Sam Le serves as the Director of Policy Planning and Liaison at the U.S. Small Business Administration. In that role, he directs the SBA’s size standards, small-business scorecard, and regulatory development programs.
Sam has been a member of the Federal government’s senior executive service (SES) since 2021. As part of SBA’s leadership team, he leads negotiations on small-business goals with all 24 CFO Act agencies and collaborates with them to diversify their spending with disadvantaged, women-owned, service-disabled veteran-owned, and HUBZone small businesses. He chairs the Small Business Procurement Advisory Council, which is composed of all the SES small-business heads in the Federal government. For his efforts in fostering diversity and equity within SBA, he was honored with the first-ever SBA Embrace Award.
Sam was formerly SBA’s deputy associate general counsel for procurement law. He has represented SBA in hundreds of legal cases before the Government Accountability Office, the Office of Hearings and Appeals, and the Civilian Board of Contract Appeals, and he has participated in litigation at all levels, including the U.S. Supreme Court. He holds a law degree from the University of Virginia, where he won the school’s moot court competition. He is a chair of the American Bar Association’s small business committee and a fellow in the American Bar Foundation.
As an expert in procurement policy, Sam authored major revisions to SBA’s size, certification, and subcontracting regulations. He advises the White House on procurement policy as a member of the Interagency Policy Committee on Equity in Procurement, and he heavily influenced recent Administration policies on creating a more welcoming environment for small-business contractors. He is SBA’s representative to the Civilian Agency Acquisition Council, the Integrated Acquisition Environment Change Control Board, the Federal Acquisition Regulation Small Business Team, and the Category Management Leadership Council.
Sam brings unique data-analysis and data-communication skills to policymaking. His data finding adverse effects on disadvantaged small businesses led the Domestic Policy Council to undertake broad reforms to Federal strategic sourcing and category management programs. His research on the decline in new entrants resulted in the Office of Management and Budget announcing an initiative to bring more new companies into government contracting. Sam’s data analysis has been featured in national news publications, including Inc. magazine and the Federal News Network.
Sam also oversees governmentwide IT projects that serve small businesses. As a hands-to-the-keyboard technologist, he codes in Python and SQL, relying heavily on open-source libraries. He is the principal developer for SBA’s new Small Business Data Hub, a series of Streamlit web apps that make procurement data accessible, reactive, and simple-to-use. He also is well-versed in artificial intelligence technologies, particularly large language models such as GPT and StarCoder.
Sam is an avid runner and cyclist, and recently earned admission into the MCM Runners Club by completing his sixth Marine Corps Marathon. He is a life-long resident of Annandale, Virginia.
