Advancing Technology through Entrepreneurship

CIC Hires Veteran Start-Up Exec to Manage Expansion

ANNAPOLIS, MD (February 5, 2004) - The Chesapeake Innovation Center (CIC) , the nation’s first business incubator for the homeland security sector, has hired Mark Sauter as its chief operating officer. Sauter has served as a senior executive at several venture capital-backed companies. He joins the CIC from a homeland security training provider and is currently co-writing a college textbook on the subject for a major publisher.

“Mark combines operational experience in high-growth companies with a keen understanding of the homeland security marketplace; it’s the perfect combination to help our organization and our clients reach their full potential,” said John Elstner, Executive Director of the CIC.

The CIC -- an initiative of the Anne Arundel Economic Development Corporation (AAEDC) in partnership with the National Security Agency, Innovent Nokia, ARINC, Piper Rudnick, LLP, and Whiteford Taylor and Preston, LLP -- currently serves eight high technology companies. Responding to strong demand, the CIC plans to double the number of its clients and is now expanding its facility at 175 Admiral Cochrane Drive.

The incubator helps client companies achieve success by providing them with business assistance, mentoring, market intelligence, flexible office space and access to networks of potential investors, customers and strategic partners.

“We’re expanding to support even more entrepreneurs whose companies will help maintain America’s technological edge while enhancing Anne Arundel County’s economy,” said Sauter.

A graduate of Harvard University and the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, Sauter served as an Army officer in infantry and Special Forces units. In recent years he has held the positions of general manager at the American Institute of Homeland Defense, which provides training and education services to government and academic clients, and vice president of the American Public University System, an online institution serving the defense and homeland security markets.

The CIC is now accepting applications from companies focused on the homeland security, information technology, and/or communications sectors. More information is available at www.cic-tech.org or by contacting Sauter at msauter@cic-tech.org, 410-224-2030, ext. 106.