jobs : Innovation + Job News

Tactical Network Solutions, a cyber intelligence company in Columbia, recently added three people to its staff of 12, and will hire at least four employees over the next year.

John Harmon, a partner with Terry Dunlap, says the firm is in a “growth stage,” constantly bidding on contracts and looking for experts in low-level coding languages, embedded software engineers, web engineers and vulnerability researchers.
 
Founded in 2007 by a group of ex-National Security Agency (NSA) staffers and NSA contractors, the firm focuses on cyber intelligence, specifically services and training, product development and R&D. Tactical Network Solutions aims to provide quick-response solutions to technical challenges. Last year, it published an open source version of its proprietary software.
 
Harmon says Tactical Network Solutions has contracts with NSA, Central Intelligence Agency and U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. He could not discuss details of the classified contracts. The privately-owned, self-financed firm does $4 to $5 million in annual sales. Besides government contracts, he says the firm is pursuing contracts in the law enforcement community.
 
Last year, the firm graduated from the Howard Technology Council incubator program and moved into a business park in Columbia. This year, it won the Howard County Technology Council’s award for New/Emerging Company of the Year.
 
“This is an exciting time for cybersecurity in general,” he says, pointing to the relocation of the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Army Cyber Command to Fort Meade within the past year.
 
Harmon says that a “cyber corridor” of companies in that field is developing along Rt. I-95 from Columbia to the outskirts of Washington, D.C. “We’re right in the middle of it,” he says.
 
Source: John Harmon, Tactical Network Solutions
Writer: Barbara Pash

Foodies might be reveling in the sushi and endless array of cheeses at the Wegmans Food Market's latest Maryland store in Columbia. 

But soon, the Rochester, N.Y., chain will open its sixth store in Anne Arundel County and is hiring 520 full- and part-time employees to staff the Gambrills store. Currently under construction, the store is scheduled to open Oct. 28.

Of the 520 employees, the store is hiring 160 full-time and 470 part-time, Store Manager Gerry Troisi says. Applications are available online at the Wegmans' Web site.

The new 125,000-square foot store will open at new shopping plaza Waugh Chapel Towne Centre, off Route 3. It includes a Target, Dick's Sporting Goods, Coal Fire Pizza and Panera Bread. It is adjacent to the Village at Waught Chapel South. Troisi says the site was chosen about five years ago because of its proximity to Annapolis, which has one of the highest income-populations in the region.

Wegmans currently operates 79 stores. The one-story Gambrills' Wegmans will have the latest developments in the chain, including fresh cut fish, an extensive cheese selection and a prepared food Market Cafe with seating for more than 200 indoors and 100 outdoors on a patio. Triosi says the store will have "fresh cut" fruit and vegetable stations where produce bought in the store can be sliced, diced and chopped to customers' specifications.

Source: Gerry Troisi, Wegmans Food Market
Writer: Barbara Pash; [email protected]

The incubator at University of Maryland Baltimore County is seeing an uptick of new tenants. In the three-month period from March to June, bwtech@UMBC Research & Technology Park welcomed nine new companies, an increase from previous similar periods but a typical number for the past year to 18 months.

It has also reached a major milestone by welcoming a total of 100 companies to the incubator, of which 85 have leased space.

Of the nine new companies, five are in cybersecurity and the rest are in IT, says Ellen Hemmerly, executive director of [email protected] attributes the interest in cybersecurity to the proximity of the U.S. Army and Department of Defense agencies at Fort Meade and the academic talent at the university. She has also seen a surge in life science startups.

Last year, bwtech@UMBC welcomed a total of 25 new tenants and IT consulting firm RWD Technologies was acquired. Hemmerly says the incubator is currently recruiting early stage to larger companies to fill that now-vacant space as well as space in a newly opened incubator facility.

Here's a rundown of the nine new tenants:

• Assured Information Security Inc., a cyberspace government contractor. The company has 40-plus  employees at its headquarters in Rome, N.Y. Since becoming a tenant, it has hired a dozen people and is looking to hire more, Hemmerly says. It chose UMBC because of its R&D interaction with the intelligence community at Fort Meade.

• Clovis Group, an accounting and finance IT and workforce management company that staffs government services.

• Communication Scientific International, a Glen Burnie-based, minority-owned communications systems and technical provider of defense and commercial communications.

• TechEdge Group, an Italian IT company that is based in Italy that also has an office in Chicago.

• Alpha Omega Technologies, a company that specializes  in secure delivery of data and information.

• NETWAR Defenses, computer systems consultants and designers who specialize in national security and intelligence.

• LightGrid, a telecommunications and delivery solutions federal contractor.

• Companion Data Services, offering data-hosting services and health IT services. 

Source: Ellen Hemmerly, bwtech@UMBC Research & Technology Park
Writer: Barbara Pash; [email protected] 

A new program aims to address the soaring unemployment in the Park Heights area of Baltimore City. The New Park Heights Community Development Corp. Inc. is partnering with Sojourner-Douglass College to offer a workforce training program in the fall.
 
Workforce training will help the transitional neighborhood progress. The area has seen a number of new services and  investments in new buildings and a new affordable housing program. 

Will J. Hanna II, president and CEO of the nonprofit, says a fundraising campaign is underway to raise $1.9 million over the three-year period of the agreement with the Baltimore college to train a total of 835 people in the Park Heights community.
 
That financial figure breaks down to $635,000 per year of the agreement. To date, Hanna has raised $95,000 through private donors and grants for 2012. But he says that more grants are coming online soon and that he expects to meet that goal. He also expects to make a "major announcement" in August and for the program to kick off as scheduled in October. Some details of the program have yet to be decided.
 
Hanna says that a nonprofit-commissioned study found that while the national unemployment rate averages 8.2 percent, unemployment in Park Heights is close to 30 percent. Residents were undereducated and/or underskilled, or the skills they had didn’t fit today’s marketplace.
 
The program is geared toward practical skills like construction, electrical, EMT technician, EKG technician and patient care, among others. There will also be classes for people to obtain a high school equivalency certificate, or GED. Entrepreneurship training will be offered as well, with the possibility of opening an incubator to encourage commercialization of products.
 
Hanna says Sojourner-Douglass College was chosen because it has a training program in those fields and it has worked in Park Heights before.
 
“We felt it was important to reach out to an African-American college [for the program]. It was a natural fit for what we wanted to do,” Hanna says. "The idea is, once people complete the training, they can be gainfully employed."
 
Source: Will J. Hanna, The New Park Heights Community Development Corp.
Writer: Barbara Pash

Mindgrub Technologies  is adding new clients, hiring more staff and adding a second office to handle the growth.

The company is in the midst of renovating a second office across the street from its new office in the historic First National Bank building in Catonsville. The 45-person firm will relocate the management team there, Mindgrub CEO Todd Marks says. The firm expects to move into the renovated 1,400-square-foot office next month.

Mindgrub is hiring 10 -- programmers, game designers, web and gaming developers, iPhone and android developers, information architects and technical production managers. It is particularly seeking people with expertise in Drupal, an open source web development platform. 

One of the new clients is the B&O Railroad Museum, a popular Baltimore City destination for tourists and student groups, for which Mindgrub is developing an "augmented reality"  tour. Mindgrub CEO Todd Marks describes augmented reality as taking digital content and superimposing it over the real physical world.

The tour will spotlight the historic railroad engines in the museum’s roundhouse. If you hold up an iPhone in front of an engine, Marks says, an animated cartoon character will pop up and talk about its history.
 
Marks says that besides the B&O Railroad Museum, other new clients it has added this year are Yamaha Motors, for which Mindgrub is developing a downloadable app with service information, and the University of Las Vegas, with an app for its alumni with deals and discounts in Las Vegas hotels and restaurants.
 
Marks founded the company in 2002 and was its sole employee until 2007. Mindgrub provides mobile and web application development and creative services. It has founded a spinoff product company called viaPlace.  
 
 
Source: Todd Marks, Mindgrub
Writer: Barbara Pash
 
 
 
 

Legal services for the poor and jobs training program were among the recipients of The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation grants in April and May, which totaled $8 million. The grants present a snapshot of the Baltimore-headquartered foundation’s grants of approximately $100 million per year.
 
The Legal Aid Bureau got $850,000 over two years, for free legal services and educational material for low-income adults. Job Opportunities Task Force got $750,000 over three years to support the Task Force’s and Baltimore CASH campaign’s financial literacy programs.
 
Other Baltimore recipients are:
International Rescue Committee, $150,000 over two years;
Maryland Center for Veterans Education and Training, $150,000;
Dayspring Programs, $100,000 over two years;
The League for People with Disabilities, $128,000;
House of Ruth Maryland, $250,000 over two years;
Family League of Baltimore, two grants totaling $175,000;
YMCA of Central Maryland, $120,000 over two years;
Art with a Heart, $40,000 over two years;
Resident Services, $80,000 over two years;
Wide Angle Youth Media, $50,000 over two years;
Institute for Christian & Jewish Studies, $50,000 over two years;
Community Law Center, $70,000 over two years; and
South Baltimore Learning Center, $25,000 over two years.

The foundation recently changed its award announcement format. Rather than issuing a grant list every two months, the foundation is issuing its grant approvals on a weekly basis via social media, primarily Facebook and Twitter. 
 
Craig Demchak, director of community affairs, says the Weinberg Foundation “is excited to share information on its grant making, reflecting the fine work of our many grantees who serve the poor and vulnerable. We are pleased to extend this vital, ongoing communication to a new audience through social media.”
 
The grants are earmarked for specific purposes. Two Baltimore organizations received six-figure grants.
 
Source: Craig Demchak, The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation
Writer: Barbara Pash; [email protected] 

The U.S. Army  is looking for a few good men and women. 

The 780^th Military Intelligence Brigade, the Army’s cyber systems intelligence and security unit at Fort George G. Meade, in Anne Arundel County, has embarked on a civilian recruitment effort.

"The Army established this emerging mission," Gregory Platt, the 780th Military Intelligence Brigade's senior civilian advisor, says of cyber threats, "and we are fleshing out the staff."

Over the next three years, the Brigade is hiring a total of 400 employees, starting with about 100 new employees this fiscal year and another 70 to 75 new employees per year until fiscal year 2015. The civilian employees will join 800 active duty military personnel who will work for the Brigade. 

Most of the civilian employees will work at Fort Meade but some will be assigned to Fort Gordon, Georgia, Platt says.

Prospective workers must be fully cleared for the positions. Platt says the jobs require technical and/or computer skills, especially those that apply to cyberspace operations like analytical skills and strategic planning.

“We specialize in operating systems and network topology,” he says. “We are looking for folks with experience and a desire to grow,” he says.

The salaries are competitive with private industry, and can be viewed on the U.S. Army web site, he says.

In 2010, the U.S. Army approved the creation of the 780^th Military Intelligence Brigade, the first of its kind, with help from the National  ecurity Agency, Department of Defense and U.S. Cyber Command, Army and Congressional staff, the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command. In 2011, the Brigade was activated to support U.S. and Army Cyber Commands with their missions to provide a proactive cyber defense. The Brigade was officially activated in the fall.

Source: Gregory Platt, U.S. Army 780^th Military Intelligence Brigade
Writer: Barbara Pash

Baltimore City is spending $150,000 to create a Climate Action Plan as part of the city’s overall sustainability initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 15 percent by 2015.

The city adopted the sustainability plan in 2009 but it wasn’t until this year that there was funding to implement it. Beth Strommen, director of the city’s Office of Sustainability, says Baltimore received $6.1 million from the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for a variety of energy projects, among them the climate action plan.

“Our goal is to help Baltimore be a more sustainable city, with environmental education and green buildings,” Strommen says.

But Baltimore has unique challenges.

Unlike many cities where the major source of greenhouse gas emissions is vehicle-related, in Baltimore the emissions are overwhelmingly come from commercial and residential buildings. That's because 40 percent of the housing stock was built prior to 1939.

"We are an old city with old houses," Strommen says. 

The Climate Action Plan will have different short-term and long-term goals, by 2020 and 2030, respectively. Stommen says the city has hired AECOM Technology Corp., a global company with expertise in climate action plans, to create the plan.

