News Maine Center for Enterprise Development

Calling all Entrepreneurs! MCED's TOP GUN program now accepting candidate applications

 

<click here for details>

Upcoming Events
Using Twitter in Business - "To Tweet or not to Tweet" - with John Moore, of Quai, Inc on Thurs 7/9

 

<click here for details>

Contact Us
Maine Center for Enterprise Development

c/o Univ. of S. Maine
P.O. Box 9300
Portland, ME 04104-9300

P: 207. 228 . 8524
F: 207. 228 . 8526

Street address:

70 Falmouth St
Portland, ME  04103
(Bio-Science Building, research wing, 2nd floor)

 

On Site Clients
 



About Maine Center for Enterprise Development
Vision
To provide an experiential learning environment to start-ups and early stage entrepreneurs for the creation and growth of quality companies through incubation, entrepreneurial development and education.
Mission
To create high quality jobs for Maine through best practice incubation services that systematically assist new businesses with intellectual property and business plan needs, R&D activities, early-stage financing and product commercialization.
Implementation

  • Manage the program as a sustainable, efficient business operation.
  • Focus activity on client assistance, including proactive advising and guidance.
  • Strengthen stakeholder support, including a resource network that helps the incubation program's client companies and supports the incubator's mission and operations.
  • Maintain a management information system and collect statistics and other information necessary for ongoing program evaluation, thus improving a program’s effectiveness and allowing it to evolve with the needs of the clients.
  • Partner with organizations that recognize business incubation as a valid model for increasing the success rate of small business, are committed to long-term technology based economic development for the benefit of Maine citizens and offer complementary programs and services.
History
Initiated in the mid 1990's by the Greater Portland business community, the Maine Center for Enterprise Development (MCED) has become one of the most successful business incubators in northern New England for start-up technoloogy companies. In the last five years our clients have raised more than $6 million in early stage capital. Overall, clients have won more than 20 awards from the Maine Technology Institute and the federal Small Business Innovation Research program. Clients also own approximately 30 patents and have research and development partnerships with eight universities, 2 federal agencies and one federal laboratory. Our entrepreneur workshop series, sponsored by Norway Savings Bank and the Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Southern Maine School of Business, attracts over 100 companies annually. Our technology business counseling capabilities are certified through our partnership with the Maine Small Business & Technology Development Centers, a pioneering technology business counseling service created by the Maine Technology Institute and the Maine Small Business Development Centers.

2006 is another milestone year for our program – in April, we initiated an economic development partnership with the University of Southern Maine and in October relocated to the Bioscience Research Wing on USM’s Portland campus. We have enjoyed a program collaboration with the Center for Entrepreneurship in USM’s School of Business since 2003. We now look forward to strengthening ties with several other USM programs, among them the Maine Patent Program, and the USM School of Applied Science, Engineering and Technology, as well as programs housed in the Bioscience Research Wing. Those include the Maine Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health, and the Research Computing Group. Click here for more about the MCED/USM relationship.

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We are a 501(c)3 non-profit organization separate from the University of Southern Maine.
To view our Guidestar listing, <click here>

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Leadership and Staff

Steven N Bazinet

President /Executive Director

SBazinet@mced.biz

For over twenty-two years, STEVEN BAZINET of Falmouth has been combining his passion for entrepreneurial business with his knowledge of business and finance to assist growth-oriented companies in the art of creating and capturing value. He has shown a knack for solving problems and developing ideas in innovative and bottom-line oriented ways.

As an entrepreneurial family member, owner, advisor and senior level executive of numerous privately-held companies, Steve has always been empathetic to the challenges of building enterprises of high value.  “For the past five years I have enjoyed my experience as an interim management and corporate finance professional. The MCED is a new sort of opportunity for me - one that combines my finance and business acumen with my passion for helping companies move through their various stages of development.” His primary focus will be in helping to solve issues of strategy, growth and profitability.

A graduate of Plymouth State University with a Bachelors Degree in Management, Steve has also completed extensive training at Bell Leadership Institute in Chapel Hill, NC; the Investment Banking Institute, Boston, MA; and is a graduate of the Executive Management Program, at the Leadership Institute, Boston University.

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Sandra Stone
Project Manager
SStone@mced.biz

Sandra has entrepreneurial experience as a PC consultant, real estate broker, co-owner of a fishing vessel, and co-founder of a community non-profit, the Falmouth Youth Lacrosse Association. For the last six years, she has also been the varsity coach for the Falmouth High School girls'  tennis team. She has served as Fund Director of the Annual Fund at Bowdoin College, her alma mater, and as a Trustee and Member of the Corporation of the Hurricane Island Outward Bound School.

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Laurie Johnson

Administrative Assistant

LJohnson@mced.biz

 

Laurie grew up in Maine working in a family owned small business where she served as company treasurer for a number of years until the company was sold in 2003. She is a graduate of Mt. Ida College in Boston, MA and Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, NY where she received degrees for an associates program in Graphic Design and a Bachelors program in Commercial Photography respectively.

