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
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, 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.
Jake Daniele
Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD)
Jake Daniele advocates for small businesses and entrepreneurs through his role in Maine’s Office of Business Development. Jake travels the state assisting businesses with resource navigation, works on investment attraction, and acts as state government’s small business ombudsman. Prior to working for DECD, Jake started two promotional products companies and was a recipient of a Libra Future Fund grant before earning his MBA from the University of Maine. Jake operates Martial Arts programs in Cumberland and Freeport and is a former Freeport Town Councilor.
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
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
Founder & Past President, Hancock Gourmet Lobster Co.
Cal Hancock founded Hancock Gourmet Lobster Co. in 2000. She grew, managed and then sold the company in 2019. Hancock Gourmet Lobster Co. is an award-winning, premium seafood brand and winner of more than 15 food industry prizes from the International Fancy Food Show and the Specialty Food Association (the Oscars of the specialty food industry). The company specializes in sales direct to consumers via their website and to wholesale foodservice customers. Products have been featured on the Food Network including winning a Lobster Mac & Cheese Throwdown with Bobby Flay, on Oprah’s “list of favorite things” seven times running in addition to being featured in other publications like The New York Times, Chicago Tribune and Food & Wine Magazine. Prior to founding Hancock Gourmet Lobster Co., Cal spent 25 years as an executive in the healthcare field. Cal has an MS degree from The Ohio State University and a BS degree from Colby-Sawyer College.
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, 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
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
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.
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.