The plan will look at such issues as land use, green infrastructure, water and waste.

“We are including an adaptation piece,” says Strommen. “How do we adapt to extreme weather events, and to flooding in the Inner Harbor? How do we minimize economic loss? And, also, minimize loss of life with, for example, cooling centers.”

Strommen did not have a timetable for the plan’s completion. Once it is ready, Baltimore City has already received two grants, for a total of $107,000, to begin putting the recommendations in place. The city is also seeking additional federal and state money to implement the plan.
 
Source: Beth Strommen, Baltimore City Office of Sustainability
Writer: Barbara Pash

The Maryland Center for Entrepreneurship, an initiative of the Howard County Economic Development Authority, wants to ignite entrepreneurship in the county. To that end, the development authority is sponsoring its first-ever Race for Innovation, and hoping that it is the spark the sets the fire.
 
The event is scheduled for Tues. June 19 from 1 to 5 p.m. at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, 11100 Johns Hopkins Road, Laurel.  
 
The idea is for teams to work with coaches to develop ideas into business concepts, which are then pitched to investors.

"We want to drive more innovation and ideas” in Howard County, says Julie Lenzer Kirk, director of the Maryland Center for Entrepreneurship, located in the development group's Columbia office. “At the same time, we want to bring intellectual property” into the county.
 
Gloria Jacobovitz, program director, calls the event “high energy.” Says Jacobovitz, “We came up with the idea to help business development. An event like this usually takes a weekend but we will do it in a few hours.”
 
Jacobovitz notes that the event gives entrepreneurs and start-up companies an opportunity to interact with investors. “They are going to work together. It will create synergy between them,” says Jacobovitz, who expects 100 participants at the event.
 
The Maryland Center for Entrepreneurship was launched in December 2011. The event is an attempt to branch out to the broader entrepreneurship community, says Kirk, and thus it is open to all, not only Howard County residents.
 
“We are hoping to start a bunch of new jobs in Howard County,” Kirk says. “That’s why we are doing this event.”
 
Sources: Julie Lenzer Kirk, Gloria Jacobovitz, Howard County Economic Development Authority, Maryland Center for Entrepreneurship
Writer: Barbara Pash, [email protected]

Unleashed Technologies  is hiring 10 new full-time employees in sales and development. The additional staffing is the result of the Columbia, Md.-headquartered web firm’s arrangement to sell a web-based system that allows retailers to build and manage their online stores.
 
Unleashed Technologies designs and develops e-commerce web sites. The arrangement with SalesWarp, a storefront management system, “enables our customers to get all their e-commerce operations from one platform,” says Jen Silate, marketing manager of Unleashed Technologies.
 
Michael Spinosa is CEO of Unleashed Technologies, a leader in web and hosting solutions in the state and one of the state’s fastest growing web firms, according to Silate. Unleashed Technologies recently won three 2012 Blue Drop Awards, including web site of the year for its client, Eyemaginations. The awards are an international competition for companies that use the Drupal platform for development and design.
 
David Potts is CEO and founder of SalesWarp, developed by Baltimore's 6^th Street Commerce. SalesWarp manages pricing, order processing, shipping, inventory, SEO and customer data across multiple online stores from one system.
 
Silate says the arrangement allows Unleashed Technologies and SalesWarp to expand. "We will be reselling SalesWarp’s platform.”
 
Source: Jen Silate, Unleashed Technologies
Writer:  Barbara Pash   

A Beltsville IT storage firm has snatched up a 300,000-square-foot building in Glen Burnie so it can compete with companies in Northern Virginia, where 95 percent of the regional industry is located.

The AiNET CyberNAP facility will be the largest stand-alone data center in Maryland, Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C., according to Darrell Tanno, AiNET's vice president of business development.

AiNET's paid $1.6 million for the Anne Arundel County building. The 19-year-old company has two other facilities in Maryland. 

Founded by CEO Deepak Jain, a Howard County native, AiNET operates a secure, cloud storage service based on proprietary technology.  Jain stated that CyberNAP already has commitments from several customers. The facility is located near Fort Meade and is geared to offer specialized security features.  

