Industry leaders celebrate Baltimore’s ‘bold moves’ in biotech, sports and higher ed

A few months ago, one of the region’s premier economic development organizations envisioned a dynamic future for Baltimore by announcing a new regional brand: “Bold Moves.”

That nonprofit, the Greater Baltimore Committee (GBC), leaned in further last week, when it convened the region’s political, corporate and academic circles for the 2025 Baltimore Region Investment Summit. 

Designed to provide a snapshot of funding, growth and related opportunities within the city and surrounding counties, the event at Baltimore Center Stage offered leaders in various prominent sectors — including biotechnology, higher education, sports, defense and local government — the chance to celebrate regional wins. It also served as a spinoff event from the federal SelectUSA investment summit. 

Several of these speakers, including the city’s chief executive, took that opportunity to embrace the GBC’s messaging while praising its industry assets. 

“Baltimore is the place to be for companies looking to make bold moves,” said Mayor Brandon Scott before naming several high-profile local firms (T. Rowe Price, Under Armour, CFG Bank) that built new headquarters in the city over the past few years. 

The GBC’s chief economic officer Lakey Boyd explained that “Bold Moves” captures Baltimore’s identity as a place that drives change, even as it draws from its traditional strengths. It’s all part of the GBC’s overall goals of building bridges between industries and making the region attractive to outside investors. 

“We’re partnering public, private, big and small across our region, and we’re winning — and those wins are about economic growth and shared prosperity,” Boyd said. “So the concept of ‘bold moves’ positions the Baltimore region as a place that not only adapts to change, but drives it.”

To that end, people like Deborah Hemingway, managing partner of medical technology-focused VC firm Ecphora Capital; Bob Storey, leader of biotech manufacturing accelerator The Launchport; CEO Ellington West of stethoscope and medical monitoring startup Sonavi Labs; and Tom Osha, executive vice president of research facility real estate firm Wexford Science and Technology all highlighted successes within the region’s vibrant and university-driven life sciences sector. Goucher College President Kent Devereaux discussed plans for construction management giant Whiting-Turner to relocate its headquarters to the Towson school’s campus.

The event ended with a fireside conversation between Orioles owner David Rubenstein, whose private equity connections prompted a protest when he spoke at another event last year, and President Mohan Suntha of the University of Maryland Medical System. 

The GBC also held this event just a few days after it and UpSurge Baltimore, the startup ecosystem-building entity with whom the GBC pursued a federal Tech Hub bid before the two orgs combined, celebrated UpSurge’s 200th Equitech Tuesday. That commemoration also marked the release of UpSurge’s 2025 Baltimore Tech Ecosystem Report, which features such data points as $664.7 million in regional venture funding, 10 startup exits and 486 tech startups across the area.

Check out some more scenes from the investment summit: