Howard County Executive Ken Ulman has announced the launch of the Maryland Center for Entrepreneurship (MCE). MCE is dedicated to strengthening economic development opportunities throughout Maryland by fostering innovation at the local level, bringing together the entrepreneurial ecosystem to create a culture of entrepreneurship across the county and the state.
MCE will encompass the business incubator (formerly the NeoTech Incubator), the Business Resource Center, the Howard Technology Council and the Catalyst Loan Fund.
“Howard County has earned the reputation of being an important, strategic region to cultivate, support and bolster innovative ideas and companies across the entire state,” said Ulman. “We will continue to focus on job creation by supporting the next generation of entrepreneurs and this center is poised to help them succeed.”
The programs offered at the MCE will be provided in partnership with other Howard County and state-based resources, including research institutions that will facilitate the commercialization of technologies to help spur innovation and create new businesses.
“We are building a culture of entrepreneurship in Howard County that provides a model and the environment for businesses to launch and grow in Maryland,” said Laura Neuman, director and CEO of the Howard County Economic Development Authority (HCEDA).
“The first step in launching this new initiative was finding the right person to run it,” said Neuman.
That person is Julie Lenzer Kirk, who will serve as executive director of the MCE. She previously taught at UMBC and is the co-founder of the Path Forward Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, a nonprofit that develops and delivers innovative programs to expand economic opportunity for women through entrepreneurship.
During her time at UMBC, Lenzer Kirk spent six years instructing the university’s internationally-acclaimed ACTiVATE program, which the Path Forward Center took over to expand internationally.
In addition, she founded her first company, Applied Creative Technologies (ACT), in 1995 as an IT solutions firm focusing on manufacturing operations and inventory control.
Lenzer Kirk was named one of Maryland’s Top 100 Women by The Daily Record in 2005 and 2008. She is also a member of the National Center for Women and Information Technology’s Entrepreneurial Alliance. She currently chairs the D.C. Chapter of the Women Presidents’ Organization.
“As an entrepreneur myself, I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to bring together the resources I wish I had when launching my first business 16 years ago,” said Lenzer Kirk. “The raw materials are here in Howard County and I’m looking forward to working on the EDA team to help businesses thrive.”
