After a period of leadership transition and strategic planning, the organizations behind one of Baltimore’s longest-standing entrepreneurial communities have appointed a new executive director to take it to the next level.
On Tuesday, the Baltimore Development Corporation (BDC) and Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) jointly announced the appointment of Arti Santhanam as the new executive director of the Emerging Technology Centers (ETC Baltimore).
Santhanam most recently served as executive director of TEDCO’s Maryland Innovation Initiative (MII), a public-private effort to promote academic research commercialization across the state.
“Concrete plans” on how ETC will work with TEDCO and BDC are still being finalized, Santhanam said, but she wants to gain a deeper understanding of the range of needs for entrepreneurs in the ecosystem at every stage. leveraging her expertise in startups, venture capital and life sciences.
“In the first 30 to 60 days, I want to reach out to the ecosystem partners,” Santhanam told Technical.ly, asking them questions like, “What are you? Who are you working with? And how can I help? What are the gaps that you have filled? And what are other gaps that you’re still looking to fill for the [an] entrepreneur to be successful?”
Armed with that info, she said, she’ll be able to better ensure ETC puts effort into resources and programming that local companies and entrepreneurs really need.
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