Tanno expects that in the next five to seven years, when the Glen Burnie facility is operating at full capacity, it will have an “economic impact of upwards of $1 billion annually, much of it staying in Maryland.” 
 
The Glen Burnie facility will house more than 10,000 equipment cabinets and support up to 1 million servers. The facility itself will employ about 20 people but Tanno says that the real job impact will be AiNET’s clients who, because of AiNET's increased capacity, can handle more contracts. New jobs would be primarily for skilled IT workers but support personnel would be needed as well, he says.
 
AiNET opened its first facility in 2003, a 50,000-square foot data center in Beltsville. The 20,000-square foot Laurel data center followed in 2008.
 
AiNET provides IT services to clients in the public and commercial/private sectors. Tanno says the current split is 60 percent public sector, 40 percent commercial/private sector. Public sector clients include universities and government. Virtually all of the government clients are through system integrators, he says.
 
Source: Darrell Tanno, AiNET
Writer: Barbara Pash
 

The number of women serving on corporate boards in Maryland-headquartered companies is on the rise.

The number of female board directors increased a full percentage point in 2011 from the previous year, according to a study by nonprofit membership organization Network 2000. The Baltimore organization promotes the advancement of women in exective positions.
 
Women accounted for 10.2 percent of corporate board members in 84 companies last year. To qualify, a company must be headquartered in Maryland and be publicly traded on one of the three major exchanges.
 
The 2011 figure was the highest since Network 2000 began its annual census in 2005. It is the only such tally in the state.
 
Network 2000 is a private, membership-based organization whose mission is to encourage the advancement of women in professional and executive positions.
 
The census is not broken down by industries. But Ellen Fish, president of Network 2000 and executive vice president of CFG Community Bank, says that in prior censuses, professional science-oriented companies tended not to have many female members. “That had a negative effect” on the figures, she says.
 
The census found that of Maryland’s five Fortune 500 companies, all had at least one female board member, for a figure of 18.4 percent. In a national census of 1,400 Fortune 500 companies, 16.7 percent had female board directors.
 
The report also found that 42 percent of the qualifying companies had no women on their boards. The number of women of color holding board seats remained the same from the previous census, at less that two percent.
 
“The census helps us accomplish our mission,” says Fish.  “It allows us to raise the awareness issue in talks and programs.”
 
Source: Ellen Fish, Network 2000
Writer: Barbara Pash

The state and five universities are spending upwards of $5.8 million to help startups move from a concept to a company.  

Senate Bill 239/House Bill 442 establishes the Maryland Innovation Initiative Fund under the aegis of the Maryland Technology Development Corporation, or TEDCO. The bill passed the Maryland House and Senate and awaits the signature of Gov. Martin O'Malley, who is expected to sign it. 

“Maryland has premiere research universities but it ranks low on technology transfer,” Brian Levine, vice president, government relations, Tech Council of Maryland, says of the fund, which is intended to remedy that situation.
 
To participate in the fund, five universities are contributing to it. Johns Hopkins University, University of Maryland College Park and University of Maryland, Baltimore will each contribute at least $200,000 per year. The University of Maryland, Baltimore County and Morgan State University will contribute at least $100,000 per year. The state has allocated $5 million to the fund, which will begin operating July 1.
 
Calling the fund “a great benefit for the state,” Rob Rosenbaum, TEDCO’s president and executive director, says. “We have so much research but commercialization is needed. We have to stimulate that activity.”

TEDCO is establishing an office to administer the fund. The fund helps technology concepts reach the startup phase by providing marketing and supporting the the technology transfer offices that already exist at the participating universities.
 
Rosenbaum says the fund intends to work with 40 projects per year that will result in 12 to 15 new companies. Startup companies initially generate 2.5 jobs on average, with salaries the first year of more than $75,000 per job.
 
Rosenbaum says that “all policies of the fund have not yet been defined” but the hope is that the startups it helps stay in Maryland.
 
Ronald Wineholt, vice president of government affairs of the Maryland Chamber of Commerce, says the legislation provides better coordination of the universities’ transfer efforts. “Now that it’s under TEDCO, it’s a state-wide effort rather than an individual university,” he says.
 
