Early Charm, a venture studio that converts science to business, today announced it has joined Baltimore Tracks, a coalition of Baltimore-based technology companies committed to increasing job and career opportunities for people of color in the technology field. Early Charm Associate, Kylie Long, also has been appointed to serve on Baltimore Tracks’ Steering Committee.
"Baltimore Tracks is an important initiative – and for our part we've not met our need to have diversity in Early Charm that is reflective of the communities in which we operate,” said Ken Malone, Executive Officer with Early Charm. "Joining Baltimore Tracks and with its member companies is one great step in meeting that need."
As part of the non-profit Baltimore Tracks’ mission, its member companies, including Early Charm, agree to meet fully a set of “commitments” to drive meaningful employment and career-building opportunities for people in Baltimore’s diverse, underrepresented population.
These commitments include:
- Each member company’s employees participating in a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Audit & Demographic Survey
- Sharing ideas and information about each company’s DEI efforts including best practices and lessons learned
- Each company sharing qualified candidates (with candidate consent) who apply for open positions, but aren’t hired immediately (prioritizing applicants from underrepresented demographic groups)
- Each company not requiring candidates to possess four-year college degrees when recruiting candidates for open job positions (except in certain circumstances related to a job’s technical requirements or government contracting requirements)
- Each company agreeing to offer paid internships with a focus on recruiting internship candidates from underrepresented groups in Baltimore
About Early Charm
Early Charm is a venture studio with 16 different companies at various maturity levels. We co-found companies in four different industry verticals: Drug Discovery, Custom Materials, Aquaculture Technologies and Engineered Products. Early Charm continuously engages with industry to identify current market needs. Once those market needs are assessed, we source cutting-edge technologies that fulfill those needs and develop and commercialize the resulting products and services. Learn more: www.earlycharm.com
