By Ana Lucía Murillo – Staff Reporter, Washington Business Journal Connected DMV has tapped a new chief executive to lead the regionally focused nonprofit.
George Thomas, who has been with Connected DMV since its inception in 2019, is now president and CEO. The group’s founder and only CEO in its history, Stu Solomon, is now listed as executive chairman on the organization’s website. It’s unclear when the transition took place; Solomon was president and CEO as recently as May.
Solomon and Thomas did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.
Connected DMV is made up of business leaders as well as representatives from universities, the public sector and nonprofits and aims to “solve complex regional challenges,” according to its website. Its most notable success to date has been a continued effort to grow the region's quantum industry, hosting an annual conference and a Quantum Pathways program high schoolers each summer in partnership with George Mason University Quantum Science and Engineering Center.
The change at the top comes as Connected DMV has faced financial challenges. As recently as the spring, Solomon told the Washington Business Journal that some employees had shifted to volunteer roles or gone part-time in order to help Connected DMV make payroll, which he said is a testament to their dedication to the group's mission.
Part of its financial struggles had to do with the timing of its founding just months before the onset of the pandemic. Unlike similar organizations, Connected DMV was too new to qualify for the Small Business Administration's Paycheck Protection Program. The organization ended 2023 more than $1 million in the red.
Thomas has held various positions over his five years at Connected DMV. He was chief innovation officer as recently as October, according a video posted to the group’s YouTube page, and before that was vice president of innovation and strategic initiatives. The Potomac Quantum Innovation Center and Quantum World Congress are also under his purview, according to his LinkedIn page. Both are signature initiatives for Connected DMV, which by 2030 aims to support the training of 10,000 women and people of color to join the quantum workforce.
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