Click here for Part I, Part II & Part IV

A new organization built by Maryland’s leading technology and life sciences innovators

Tami Howie is the CEO of the Maryland Technology Council, an organization formed from the recent merger of the Technology Council of Maryland, Inc and the Chesapeake Regional Tech Council. As the largest association of its kind in the state, the MTC represents hundreds of regional companies active in the life sciences and technology sectors. Previously executive director of the CRTC, Tami transitioned to become head of the new organization following its establishment earlier this year. Prior to serving Maryland’s technology community in her current capacity, Tami practiced as an attorney.

EDWIN WARFIELD: What other business development organizations does MTC wrk with?

TAMI HOWIE: Tedco is great. I worked with Andy Jones when I was a lawyer at Maryland Tech Council, which was unbelievable, and John Wasilisin is a great leader over there. We really are focused with Tedco on doing two things. One: making sure that the companies that are backed by Tedco really have all the resources they need to grow and become more robust companies, get better sales forces—really giving them an education series—and we’re really focused on getting them other financing. You can’t just put one investment into a company; you need to make sure that there is a syndicate.

We are going to work with Tedco to make sure that we bring all of the money that’s in Maryland—I think it’s 160,000 millionaires that we have in the state of Maryland—and make sure that money is being invested into Tedco companies and non-Tedco companies. And then, also, outside money: we’re working really hard to let all of the other investors outside of the state know what assets we have in the state.

We have a number of subsidiaries that work with us. Officially, we have the HealthTech Corporation, which invests in biotech companies. We have an affiliate that provides a discount program, for all of our member companies, and of the key things we have is that they get reduced rates on bio-health medical supplies, which is great, and all kinds of supplies—office supplies, and there’s a whole list of things that the companies get. But MdBio is really an affiliate with us; they’re not part of our organization, but we are affiliated with them in that we do a lot of things together, we share space together. In our minds, they are the STEM arm of the Maryland Tech Council, so they engage with our companies to help them get more into STEM to help take their resources and both money and time into STEM programs. They just rolled out their latest vehicle, which is a living classroom in the tech side, which we are partners with them on in making sure that we have company sponsorship and company leadership that is involved there as mentors, and we’re going to do a joint mentor program with them on that.

Q. What does MTC’s involvement in the legislature look like?

A. The Maryland Tech Council is extremely active in the legislature in Annapolis, and in the federal space, making sure that the Maryland companies are protected and that pro-business legislation is going to be enacted. On the Maryland front, we are pushing for R&D tax credits again. We got it through last year, spent a lot of time on that, but we want it up to a new level, so Nancy King is the lead on that, and we’re working with her to make sure that the Maryland State knows that we are 750 companies strong and 300,000 voters strong—which is making a big difference this year. Last year, as the head of the CRTC, I went with 300 companies and maybe 100,000 voters, and got very little attention, and this year we’re actually hearing from them. The legislators are contacting us and asking us what our opinion is, and using us as a resource to learn more about tech, which I think’s really important—that they’re viewing us as such an asset in this state.

Some other things that we are working on: We’ve just spent last week testifying on the drug pricing situation, and in giving facts into the state senate to make sure they’re up to speed on the impact of any legislation around drug pricing and drug controls. AstraZeneca's Julie Garner is taking the lead for us. She’s the head of our legislative group, along with Larry Duncan from Lockheed Martin. We’re taking positions on both of those bills when they come out.

Q. Do you have a PAC?

A. We do not have a PAC, but we are looking into that, and, if I have my way, we will have a PAC. Now, as a 501(c)(6), we are not allowed to have our own PAC, but we certainly can facilitate a PAC and make sure that the tech community has their own PAC.

We’ve put together a tech coalition of all the partners. We’ve asked that everyone in the tech community come together, and now that some of the bills have been dropping, we are getting together to figure out which ones—the four or five that we’re going to strongly support, and we are weighing in on the wording on certain bills to make sure that they, in fact, help our companies, because often you get these bills and they sound great, and then in order for you to actually take advantage of them, companies would take a whole another division of their company to take advantage of them. We’re watching them closely and really making sure that the wording does help the companies and that it does not just seem like it helps the companies.

Connect with Tami on LinkedIn

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