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Andrea K. Suter, Esq.

Andrea K. Suter, Esq., MCE Board Chair

Pierce Atwood Law Firm

Andrea Suter represents start-ups, family-owned and established companies in a wide range of businesses and industries. Her practice focuses on commercial transactions, contracts, mergers and acquisitions, finance and general corporate law. Prior to Pierce Atwood, she worked at highly respected law firms in the California Bay Area and New York. Andrea has a Juris Doctorate in Law from the University of California, Berkley School of Law, and a B.A. in Art History from University of California, Los Angeles.

Susan Ahern

Susan Ahern

Vice President - Innovation, MaineHealth

Susan Ahern was hired by MaineHealth to lead its new Innovation Center in March 2020. The Innovation Center is a business incubator designed to serve a cohort of innovators affiliated with MaineHealth. Susan quickly forged a partnership with the new Northeastern University’s Roux Institute in Portland and led an innovation cohort of inventors who have addressed critical needs during the on-going Covid-19 health crisis. Prior to her current position, Susan led the Massachusetts Technology Transfer Center in Boston, and a technology accelerator for Canadian businesses in Boston launched by the Canadian Consulate General. Susan has a BA degree in Business Administration from Colby College and has a certification in small business entrepreneurship from Boston University.

Skip Bates

Skip Bates, MCE Board Treasurer

Executive Coach, ClearRock

Skip Bates is a certified executive coaching and leadership development professional with ClearRock, a Boston-based company focused on executive coaching, leadership development, and outplacement services with a concentration in the biopharmaceutical industry.

Prior to ClearRock, Skip spent 17 years at Bangor Savings Bank in various roles, but most recently as Senior Vice President and Director of Main Street Banking, where he and his team supported small businesses in Maine and New Hampshire. Skip has been actively involved in supporting Maine’s economy through non-profit leadership, having served as Treasurer of the Maine Venture Fund, President of the Maine Development Foundation, and currently as Treasurer of the Maine Center for Entrepreneurs. Skip is a graduate of the Midcoast Leadership Academy, has a certificate in Leadership from Wharton, and is certified in Executive Coaching and EQ 2.0.

Stuart Davies

Stuart Davies

CEO, Ocean Renewable Power Company

Stuart Davies is CEO of Ocean Renewable Power Company (ORPC). Prior to his CEO position, Stuart served as a board member and investor in ORPC and brings a wealth of experience from positions including Senior Investment Officer at Global Opportunistic Credit and investment committee member at Sankaty Advisors where he worked for 17 years. During that time, he served on the board of 20 companies and was a board observer for dozens more in industries ranging from energy, food, industrial manufacturing, and consumer products. Stuart graduated from Yale University with a B.A. in Economics, and from the MIT Sloan School of Management with an MBA. Stuart is involved with MIT’s Sloan Sustainability initiative and serves as a member of its renewable energy finance roundtable.

Doug DeAngelis

Doug DeAngelis

Founder, Past President, CTO, Lynx System Developers, Inc. & IsoLynx, LLC

Doug DeAngelis founded the sports technology company Lynx System Developers while in graduate school in 1992 and spun out athletic tracking pioneer IsoLynx LLC in 2010. Doug grew up in Orrington, Maine, graduating from Brewer High School in 1984. He has a BS in Electrical Engineering from University of Maine and a Masters in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from MIT.

As a competitive runner at Brewer and at the University of Maine, Doug saw an opportunity to use high speed digital line-scan technology to produce faster and more accurate photo-finish results at sporting events. Today, the Lynx camera is the most popular system of its kind in the world, having been used at all levels of competition from the Tour de France, Kentucky Derby, NASCAR, Winter Olympics and World Championships in Athletics to thousands of high schools across the US. Doug sold a majority stake in Lynx to a private equity firm Dominus Capital at the end of 2021. The IsoLynx technology that was spun out of Lynx is used to precisely locate athletes in the field of play and was the first system of its kind to be sued to track all athletes in an NFL game. Between Lynx and IsoLynx, Doug is a named inventor on over 200 patents worldwide. He is also deeply engaged in land conservation in the Northeastern US/Canada and New Zealand.

Cal Hancock

Caroline “Cal” Hancock

Founder & Past President, Hancock Gourmet Lobster Co.

Cal Hancock founded Hancock Gourmet Lobster Co. in 2000, which was acquired by Ready Seafood in 2019. Hancock Gourmet Lobster is an award-winning, premiere seafood brand, and winner of 11 food industry prizes at the International Fancy Food Show and Specialty Food Association, (the Oscars of the specialty food industry). The company specializes in shipping ready-to-eat, prepared gourmet seafood meals and has been featured on the Food Network three times, Oprah’s “list of favorite things” seven times running, in addition to other national publications like the New York Times and Chicago Tribune. Prior to founding Hancock Gourmet Lobster, Cal spent 25 years as an executive in the healthcare field. Cal has an MS degree from Ohio State University and a BS in Health Information Management from Colby-Sawyer College.