Sources: Brian Levine, Tech Council of Maryland; Rob Rosenbaum, Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO); Ronald Wineholt, Maryland Chamber of Commerce
Writer: Barbara Pash

Newly passed legislation allows the state to review tax credits for individuals and businesses and to evaluate whether the credits are benefiting the state. 

The legislation eliminated a provision to "sunset", or automatically terminate, tax credits after businesses initially opposed the bill.

Tax credits have become a powerful tool in attracting businesses in film, biotech and other industries. Though the tax revenue lost from the credits are small, the number of business tax credits have increased, according to a legislative report on Senate Bill 739/House Bill 764. There are now a total of 30 different tax credits in Maryland, the report states.

The 2012 General Assembly passed the Maryland Program Evaluation Act. Gov. Martin O'Malley has not yet signed the legislation but is expected to do so. The business community opposed one of its provisions, to automatically end tax credits for about 20 to 30 entities on a rolling, five-year basis. The provision was deleted from the final bill.

"Not only would the provision have killed the tax credit, but in order to get the tax credit restored, the General Assembly would have had to act legislatively," says Brian Levine, vice president government relations, Technology Council of Maryland Inc. "The portion [of the bill] that impacted business negatively was removed."

About 70 entities and business-related activities are subject to periodic evaluation for tax credits. Originally opposed by the business community, the Maryland Program Evaluation Act went through several changes before getting the business community’s approval.  

The provision for automatic termination was removed from the bill, which, instead, sets up a process and an evaluation committee of members appointed by leaders of the Senate and House of Delegates that works in consultation with state agencies.
 
The committee must submit reports to the General Assembly if the tax credit should be continued, with or without changes, or terminated. Public hearings are also required. The onus is on the committee to show why the tax credit should be removed, says Levine, rather than having it happen automatically.

Levine says that legislators “worked with the business community to craft a compromise. We are pleased with the outcome. In the end, we did not oppose the bill.”
 
Levine says the Tech Council and the business community opposed the automatic termination provision.

For example, he says, the state has an $8 million biotechnology tax credit to help early-stage companies. In the original statue, the biotech tax credit does not have a termination date. Had the provision remained in the bill, it would have meant that "every five years, this tax credit would be terminated automatically and could only be revived through legislative action,” says Levine. “We felt that was untenable.”
 
Ronald Wineholt, vice president government relations for the Maryland Chamber of Commerce, calls the tax credits “one of the most important economic development” tools.

But, he says of the original bill, “We were concerned that automatic termination of tax credits could limit the usefulness of businesses that were considering coming to Maryland.”
 
 
Sources: Brian Levine, Tech Council of Maryland; Ronald Wineholt, Maryland Chamber of Commerce
Writer: Barbara Pash
 
 
 
 

A newly released nationwide survey ranks Maryland in the top five states for the number of “green” jobs.
 
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ first-ever Green Goods and Services Service is based on 2010 data. The state’s workforce came in fourth, with 87,000 Marylanders, or 3.6 percent of the workforce, holding jobs in green services and goods production.
 
“The green economy is thriving in Maryland, and it’s almost certain to expand in the future,” according to Stuart Kaplow, immediate past chair of the Green Building Council of Maryland.
 
Kaplow said he wasn’t surprised by Maryland’s high ranking. “But it’s nice to be validated” by an official survey, he says.
 
Of the green jobs in the state, the largest percent was in utilities, accounting for 13.6 percent of all employment in that sector. Almost 9 percent of all workers in the construction industry were “green,” as were those in transportation and warehousing.

California had the most green jobs, 338,000 workers or 2.3 percent of the state’s workforce. Vermont had the highest proportion of green jobs, 13,000 workers or 4.4 percent.

In the mid-Atlantic, Washington, D.C. had more green jobs than Maryland, 3.9 percent of its workforce, mainly because of the many public employees who were involved in green goods and services. Pennsylvania was the only other state in the mid-Atlantic that ranked in the top 10.

Green jobs accounted for 2.4 percent, or 3.1 million jobs, of all workers nationwide.  

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics; Stuart Kaplow, Green Building Council of Maryland
Writer: Barbara Pash