Baltimore Power Moves: Leading local digital equity group loses executive director

A summer filled with crushing heat isn’t slowing down the pace of this city’s professional pivots and projects. 

The past month has seen Baltimore miss a federal tech hub designation, lose the presence of influential tech-connected nonprofits, land on the silver screen and celebrate another Artscape.

Oh, and a private equity mogul’s ownership group took full control of our favorite baseball team.

The consolidated leadership at Camden Yards is a particularly high-profile example of the big leadership transitions and related news that dominate these steamy days, including new partnerships and returning accelerators seeding the next generation of founders and execs. 

Check out the latest stats on what tech skills local employers want the most, then scroll down for details on some of the region’s biggest power moves.

Digital equity org’s leader departs, replaced by interim head

Cody Dorsey on Tuesday announced the end of his time as the Baltimore Digital Equity Coalition’s executive director. His email to BDEC members noted that his nearly three-year tenure with the organization, which tackles the region’s endemic digital divide through a mix of programming and advocacy, was essentially transitional at its core.  

“Our coalition has had an exceptional journey, evolving intentionally from a ‘rapid response’ initiative to a formidable influence in advocacy and education,” Dorsey wrote. “Now the time has come for me to write the next chapter of my own journey.”

The email also listed a series of accomplishments under Dorsey’s leadership, including working with local partners on device distribution and WiFi hotspot projects, advocating digital equity plans with Gov. Wes Moore’s administration and federal legislators, growing the coalition’s number of membership organizations and staff, and setting up a partnership with the Maryland Tech Council.

Dorsey, a winner in the 2022 Technical.ly Awards, did not immediately respond to a question about his next steps. 

A follow-up email from BDEC’s advisory board chair Seema Iyer noted that coalition member Samantha Musgrave, a 2021 RealLIST Connector and multiyear Project Waves leader, will be the organization’s interim director.   

EcoMap ‘SPARKs’ entrepreneurship as people head leaves, developer and sector leader comes aboard

Charles Village-area startup EcoMap Technologies recently collaborated with Panorama Global, a Seattle nonprofit promoting cross-sector collaboration for change, to launch a new tool for rising social impact-minded leaders. 

The Social Purpose Action Resource Kit (SPARK) platform, similar to others EcoMap has made for government and private clients, uses AI to help early-stage social entrepreneurs access hundreds of resources and support entities, per a press release. Users can also search and filter according to identity categories like race, gender and LGBTQ+ identity.

The platform debuted as the company made some staff changes, including director of people operations Eden Ryan departing and former intern Evan Kuo rejoining in a full-time technical role. Ryan was a 2023 RealLIST Connector, while Kuo was a 2024 RealLIST Engineer. 

In addition, the company announced that longtime local entrepreneurship world leader and former UpSurge Baltimore CEO Jamie McDonald is joining its board of directors. In an emailed announcement, EcoMap leader Sherrod Davis highlighted McDonald’s close relationship to the company and its late CEO Pava LaPere.

“Jamie was one of Pava’s closest advisors, and when Pava died, she was one of the first people to offer support, connections, and advice on navigating what was a complex and emotional time for us,” Davis said. “Having her on our Board of Directors just solidifies a relationship we have been fortunate to have for several years.” 

TEDCO makes MAGIC in new VP position

Seasoned Westminster-based entrepreneur, author and musician Graham Dodge spent about a half-decade leading the Mid-Atlantic Gigabit Innovation Collaboratory (MAGIC), an organization aiming to foster a tech ecosystem around the Carroll County city’s fiber network. Now, he’s taken his focus on building Maryland’s startup capacity to TEDCO.

Dodge joined the State of Maryland-created, early-stage funder last month as a vice president of Venture Development, the department once known as Innovation Connectors and Entrepreneur and Ecosystem Empowerment. This means he will oversee its Cultivate Maryland and Innovation Connectors programs, as well as other affiliated projects to connect entrepreneurs with different networks and resources. 

“Graham’s addition to the already dynamic team of experts and thought leaders will round out the restructured department, allowing new perspectives and insights that will lead to further refinement of current processes,” said TEDCO’s chief finance and operations officer Terry Rauh.

Dodge is being replaced in MAGIC’s top leadership role by former program director Kim Samuelson. He will remain on MAGIC’s board of directors.

Stacy Stube shutters fashion industry support program’s physical hub

The longtime fashion industry professional, who also founded the SEW BROMO incubator and worked with MICA’s Ratcliffe Center for Creative Entrepreneurship, announced on LinkedIn that she and her team maintaining the Fashion Innovation Hub at the Baltimore Innovation Center were not going to be able to continue doing so. 

Stube cited two grant application denials in the post, which also noted plans to move SEW BROMO’s model to an online and education programming-based one.

“We like to speak of wins and fighting for progress, but there are also moments when one must just decide to exit,” she said, adding: “Sometimes doors close to force you to decide if it is worth knocking on that seeming opportunity.”

More leadership moves 

• 2024 RealLIST Connector Karina Mandell will be leaving her post as a business attraction specialist for the Baltimore Development Corporation. 
• Founder Ana Rodney of maternal wellness organization MOMCares announced plans to take a sabbatical until September, citing burnout. 
• Mindgrub lost another longtime employee as 12-year company veteran Brian Thompson departed the Locust Point company, where he was most recently vice president of technical operations.
• The Orioles hired Catie Griggs away from the Seattle Mariners as its president of business operations, per the Baltimore Business Journal. 
• Candace Dodson-Reed joined the Maryland Economic Development Corporation as its new chief of staff, according to a press release.
• Dewan Clayborn has become the Central Maryland Chamber of Commerce’s first Black president. 
• The Maryland Department of Commerce appointed State Del. Carl Anderton to direct its rural economic strategy.
• Software investment firm JMI Equity promoted Baltimore-area employee Katie Carter from vice president/controller to director of financial reporting. 

This article mentions TEDCO, a Technical.ly client. That relationship has no impact on this report.

This article has also been updated to note Jamie McDonald joining EcoMap Technologies’ board of directors, as well as Graham Dodge renaming TEDCO’s Innovation Connectors to Venture Development. (8/14/2024, 4:30 p.m.)