An Arizona businessman has been named the new executive director of the Maine Center for Entrepreneurial Development.
The center’s board of directors selected Thomas G. Rainey after a nationwide search that began after Don Gooding announced his resignation in March. Rainey will assume the role on Sept. 6, 2016.
Rainey is an economic development consultant in Phoenix, Ariz., currently president of his own firm, Rainey & Associates, according to his LinkedIn profile. His profile also lists him as president of the Arizona Business Incubation Association.
His résumé lists several roles over the past 20 years developing and managing business incubators and entrepreneurial programs. In recent years, he was, for a short time, president of the Northern Arizona Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology, and also led BioInspire, a medical devices accelerator in the Phoenix area.
His move to Maine will be a return for him to New England. Between 2002 and 2007 he served as the first president of the Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies, a partnership with the University of Vermont. Before that, he worked with the Dartmouth Enterpreneurial Network at Dartmouth College and the state of New Hampshire to develop a high-tech incubator in Lebanon, N.H.
In the 1990s, Rainey led the development of six NASA-funded business incubator facilities in Florida.
“Tom is the right person to help MCED transition to the next level,” Catherine Renault, chair of the MCED board, said in a statement. “He has demonstrated success in delivering business assistance services to high-growth companies in rural and underserved areas, and significant results identifying and securing funding for these programs. We were also impressed with his international experience, including with Canada and Europe, as well as his strong business and personal ties to New England and Quebec.”
Rainey graduated from Washington University in St. Louis, and has a Master’s Degree in Science and Technology Policy from Lund University in Sweden.
