MAINE’S WORKFORCE PANEL TO MEET WITH NATIONAL AND LOCAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP EXPERTS IN SOUTH PORTLAND

This will be the committee’s fourth off-site listening session. Earlier sessions included, Bangor, Belfast, and Biddeford.

The committee will begin with two national panelists: Seth Goodall, a Regional Director for the Small Business Administration, who will be speaking on the national and regional perspective on small business and entrepreneurship, and best practices to help small businesses grow and succeed. And, the second speaker, Erik Pages, founder and President of Entreworks of Arlington Virginia, a national economic development and policy development firm, will deliver a keynote on “Supporting Entrepreneurs in Maine: From Incubation to Acceleration, from Start Ups to Scale up.”

Local panelists include: Josh Broder from Tilson, Heather Sanborn from Rising Tide Brewing Company, and Renee Kelly the Director of Economic Development Services from the University of Maine.

A public hearing with an opportunity for the public to provide testimony begins at 4:45p.m.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP PANEL DISCUSSION AND PUBLIC HEARING

WHAT: Panel discussion and public hearing

WHO:   Lawmakers: Committee Chairs: Senator Linda Valentino, House Majority Leader Seth Berry, including the Committee on Maine’s Workforce and Economic Future

Panelists:

• Honorable Seth Goodall, Regional Administrator, Small Business Administration
• Erik Pages, EntreWorks, Alexandria, VA

Maine Entrepreneurship/Workforce Development Panel Presentations:

• Josh Broder, Tilson
• Heather Sanborn, Rising Tide Brewing Company
• Renee Kelly, University of Maine
• Joshua Davis, CEO of Gelato Fiasco
• Kirby Pilcher, President of Artel

WHEN: Thursday, November 7^th from 2 p.m. to 5:45 p.m.

WHERE: Southern Maine Community College | Hutchinson Union (Building 19)

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Presenter Bios, November 7, 2013

Seth Goodall

The Honorable Seth Goodall of Richmond is the Regional Administrator for Region I of the U.S. Small Business Administration. Region 1 encompasses Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont.

An entrepreneur, public servant and attorney, former Sen. Goodall has a long history of working with and on behalf of small businesses in New England. Most recently he worked as an attorney at Dyer Goodall, P.A., where he represented municipalities, individuals and small businesses in a variety of cases. He also represented Sagadahoc County and Dresden in Lincoln County as a State Senator in the Maine State Legislature from 2008 to 2013 and was the Senate Majority Leader when he resigned from the Senate in July. Since 2009, he has served on the Maine Economic Growth Council.

Goodall has worked on economic development and small business matters in the Maine Legislature, co-chairing the Joint Select Committee on Maine’s Workforce and Economic Future and serving as a ranking member on the Joint Select Committee on Regulatory Reform and Fairness.

In addition to his work as a practicing attorney, Goodall previously co-owned a full service landscaping company from 1992 to 1999—building the foundation for a successful, multi-million dollar company that today employs nearly 30 seasonal and 15 year-round employees. He also previously served as the Executive Vice President and key advisor to Starting Out, a Maine start-up company focused on career and workforce educational resources.

Goodall has a J.D. from the University of Maine School of Law and a Master’s Degree in Plant Science and a Bachelor’s Degree in Agronomy from the University of Connecticut.

Erik Pages

Erik R. Pages is the President of EntreWorks Consulting, an economic development consulting and policy development firm focused on helping communities and organizations achieve their entrepreneurial potential.   EntreWorks works with a diverse base of clients including state and local governments, Chambers of Commerce, business leaders, educational institutions, and non-profits.  These customers all share a commitment to innovative economic development strategies that build wealth and build communities.

Since its founding, EntreWorks has worked with customers in forty states and overseas.  Recent engagements include serving as lead consultant for the Pacific Mountain Alliance for Innovation, a regional effort to support innovative industries in Washington’s south Puget Sound.  EntreWorks has also helped design statewide entrepreneurship and business development programs in Arkansas, Georgia, and North Carolina.  Recent program evaluation projects include work for the Appalachian Regional Commission, Georgia’s Centers of Innovation program, the Kansas Department of Commerce and Housing, and Maine’s Department of Community and Economic Development.

