TEDCO announces task force on women’s entrepreneurship

TEDCO, the Maryland Technology Development Corporation, announced Wednesday the membership of a task force it hopes will spur more economic development by women entrepreneurs.

The Task Force for Women Entrepreneurs is charged with recruiting, funding, and providing operational support for women-owned and women-led startups.

Myra Norton, chair of the TEDCO Board of Directors as well as president and COO of labor analytics firm Arena, will lead the task force.

“I am honored to be a part of this important innovation ecosystem initiative,” Norton said in a statement. “One of the main reasons I joined TEDCO’s Board of Directors was to help build a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem. To achieve that aim, we must ensure that women entrepreneurs and women-owned startups in Maryland have equal opportunity to obtain funding and support. This task force is another great step in that direction.”

TEDCO hopes it can use its Builder Fund, a fund for entrepreneurs from socially or economically disadvantaged backgrounds, as a template to increase entrepreneurship by women.

“This task force is something that we at TEDCO have been looking to implement for some time,” Jennifer Hammaker, TEDCO’s vice president of business development and its chief liaison with the task force, said in a statement. “We have had great success with TEDCO’s Builder Fund, which financially and operationally supports Maryland startups run by entrepreneurs who self-identify as socially or economically disadvantaged, and we are excited to apply the lessons learned there to this task force.”

Task force membership includes:

• Tina Williams-Koroma, TCecure
• Lisa Smith, Bowie Business Innovation Center
• Kyp Sirinakis. Epidarex Capital
• Ben Sigel, Mintz Levin
• Ava Pipitone, HostHome.community
• Myra Norton, Arena
• Laura Neuman, Entrepreneur
• Amy Millman, Springboard Enterprises
• Julie Lenzer, University of Maryland, College Park
• Johnetta Hardy, Bowie State University – Entrepreneurship Academy
• Jennifer Hammaker, TEDCO
• Margot Connor, RoosterBio, Inc.
• Jeff Cherry, Conscious Venture Lab