Susan MacKay

Dr. Susan MacKay

Senior Program Manager at UMaine Advanced Structures and Composites Center

Dr. Susan MacKay is a Senior R&D Program Manager II at the UMaine Advanced Structures and Composites Center. She has 25 years’ experience in materials chemistry, product development, and manufacturing at both large corporations and early-stage companies. Prior to joining UMaine, she was the founder and CEO of Cerahelix, Inc. where she led the commercialization of their ceramic nanofiltration technology based on a patented DNA ceramic nanotechnology coating.

Anthony E. Perkins

Anthony E. Perkins, MCE Chair Emeritus

Shareholder, Bernstein Shur

Tony Perkins is a shareholder at Bernstein, Shur, Sawyer & Nelson, a 110-attorney firm with offices in Portland and Augusta, Maine, and Manchester, New Hampshire, where he is a member of the firm’s Business Law Practice Group, Intellectual Property & Technology Practice Group and Food & Beverage Group.

Tony’s work includes day-to-day counseling and transactional assistance to start-up, growth and established businesses involved with product development, intellectual property protection, national and international commercialization and distribution agreements, angel and venture capital financing, joint ventures, and company sales and merger transactions in a variety of industries.

Since the late 1990’s Tony has assisted numerous clients with raising angel capital, venture capital and other private funding and advise and assist many clients with sales to private and public company acquirers. Many of these engagements involve transactions that cross state and national borders.

Daniel Piltch

Daniel Piltch

Managing Partner, Broad Sound Partners

Broad Sound Partners is a lower middle market equity firm focused on facilitating investments in and management of early-stage and growth-stage technology-centric companies in healthcare, IT and software industries. Prior to Broad Sound Partners, Dan started, grew and sold two companies and acted at CTO for many other startups. As co-founder and CEO of Freeport Metrics, Dan lead a team that designed software solutions for small businesses, large enterprises, governments and startups. Client projects included crowd sourcing platform design, creating interactive business intelligence system design and a wide variety of special app developments. Dan is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania with a B.S. in Computer Science and Engineering. Dan also attended University College London, University of London.

Burak Sezen

Burak Sezen

Co-founder, Partner, 6ixth Event

Burak is an entrepreneur and investor with a focus on the space where deep socio-economic drivers meet emerging technologies. His firm invests in AI tech, Internet of Things (IoT), reinventing careers, and a range of opportunities tied to millennials. Prior to founding 6ixth Event, Burak was Co-founder & CTO of Sprigley [Acquired by Eliza, 2009]; and Co-founder & CTO of RowdMap, Inc. [Acquired by Cotiviti, 2017]. Burak was named an Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year. His work has won praise in Entrepreneur Magazine, Forbes, Bloomberg, & US News. Burak was named an CMS Innovator. Burak is a graduate of Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey.

Cory Vargo

Cory Vargo

CPA, MST, Partner at Wipfli LLP

Cory is a highly technical tax advisor with experience focused on providing tax due diligence and structuring services to both private equity and strategic corporate clients. He has served as a primary resource for complex international, M&A, and corporate tax issues, including the impact of corporate acquisitions and divestitures on US GAAP basis tax accounting/ASC740 reporting. Prior to joining Wipfli, South Portland (formerly MacPage LLC), Cory was a tax manager at Dillion Consulting Group and PriceWaterhouseCoopers both in the Boston area. He is a published author on tax issues with regular work citations in U.S. Congressional Research Service Reports. Cory, a Licensed CPA, holds a Master’s of Science in Taxation from Suffolk University in Boston and a B.S. in Accounting from the University of Delaware.

Chris Vickers

Chris Vickers

President and CEO, STARC Systems, Inc.

STARC Systems, Inc. is the leader in temporary modular wall containment systems for occupied renovations with offices and manufacturing in Brunswick, Maine. The company has seen significant growth throughout 50 states, Canada and several international countries with many of the top national and regional construction firms. Previously, Chris held several senior leadership positions including COO of Hancock Lumber – Retail. In 2007 Chris became the vice president of merchandising at L.L. Bean where he was responsible merchandising for home, kids, and the launch of a new apparel sub brand.

Just prior to STARC, Chris was the President and CEO of The Vermont Country Store, a 66- year-old, family-owned, $120+ multi-channel business. Chris has an MBA from Harvard Business School; a B.A. from Colby College and he grew up in Caribou, Maine.

Krystal Williams

Krystal Williams

Founder, Attorney, Providentia Group

Krystal Williams is an accomplished and results-driven organizational strategist and attorney adept at leading cross-functional teams in complex environments. She is founding manager of Providentia Group, a legal and business advisory firm focused on achieving economic dignity for all. In 2020 Krystal also founded the Alpha Legal Foundation, a non-profit organization with a mission to diversify Maine’s legal profession.

Krystal brings an important and respected perspective to issues of innovation, strategic partnerships, and board governance. In addition to the Maine Center for Entrepreneurs, she is a board member for the ACLU of Maine, Coastal Enterprises, Inc., and also serves as a technology advisor for the Maine Technology Institute and is one of the board of trustees at the University of New England.  She was named 2021 MaineBiz Women to Watch and a 2022 Mainer of the Year. Krystal holds a J.D. from the University of Maine School of Law, an MBA from the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, and BAs in Mathematics and Psychology from Williams College. In 2011, she thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail.