EDIC Votes To Send Two Candidates To Select Board For Approval
The Falmouth Economic Development and Industrial Corporation is poised to present to the select board for its approval two candidates to fill two open positions on the EDIC board.
Mark Lowenstein and Adrian Merryman each participated in a brief interview during the EDIC’s last two meetings. The Falmouth residents both shared information about their professional experience and areas of expertise with the board.
Mr. Lowenstein, who was interviewed on January 18, explained how he was recently active with the EDIC through his work with Community Development Block Grants. A former lawyer in the high tech field who grew up in the Boston area, Mr. Lowenstein has owned a house in Falmouth for 30 years and lived here full time for the past 10 years. He then ventured into entrepreneurship and found success in small businesses.
Later, he became a college professor in Vermont, where he attended college. As part of his work in higher education, Mr. Lowenstein joined the Rutland Economic Development Committee, which furthered his interests in creating economic vitality in communities. He has also worked recently with Cape Cod SCORE, a small-business management consulting agency.
“The reason I applied—because generally, I haven’t done anything with the town since I’ve lived here—was [because] I realized Falmouth is a great place to live but the economic situation down here is kind of a mixed bag, in my opinion,” Mr. Lowenstein said. “I’m interested in trying to help grow that economic base.”
Mr. Lowenstein also said he has worked with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and noted that, with all the world-class talent just down the road at WHOI, he sees the blue and scientific economies as opportunities for expansion and economic growth.
Mr. Merryman interviewed with the board on Tuesday, February 8, and detailed his experience as a venture capitalist and banker in America, Europe and elsewhere. He made Falmouth his permanent home in 2003 after spending a great deal of his childhood here, and said he cares deeply about the community that now serves as his children’s permanent home.
“I’m very invested in the community and care very much about the future of the community,” he said. “I think we’re at a very interesting juncture. I’d love to find a way to help work with you all to understand what the challenges are and the opportunities and participate in taking advantage of them. I believe very much in wanting to see strong economic vitality in this community, but by the same token I very much believe that we have to protect what makes this community special and make sure that that’s kept sacrosanct as we go into the future.”
Mr. Merryman has a master of business administration degree from Harvard Business School and spent time traveling the world as an investment banker. He retired from the business world in 2003 and has since been working with disenfranchised populations in vulnerable regions of the world to build banks and foster economic growth. While he is still attuned to national issues, Mr. Merryman said he is prepared to shift his focus to more local initiatives. With his in-depth understanding of the financial world and technology, he told the board, he is very focused on enabling entrepreneurs in Falmouth.
If approved by the select board, the addition of two members would mean the EDIC would have a full board. The composition of the board of directors for the EDIC must meet certain criteria, with at least one member having experience in each of the following areas: industrial development, finance, real estate, municipal government, and a representative of low-income people. The other two spots can be anyone with either a combination of those skills or a new skill set entirely.
The EDIC currently has two open positions—one designated for low-income/affordable housing and another for industrial development. The board is looking to reconfigure its role designations and is considering moving board member Michael B. Galasso to the low-income/affordable housing position, which would open up an at-large position on the board. Mr. Galasso agreed.
The EDIC has been recruiting new members for more than six months, and a main focus of its efforts has been on expanding the diversity of the board. At this time, the board is entirely composed of white men, with Lynne Broderick serving as EDIC administrator. EDIC executive director Wayne Lingafelter clarified that Mr. Merryman does bring ethnic diversity to the board, but no further clarifications were made.
“I know that we’re trying to balance a couple of different things here,” board clerk Thomas Feronti said. “We’re trying to balance the fact that we have a struggle every month for Lynne to make sure we have enough people to serve the board, but we’ve also talked multiple times about increasing the diversity, so it’s different faces on our board.”
Mr. Feronti asked the board if it would be beneficial to hold on advancing both candidates to seek more applicants with greater diversity, but board chairman Christopher Land was of the opinion that having two interested and eager candidates is good enough reason to move forward with the process.
“I think we started looking in July perhaps, and we haven’t had that much success,” he said. “We still struggle to have people get involved and be there, and here we have two candidates who have expressed interest and stayed with it. I agree. I’d love to have those other candidates step forward, but we haven’t found that person yet, so I think we should just move forward.”
Board members were in agreement that both applicants are extremely qualified with relevant experience and voted unanimously to advance both candidates to the select board for further interviewing.