[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 165 (Monday, December 19, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S14055-S14056]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  TRIBUTE TO DR. PHILLIP A. SINGERMAN

 Mr. SARBANES. Mr. President, I rise today to congratulate Dr. 
Phillip A Singerman on his very successful tenure as executive director 
of the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO). Dr. 
Singerman recently announced his intention to step down from this 
position at the end of the year.
  The Maryland General Assembly created TEDCO in 1999 as a quasi-State 
investment corporation to facilitate business growth and foster 
technology transfer. When Dr. Singerman came from the U.S. Department 
of Commerce to lead TEDCO in 1999, its budget was approximately 
$650,000. Since Dr. Singerman began, TEDCO's assets have increased 
nearly ten fold. Through Dr. Singerman's leadership and drive, TEDCO 
created innovative partnerships between Maryland's large and growing 
high-tech Federal sector and start-up businesses that allowed the 
private sector to harness and grow applications for the cutting-edge 
technologies developed by the Federal Government. This work has also 
allowed Maryland businesses to work with the Federal Government to 
``spin-in'' technology--connecting the best of the private sector's 
technology expertise to our Federal sector on behalf of our national 
interest.
  Through these and other efforts, TEDCO has gained a national 
reputation. For the last 2 years, it has been recognized by 
Entrepreneur Magazine as the leading backer of seed and early stage 
companies in the country. In fact, TEDCO's investments have been so 
successful that a company receiving its seed funding now typically 
receives 25 times that initial amount from other venture capital firms 
and the Federal Government over the following 3 years. In short, Dr. 
Singerman has done a tremendous amount to bolster Maryland's preeminent 
role as a national center of excellence for high technology innovation. 
As Richard C. ``Mike'' Lewin, former head of the Maryland Department of 
Business and Economic Development put it in a recent Baltimore Sun 
article: ``[h]e made TEDCO from scratch what it is today, the most 
effective technology development operation in the country.''
  Mr. President, I am proud to have worked with Dr. Singerman over the 
last 6 years. His contribution to the State of Maryland and to our 
Nation cannot be overstated, and I wish him the very best in all of his 
future endeavors. I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record 
the entire Baltimore Sun article about Dr. Singerman's tenure as 
executive director of TEDCO quoted above.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                [From the Baltimore Sun, Dec. 14, 2005]

                   Md. Tech Agency's Director Resigns

                  (By Tricia Bishop and David Nitkin)

