WASHINGTON — The Small Business Administration has named a new chief of staff and an associate administrator for the agency's Office of Capital Access.

Molly Wilkinson, the General Services Administration's chief acquisition officer, will become SBA's chief of staff effective January 2008. Wilkinson will replace Joel Szabat, who has been named deputy assistant secretary for policy at the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Wilkinson will be responsible for implementing Administrator Steve Preston's agenda to improve SBA's efficiency, transparency and accountability. She will lead the agency's efforts to improve procurement opportunities for small business, including new recertification requirements preventing large corporations from being credited with small business contracts and scrubbing $4.6 billion in miscoded contracts out of the contracting database. She will also play a major role in personnel decisions, act as a key advisor to the administrator and deputy administrator, and will oversee agency staff operations, according to SBA.