Click here for Part I, Part II & Part III

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 are your priorities over the next few years?

TAMI HOWIE: The technology and life sciences priorities are making sure we have enough money for research and development, so support of Nancy King’s R&D tax credit is something at the top of our list. We are watching closely any bills that drop on drug pricing and make sure we’re protecting our companies, because we don’t want it to be too difficult to do business in Maryland. We’re watching those closely and will comment as they come out.

On the technology, obviously, we want anything that allows investors into technology because that is a huge shortage in the state of Maryland. I don’t want to call it the “angel tax credit,” because it’s failed a number of times, but it needs to be some sort of innovation tax credit that gets Marylanders to pull the money out of their pocket and put it into companies, and really put it in at a high level so that we can grow a lot of companies. That’s a huge priority for us.

Cybersecurity and biotech tax credits for giving those companies additional incentive to stay here in Maryland—there should be bills dropping to lengthen the time that those are around, and we would definitely weigh in on those bills too in support of those. We haven’t seen a lot of bills drop just yet on that, but we are watching those obviously to make sure that we can get talents.

Workforce development is a huge priority in the state of Maryland. We have a huge shortage of qualified skilled workers in the tech world, so we need to make sure that we don’t have too much traffic to go up the 270 corridor—anything that helps that traffic. We need to make sure we can get workers from the city, out to the suburbs, where a lot of the companies are, and we would support anything that allows that transportation to the companies to be easier.

Q. What is your position on companies moving to Maryland?

A. We’re not in an official position, but we will support anything that brings money into the pockets of our companies in the cyber space. I believe that a lot of states are coming after Maryland very, very rapidly. We definitely have the lead of any other state in the country right now, but we have a number of them on our heels, so we need to make sure that we take the companies that are here and keep them here, and we should be drawing more companies in here, since we have the biggest base in the country on that. We definitely need to get investment in so that we can stay ahead of the curve.

Q. What about workforce development?

A. Traditionally, the tech councils have not taken a strong position in workforce development, but when we survey our companies, the biggest concern they have is whether there will be a talented workforce available for them when they come out. And in a state that puts more money into education than any other state in the country, we’re very fortunate to have a talented workforce, but what we’re finding is that tech companies don’t take the time because they don’t have the resources to actually take on interns. The larger companies do, but the smaller companies are running so fast they can’t train interns. So, we are rolling out a program where we’re going to offer our tech companies a training program for interns, and we’re actually running the statewide internship portal for the commerce department. We’re very excited to be able to bring real life experiences to kids as they get to the graduation years in their college life—very excited about that. We’re hoping that a bill drops that gives some tax credits to companies that take interns in, which would definitely promote a number of internships coming on.

The other thing that we’re doing is we’re working with the Department of Labor on the apprenticeship program because not everyone wants to go to college and not everyone wants a four-year degree, and there are so many jobs out there in tech companies that don’t require a four-year degree or even a two-year degree. It’s more on-the-job training. So we’re going to be rolling out an apprentice program, which gives kids another option rather than just having to go to college or not having to work in the tech safe.

Q. With Mindgrub CEO Todd Marks as Chairman of Technology for the MTC, what are your plans in Baltimore specifically?

A. We made Todd Marks chairman to let Baltimore know that that we care and that it’s important to us. Todd Marks is the head of tech for us, which is a huge statement. We also plan to do a third of our events in Baltimore to really draw on that tech community. We’re partnering with Betamore. I’m actually meeting with [Betamore CEO] Jen [Meyer] on Wednesday to set that up. It’s kind of all rolling in really quickly.

We’re really excited about what Baltimore has to offer. We’re talking to a number of people in Baltimore about joining our boards that are at high levels, which would be newsworthy when it happens, so I can’t really tell you because they haven’t agreed to yet, but they’re seriously considering it. We are really excited about what Baltimore has done and want to get that excitement and sprinkle it throughout the state, because I think it would make a huge difference in the state if we had that energy of what Baltimore has grown, throughout the rest of the state.

Connect with Tami on LinkedIn

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