How Small GovCons Can Thrive in a Changing Federal Marketplace

Topic: How Small GovCons Can Thrive in a Changing Federal Marketplace

• How to interpret the White House’s Executive Orders
• Changes to small business set-aside programs
• What the 2025 Budget is telling us about the future
• Strategies for growth

About the Guest Speaker:

Shirley Collier, President of Scale2Market and host of the Growth Masters Federal podcast is a nationally known speaker, author, serial technology entrepreneur and federal business development management consultant. For over 30 years, she has worked in various areas of information technology and innovation management in university, government, and private industries including starting, managing, growing and selling four technology firms.

Her most recent company, Scale2Market, developed the highly popular D.A.V.I.E.™ growth framework for high growth government contractors and the Entrepreneur’s Playbook for early stage companies desiring to prosper in the federal marketplace.

Shirley has extensive C-level financial, marketing, operational, intellectual property and executive management skills honed through years of experience in her own companies, mentoring the CEO’s of other companies, and developing strategic business relationships with corporate, government and academic partners.

Shirley has a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing with a Master of Science degree in IT Management. She has published over 50 articles and spoken extensively on aligning business, government and Information Technology, IT security/governance, strategic planning, and global competitiveness through technology innovation and technology transfer.

In 2011, Shirley formed a non-profit organization techGrowth, Inc., to provide consultation to municipalities, non-profits and corporations across the country about economic development related to business incubation and technology entrepreneurship.

Boards and Commissions

Shirley served on the Board of FCNB Bank from 1997 – 2000 during which the bank with $1.6B in assets was sold to BB&T, headquartered in Winston Salem, N.C. She is the past Chair of the Board of the Howard County Economic Development Authority, and is a founding member and past President of the International Alliance of Technology Integrators. She formerly served on the Boards of the Howard County Chamber of Commerce (chairing the Education and Nominating Committees), the Neotech Incubator Advisory Board (founder and first Chair of the Advisory Board and served for an additional 10 years), and served on the advisory boards of numerous start-up firms. She served for 5 years on the board of the Domestic Violence Center of Howard County, and was the recipient of their Spirit Award. Shirley served on the Howard County Superintendent's Advisory Council for Educational Partnerships and was a co-founder of the Science Technology Engineering and Math Business and Education Council (STEMBEC). She is a founder of the Center for the Multi-national Development of Women in Technology after serving on UMBC’s Center for Women in IT Board for 7 years. She also is Chair Emerita of the Board of Trustees of the Horizon Foundation, a $90m community health foundation formed when Howard County General Hospital was sold to Johns Hopkins, who in her honor awards the “giraffe award” to a company exemplifying the best in social innovation and corporate responsibility in Howard County.

Shirley has served on numerous commissions and committees including the County Executive and County Council’s Compensation Committee, the Columbia Town Center Rotary annual fundraisers (for 7 years), The Heart Ball (chair for two years), the EDA’s Incubator Committee (chair for 2 years) and Technology Leadership Consortium, and 3 times for the Howard Community College’s Commission on the Future.

Awards

Shirley received the Woman of the Year award from the Business Women's Network of Howard County. She was awarded the EBO Outstanding Woman in Business award. Shirley was named one of Maryland's Top 100 Women in 1996, 2000 and 2005 and inducted into the “Circle of Excellence” by The Daily Record. She was named as one of the Arthritis Foundation's Women of Distinction, and founded "Computer Mania,” a free computer symposium for girls in the public school system to foster confidence in technology, mathematics and science. Computer Mania is now being funded by major corporations to reach middle-school girls throughout the region. Shirley participated in a State Department funded program to match female tech entrepreneurs in the U.S. with aspiring female tech entrepreneurs in South Africa. She continues to mentor young women in that region. She is a graduate of Leadership Howard County and was named Alumnus of the Year and received the Children’s Advocate Award.

Shirley was inducted into the Women’s Hall of Fame by the Howard County Women’s Commission. She received a Distinguished Leader Award from the YWCA at their first annual Women’s Leadership Luncheon. She was named economic development Volunteer of the Year by the Northeast Economic Developer’s Association. Shirley and her company also were awarded the Torch Award for ethical business practices by the Better Business Bureau of Greater Baltimore. She recently received the Trailblazer Award from the Center Club of Baltimore, and the GovConnects award by the Howard County Chamber of Commerce for developing and leading the ScaleUp program for small government contractors. She was also recognized as a Woman of Influence by I-95 magazine and was named one of the 10 most admired Business Leaders by the Inc. Magazine for 2022.