Tech policy expert Benjamin Wu named deputy DBED secretary

The state’s economic development office is adding another tech expert.
Gov. Larry Hogan named Benjamin H. Wu as Deputy Secretary of the Department of Economic and Business Development (DBED) on Wednesday.
Wu will essentially be the department’s COO, overseeing the DBED’s efforts to attract new companies to the state and working to expand the presence of the firms that are already here.
Wu, a Montgomery County native, has held a variety of senior technology policy roles at the U.S. Department of Commerce and as a staffer for former Republican Congresswoman Connie Morella, where he worked on innovation and technology commercialization. He was also a high-ranking DBED official in the Ehrlich administration, where he helped develop Maryland’s current strategic plans for cybersecurity and the life sciences.
Wu will serve under DBED Secretary R. Michael Gill, who has a long career working and investing in technology companies.
The announcement came on the same day Gill announced that a Maryland delegation is at Arab Health 2015, one of the world’s largest healthcare conferences. Among the Free State businesses attending is Baltimore-based Cognuse, Inc., which makes a cloud-based cognitive rehabilitation system.