![](media/image1.png){width="1.979861111111111in"
height="1.0083333333333333in"} ***News Release***

New York District Office

Release Date: May 11, 2006 Contact: John J. Miller (212) 264-7770

Release Number: 06-20 e-mail: john.miller@sba.gov

***Émigré Entrepreneur Lands DEA Contracts***

***Worth \$34 Million***

**Rego Park, NY**--- Once so broke that she had to sell her car, native
Nigerian, Ethel Ugbebor has demonstrated that when a little
serendipitous luck is combined with a winning work ethic,
entrepreneurial success still remains within the reach of American
immigrants.

In 1973, at 22 years old, Ethel Ugbebor left her homeland to pursue a
college education in the United States where she earned a degree in
chemistry at Howard University in Washington, DC. Armed with her degree
she returned home to pursue a career in Nigeria's equivalent of the FDA.
Ugbebor returned to the U.S. ten years later and attended New York's
City College with the intention of getting a masters degree in chemistry
in order to further her career in Nigeria.

In that pursuit, Ugbebor took a part-time receptionist job at the
Nigerian Consulate and did in fact have to sell her car just to meet
living expenses. When the federal government' s Eastern District Court
contacted the consulate seeking translation services in the Nigerian
languages of Yoruba and Ibo in order to prosecute a Nigerian
drug-trafficking case, the consulate volunteered Ugbebor's
native-language skills at its expense. But the Court was adamant about
paying her the \$800 fee as any other translator was paid. Ugbebor said
that at the time, the \$800 check was like winning the lottery.

The assistant U.S. Attorney was so impressed with Ugbebor's skills he
enlisted her to do more work translating tapes. Word about her skills
got to the FBI and the Bureau agents convinced her to get security
clearances so that she could do similar work for them. Word traveled
further and soon the DEA convinced her to get security clearances once
again to do DEA work. Ugbebor thereafter found herself doing the 6 p.m.
to 6 a.m. nightshift on a DEA case in Newark, NJ. To work on a very big
drug case in San Francisco the DEA helped Ugbebor obtain her green card,
and five years later she became a U.S. citizen. A DEA supervisor
suggested at the time she start her own business, but Ugbebor wasn't the
least bit interested and returned to the classroom.

But federal agents were once again in need of Ugbebor's talents and used
their tracking skills to find her via her classroom professor. At that
point she thought starting a business might not be such a bad idea. At a
friend's suggestion, Ugbebor walked into the New York office of the U.S.
Small Business Adminstration and met business development specialist
Prospero Uybarreta who helped her put her business plan together and
obtain what's known as SBA 8(a) certification. The 8(a) Program is
designed to help socially and economically disadvantaged businesses
obtain federal government contracts as well as help them grow their
businesses.

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She started her company, and named it Universal Language Corporation
simply because a DEA agent casually threw out the name "universal" in a
conversation. "The rigorous 8(a) self-analysis helped me put my business
plan together with laser focus," said Ugbebor. "The SBA's Forms 1450 and
1010C are like my bible and I refer to them on a daily basis because
that gives me strength and courage."

Ugbebor then attended an SBA "Matchmaker" event in Philadelphia in 2004
wherein the agency matches small business owners with federal, state and
private-sector procurement officials.

She left the event feeling empowered with additional selling skills and
by the words of event speaker, Daniel Amos, president of AFLAC\-\--
"It's not about the money. It's about doing something you love, family
and people." The experience drove Ugbebor to successfully set up
subcontracts with the much larger translation services company,
Comprehensive Technologies International. And just last month ULC bid on
and won two 5-year contracts worth \$34 million, from the DEA's New
Jersey and Chicago offices.

ULC currently employs 3 full-time employees, two part-time employees and
maintains a roster of 60 translators and interpreters.

By the way, Ugbebor did get her master's in chemistry in 1993 yet never
returned to the field. However, she has made enough money to buy a new
car this past January.

*\-- John J. Miller*

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*All of the SBA's programs and services are provided to the public on a
non-discriminatory basis. For more information about the SBA please
visit [www.sba.gov/ny/ny](http://www.sba.gov/ny/ny).*