page_title: Fred Hochberg
section_title: Business career
hierarchical_section_title: Fred Hochberg / Business career
context_page_description: Fred Philip Hochberg is an American businessman and civic leader. After nearly two decades as an executive at the Lillian Vernon Corporation, he served in various leadership roles at U.S. government agencies, non-profit organizations, and in academia. From 2009 to 2017, he was Chairman and President of the Export–Import Bank of the United States, becoming the institution's longest-serving Chairman. He was initially appointed in January 2009 and confirmed in May 2009. He was re-nominated in March 2013 and reconfirmed in June 2013. He was a fundraiser for the campaign of Barack Obama for President and served as a member of the Presidential transition of Barack Obama. He previously served as dean of the Milano School of International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy at The New School and as deputy administrator of the Small Business Administration in the Clinton Administration. Hochberg was one of the highest-ranking LGBT officials in the Obama Administration and has been active for decades in LGBT causes, serving as co-Chair of the Board of the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBT civil rights advocacy organization in the United States.
context_section_description: Hochberg began his business career at the Lillian Vernon Corporation, the company founded by his mother. As president and chief operating officer, where he led the transformation of a small, family-owned mail order company into an international, publicly traded direct marketing corporation. The company listed on the American Stock Exchange in 1987 and Forbes described the company's growth as "one of the great success stories of American entrepreneurship." Hochberg helped oversee a nearly 40-fold increase in annual revenue, from $5 million in 1975 to nearly $200 million in 1993.
  In 1993, Hochberg left Lillian Vernon, in what was characterized as a sudden move, to start his own company called the Heyday Company. The Heyday Company was an investment firm dealing in real estate, the stock market, and venture capital funds. He served as the company's president until 1998.
caption: Hochberg tours a Brazilian landfill gas-to-energy plant constructed with U.S. equipment in 2014
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