Previously, Dr. Pages served as Policy Director for the National Commission on Entrepreneurship (NCOE), where he directed the Commission’s research and policy operations.  Before joining NCOE, he served as Vice President for Policy and Programs at Business Executives for National Security (BENS).  Dr. Pages has also held several positions in government— most recently, as the first Director of the Office of Economic Conversion Information (OECI) at the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA).

Dr. Pages regularly speaks across the country on issues of community and economic development.  He also serves as a trainer for leading business, government and economic development organizations, and has led over 125 workshops on innovative economic development strategies.  He is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness, the RUPRI Center for Rural Entrepreneurship, and serves on the Arlington County (VA) Economic Development Commission and the Alexandria/Arlington Workforce Investment Board.

He received his Ph.D. from Georgetown University, where he has served as an Adjunct Professor.  He is a graduate of Dickinson College and the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs.  He has written and published widely on business trends, economic development, technology policy, and national security policy.  His publications include the book, Responding to Defense Dependence, and more than sixty reports and journal articles.  A native of Reading, PA, he now resides with his family in Arlington, VA.

 

Josh Broder

Joshua Broder serves as CEO and owns Tilson, an IT and telecom project company. Under Josh’s leadership, Tilson has grown from less than 10 employees to over 100 employees in less than five years. From 2010-2013, Josh led several large, successful Recovery Act funded broadband and smart grid technology infrastructure projects in New England for Tilson. Josh cut his teeth in leadership and technology as an Army Signal Officer on missions in Europe, the Middle East, and Central Asia, where he was awarded the Bronze Star for service in Afghanistan running the tactical communications network in support of US and coalition forces. In 2011, he was named one of MaineToday Media’s Forty Under 40, recognized as an up and coming leaders in the state. He was also named to Mainebiz’s 2011 Next List, and became the youngest ever recipient of the Portland Regional Chamber’s President’s award. Josh holds a Bachelor’s degree from Middlebury College, and is a distinguished military graduate of the University of Vermont’s Military studies program and is a member of Leadership Maine’s Omicron class. Josh serves on the boards of Kleinschmidt Associates (a Maine based national water resources engineering firm), the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, HealthInfoNet (a state-wide electronic health records exchange), the ConnectME Authority Advisory Board, and is a Cooperator for Bangor Savings Bank.

 

 

Heather Sanborn

Heather Sanborn is the co-owner and Director of Business Operations at Rising Tide Brewing Company.  Rising Tide, founded in 2010, has expanded rapidly and now distributes beer in four states in northern New England.  Prior to joining her husband in the full-time management of their brewery in 2012, Heather practiced law at Ropes & Gray in Boston and Brann & Isaacson in Lewiston, clerked for Judge Kermit Lipez on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, and taught high school in Cape Elizabeth.  She currently serves on the boards of directors of the Maine Brewers’ Guild, the University Credit Union, and the Long Barn Educational Initiative at Broadturn Farm.  She is a graduate of the University of Maine School of Law and also holds a Master of Science in Educational Leadership from the University of Southern Maine and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Middlebury College.

 

 

Renee Kelly

Renee Kelly is Director of Economic Development Services with the Department of Industrial Cooperation, University of Maine.  She serves as a liaison to the state’s economic development community.  She works directly with innovation-driven businesses to help them reach their potential in the State of Maine.  Kelly also co-directs the University’s Foster Center for Student Innovation, which gives students the tools, knowledge and inspiration to become innovators and entrepreneurs.  Prior to joining the University, she developed and administered training programs for Manpower of Connecticut’s employees and clients and served as an aide to then U.S. Representative Olympia J. Snowe.  She received her A.B. from Smith College and has worked at UMaine since 1997.