Maryland Tech Council is expanding with Frederick, Universities at Shady Grove offices

The Maryland Tech Council (MTC) represents companies across the state’s technology industry, from cybersecurity to life sciences. CEO Marty Rosendale is seeing growth across various tech industries.

That also means the eight-member team is traversing the state geographically.

“We find that we, ourselves, at any given moment can be anywhere in the state,” said Rosendale, a veteran biotech executive who joined the Tech Council as CEO in 2018, about 18 months after MTC launched through a merger between Tech Council of Maryland and Chesapeake Regional Tech Council.

It’s led to a new office expansion for MTC, as the organization looks to set up spaces to meet and convene entrepreneurs.

This week, it opened a new location in Frederick to go along with its longtime presence in Montgomery County. Frederick is seeing tech and life sciences growth with companies such as RoosterBio that hatched in town and California-based Kite Pharma moving in to grow manufacturing operations. Rosendale said MTC is already holding monthly coffee meetings in the area, and the office in downtown Frederick will give it a more permanent presence. It also helps that many team members live nearby.

Along with the expansion, MTC is also looking to hone a focus on addressing hiring and talent.

“The two biggest issues that our member companies bring up when I talk to them everywhere are workforce and access to capital,” he said.

With a group of CEOs already gathering regularly to discuss capital, MTC is also organizing a workforce coalition. It has already held one such meeting with HR executives from life sciences companies among its membership, and is planning a similar gathering of software and cyber leaders.

MTC is also moving a Montgomery County satellite office to a new Biomedical Sciences and Engineering building at the Universities at Shady Grove (USG) in Rockville. The building opened in late 2019, and now MTC has an agreement to open its office.

“We want faculty and students to have access to the MTC member companies and to foster strengthened relationships with the scientists, innovators and leaders who are growing the technology sectors of our economy,” USG Executive Director Dr. Stewart Edelstein said in a statement.

This comes after MTC opened a location in Baltimore at Mindgrub’s offices in Locust Point last year. It also has a location in Annapolis where it meets with folks and coordinates activities during the annual session of the Maryland General Assembly (which is currently underway). This goes along with efforts to support companies at conferences in California and New York this year.

“Now we have offices around the state, and it puts us in a much better position to support our members wherever they are,” Rosendale said.