Though rumors swirled that the newly elected President Obama would nominate him for commerce secretary, former Small Business Administration head under President Clinton Fred Hochberg was instead tapped to lead the Export-Import Bank of the United States, the government’s export credit agency.

Mr. Hochberg and the bank are just one force in the president’s multi-front war on the sagging US economy. One of the president’s goals, Mr. Hochberg said, is to double US exports in five years.

And while the bank has launched a handful of new products and a touring educational program to reach out to potential partner banks and small businesses, a large portion of his first year in office has been dedicated to staffing up and setting a vision for the agency.

“There’s a time that you really need to set a vision for the agency,” Mr. Hochberg said. “A lot of my time in the first six months was working on the vision, articulating it, communicating it to the staff at the bank and communicating it to our customers so that we can start executing it.”

That vision, he continued, is to find more companies to export more goods to the world’s emerging markets.

Mr. Hochberg, who owns a home in Miami and was in town for the weekend, discussed his goals for the agency in Miami Today’s offices with Staff Writer Zachary S. Fagenson.