       Phillip A. Singerman, who guided a quasi-state technology 
     development agency from the dot-com bust into the era of 
     homeland security-related startups, has resigned as its 
     executive director.
       In his six years leading the Maryland Technology 
     Development Corp., the former assistant secretary of the U.S. 
     Commerce Department in the Clinton administration helped 
     TEDCO support tech companies with everything from promotion 
     to venture capital. TEDCO is considered one of the top early-
     stage investors in the country.
       ``TEDCO's programs have now proven their effectiveness, the 
     organization has achieved a new level of stability, and a 
     competent and energetic staff has been put in place,'' 
     Singerman wrote in a letter he submitted Monday to the 
     agency's board of directors.
       ``The organizational tasks now facing TEDCO are more 
     administrative and less, entrepreneurial. Therefore,'' he 
     said, ``I believe the time is now appropriate for me to seek 
     new professional challenges.''
       Singerman, who was appointed to his post in August 1999 by 
     Democratic Gov. Parris N. Glendening, did not return phone 
     calls yesterday. His last day as executive director will be 
     Dec. 31.
       Renee M. Winsky, the group's deputy executive director, 
     will likely step in to fill the position on an interim basis 
     after that, although a formal announcement has yet to be 
     made.
       Because Singerman was well-respected, some of those 
     disappointed by the resignation saw it as the result of 
     political pressure. However, unlike, other recent turnovers 
     at state agencies, the immediate reaction was muted.
       The Maryland General Assembly created the organization in 
     1998, with the dot-com boom in full flower and bright kids 
     with big ideas becoming instant millionaires. TEDCO was given 
     the job of moving technology being developed within the 
     state's universities and federal laboratories into the 
     commercial world.
       ``It doesn't happen through osmosis. There has to be an 
     organization that is intensely focused on making it happen,'' 
     said Penny Lewandowski, an executive with the Edward Lowe 
     Foundation in Michigan and a former executive director of the 
     Greater Baltimore Technology Council. She was among the first 
     people Singerman met when he took the TEDCO post.
       ``He had a real understanding of the mission and what they 
     set out to do,'' Lewandowski said. ``For somebody, to be able 
     to pull out these companies and give them the help that they 
     needed and really put them on the map something that we 
     hadn't seen before.''
       Several TEDCO board members expressed, surprise at 
     Singerman's resignation, although talks had been going on as 
     to how the seven-year-old group could best progress.
       ``I think [TEDCO] has done an excellent job of getting us 
     to what I will call the first phase of this commercialization 
     effort,'' said Aris Melissaratos, secretary of the Department 
     of Business and Economic Development, which oversees TEDCO. 
     ``The challenge is to take it to the next level. I've been 
     having strategic discussions with the board over the last 
     couple of years of how do we do that.''
       Part of those discussions centered on whether Singerman's 
     contract would be renewed.
       ``I'm always looking for the next superstar to pop in. I 
     don't think these government jobs should be forever,'' said 
     Melissaratos, who is a member of TEDCO's board of directors. 
     ``I like Phil because he's a good guy. He did a super job. 
     Again, even though he did a super job, I wouldn't mind 
     finding a way to get the organization to the next level, and 
     I've been talking to Phillip about that continuously.''
       Del. Kumar P. Barve, a Montgomery County Democrat who was a 
     lead sponsor of the legislation that created the technology 
     investment agency, said Singerman was expecting to be 
     replaced by Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s administration.
       State Board of Elections records show that Singerman 
     contributed $950 in donations to former Lt. Gov. Kathleen 
     Kennedy Townsend between December 2000 and July 2002, months 
     before she lost the election for governor to Ehrlich. 
     Singerman gave, $250 to Ehrlich last year.
       Singerman ``has pretty uniformly gotten positive reviews. 
     But the governor wants to put his guy in charge, which is 
     technically his right to do,'' said Barve, who is the House 
     Democratic leader and a frequent critic of Ehrlich. ``Phil 
     was expecting to be replaced, and I'm sure that was part of 
     his motivation for leaving. Who wants to get fired?''
       Melissaratos and other board members, however, said, 
     politics didn't push out Singerman.
       ``In no sense, in my view, should it be implied that 
     Phillip was somehow forced out. He resigned his position in 
     his own volition. People were trying to convince him--[board 
     chairman] Frank [Adams] was trying to convince him--to 
     stay,'' said Theodore O. Poehler, vice provost of research at 
     the Johns Hopkins University and vice chairman of TEDCO's.
       On Monday, Singerman gave his resignation to Adams, who 
     said he reluctantly accepted it.

[[Page S14056]]

       ``When he finally told me what his reasons were, my first 
     inclination was to talk him out of it. But as I listened 
     carefully, it became clear as one would expect of Phillip, 
     that he had thought this through very carefully,'' said 
     Adams, who is also president and chief executive of Grotech 
     Capital Group, a venture capital firm based in Timonium.
       ``He likened himself to an entrepreneur with a startup 
     company. He'd gotten it off the ground, gotten it to the 
     point where it's very stable,'' said Adams, who believes 
     Singerman thought the time right to bring in more of a 
     manager-type executive director to ``free him up for another 
     endeavor.''
       In 1999, Singerman was lured away from the U.S. Commerce 
     Department, where he directed the Economic Development 
     Administration and its $400 million budget, to become the, 
     first executive director of TEDCO, with its seed budget of 
     about $650,000. Last fiscal year, TEDCO's budget had grown to 
     about $5.5 million.
       Landing Singerman was considered a coup at the time. He has 
     a bachelor's degree from Oberlin College and a master's and 
     doctorate from Yale University, experience in politics and 
     lobbying and was a former chief executive of a technology 
     center in Pennsylvania. He also had spent a couple of years 
     in the Peace Corps; teaching villagers in the Colombian Andes 
     about economic development.
       ``He made TEDCO from scratch what it is today, the most 
     effective technology development operation in the country,'' 
     said Richard C. ``Mike'' Lewin, a former head of the 
     Department of Business and Economic Development and a member 
     of the TEDCO board. ``This resignation is a real, and in my 
     opinion, unnecessary, loss. It just didn't have to happen.''
       Melissaratos said the board is trying to arrange a meeting 
     Monday to discuss how to best find a replacement for 
     Singerman and is likely to approve deputy executive director 
     Winsky as interim director.
       ``Whenever you have an organizational upheaval like this, 
     the smart thing to do is step back and not rush into 
     anything,'' said Adams, the chairman. ``[I hope] to find a 
     person who can come in with fresh eyes and say, `You could be 
     this' or `You could be that' and excite the board with a new 
     sense of vitality. That's the [silver] lining in this dark 
     cloud.''

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