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Senior Technologists Month / Power Moves

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

Plus, TEDCO nabs a new veep, EcoMap has platform and staff news, and more transitions across the region.

Cody Dorsey, former executive director of the Baltimore Digital Equity Coalition. (Courtesy)

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.

Navigate Spark Here

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 

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.)

Companies: EcoMap Technologies / MAGIC / Mindgrub / Baltimore Orioles / Baltimore Development Corporation / Maryland Institute College of Art / TEDCO / State of Maryland

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