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Board of Directors

Edward S. McKersie, CPC - CHAIR
www.psicareers.com

Edward S. McKersie is Founder and President of Pro Search, Inc. of Portland, a founder of JobsInTheUs.com in Westbrook and has been in the employment services industry since 1985. Prior to establishing Pro Search, Inc. in 1994, he was Director of Search Services for the corporate offices of a national employment services firm, responsible for recruiting, hiring and training search consultants for the company's 35 office network. Ed holds a B.S. in Economics/ Finance from Bentley College and has been a featured speaker and trainer at human resources and recruiting/staffing industry events nationwide. He is Chairman of the Business Advisory Council of Goodwill Industries of Northern New England, Chairman of USM Corporate Partners, and is on the Best Places to Work in Maine Planning Committee.

 

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Aileen Cahill

Aileen Cahill is President of her own consulting firm, Customer Ergonomics, an Adjunct Professor of Marketing at USM and an author of
Internet Marketing, a MBA text. Her areas of expertise include strategic planning, internet marketing, brand management, new product development, and marketing research for Pepsi-Cola, Hershey Chocolate, Nabisco, Kellogg, IBM, GE Capital, XEROX, Fidelity, Bristol-Myers Squibb and other nationally renowned companies.Aileen is deeply involved working with the Maine Association of Professional Consultants and the Maine Marketing Association. She earned her MBA in Marketing at Cornell University, Johnson Graduate School of Management, and her BA, Magna Cum Laude, in Psychology at SUNY Binghamton
 

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Douglas Carr Esq.

Douglas Carr is an attorney with Perkins Thompson and brings his more than thirty years of experience and familiarity with Maine's political and business worlds to bear on his integrated practice of administrative law, business transactions, retail and health care, and government relations. Mr. Carr advises Maine-based companies in connection with their daily business activities and is often called upon to assist businesses in developing their long term strategic growth and development plans. He has been involved in several major national undertakings including a reverse triangular merger with a Canadian fabless chip manufacturing company and advising a national retailer in connection with national and state antitrust issues and a Maine-based company on commercial free speech and Lanham Act litigation. He serves as Maine legal counsel for a large national retailer in the health care and specialty retail fields. Mr. Carr also serves as General Counsel to a number of small Maine businesses and several Not for Profit Foundations in the education, environmental, and business research areas.

 

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Richard Flagg
www.norwaysavingsbank.com

Richard Flagg is a Vice President of Commercial Lending at Norway Savings Bank in Portland working in all areas of small business financing including loans to start-ups. Rick comes from Eastport, Maine and has been in Banking for 16+ years after graduating from the University of Maine in Orono with a B.A. in Economics.

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Mark Kaplan

www.ceiventures.com

 

Mark Kaplan is a Managing Director at CEI Ventures, Inc. Prior to joining the company in July 1999, Mr. Kaplan served as founding Chair of its Board of Directors.  Mr. Kaplan has spent nearly twenty-five years in the investment field including as Managing Director of Forum Financial Group, a mutual fund company, and H.M. Payson & Co., an investment advisory and trust services firm where he was the Director of Research and member of the Executive Committee.  He also served in the investment department of Unum Life Insurance Company.

 

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Valarie Lamont, PhD
www.usm.maine.edu/cesb

Dr. Valarie C. Lamont is Associate Dean for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the School of Business at the University of Southern Maine. She also directs the Center for Entrepreneurship and the Center for Real Estate Education. Her areas of expertise include technology, the state economy and affordable housing issues, as well as entrepreneurship. Created in 1996, CE offers business development courses, workshops, technical assistance and research projects that respond to the needs of the entrepreneurial and small business community, while hosting the USM Student Business Plan Competition and Maine’s first Faculty Forum on Entrepreneurship.

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Jere Shaw
www.evergreencreditunion.org

Jere Shaw is a Vice President and Commercial Loan Officer at Evergreen Credit Union. He previously worked as a Loan and Investment Officer for Coastal Enterprises, Inc. Jere also serves as Chair of the Aquaculture and Marine Technology Board at the Maine Technology Institute.

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Stephen C. Shea

www.sigcap.com

Stephen Shea is President of Signature Capital Securities, LLC, of Portland, a firm that introduces and commercializes high growth technology based companies in multi billion dollar industries.  A former CEO, he has more than 20 years experience growing and leading organizations to merger or acquisition with either private or publicly traded companies.  Mr. Shea has also been involved in business turnarounds in the U.S. and Canada for manufacturing and service industries including financial services and healthcare companies. He also founded three entrepreneurial companies, including SCS Capital Group, a private equity investment and consulting group established to invest in or acquire New England based companies involved with manufacturing and consumer products distribution. Mr. Shea serves on the Board of Directors for Chemogen, Inc., and CEI Capital Management, LLC.

 

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Directions

Our business incubator is now located in the bio science building at 70 Falmouth Street on the USM Portland Campus, 2nd floor of the Research Wing ( a secure area, requiring authorized entry).

click here for directions to USM Portland Campus

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