world problems. Essentially, solution makers do not know what they do not know often because it hasn’t been figured out yet, but also because everyone does not presently know what everyone else is working on. It usually takes many years to figure out the unknown during journeys of this magnitude. A lot of mistakes are made along the way in a process that is highly stressful and full of personal and financial failure.

Developing solutions to major problems is a lonely process with many obstacles, conflicts and enormous barriers to entry. So Act was born to provide a place everyone could meet to build highly effective communities of purpose that could develop breakthrough solutions to major problems.

Our hope is that So Act will ultimately have a direct and indirect positive effect on millions of people globally leading to a better safer world with improved economies of scale, peace and prosperity.