ACE Annual Meeting & MTI's new MERC program

Matthew Hoffner

Matt currently serves part time as an Entrepreneur in Residence with Maine Technology Institute working with their portfolio companies and applicants to develop success strategies for their individual companies.   He also is coordinating the grant programs for MTI distributing the ARPA funding through several MTI programs.

Matt graduated as an engineer started his career with Exxon where he was a field engineer and eventually a senior manager with their retail, industrial and chemical divisions throughout the US. He has been involved with a number of start-up companies and organizations since coming to ME in 1987.  For 10 years, he was one of the original senior managers for WEX in South Portland and left after 11 years as the EVP of Sales and Marketing.  He later started a B2B marketing and sales outsourcing company that had over 100 professionals at client locations throughout the US.  He was the President and CEO of JobsInTheUS, the parent company of JobsInME that realized exceptional growth before a successful sale in 2006.  In 2008, he joined with a partner in the UK to start an international job board marketplace called Jobg8 which has grown to be a major trading platform within that industry.   He was appointed to the board of the Maine Venture Fund for 6 years and was the chairman of that fund from 2014 through 2016.  Upon leaving that board he became chairman and managing director for one of its portfolio company (Interspec) that needed assistance.  That turnaround was successful and the company returned to profitability and growth and was successfully sold in 2017.  He is also an Angel investor with investments in several Maine companies.  He serves as the chairman of Mobile Price Card in Bangor ME.

Matt has expertise in developing and implementing growth strategies, especially for businesses in the B2B marketplace.  He has experience in the funding of start-up companies and developing growth strategies that address the challenges of high growth companies.

Matt lives at Diamond Cove on Great Diamond Island in the Casco Bay and enjoys all the benefits of island living in Maine.

Emily Braley is a Maine native and holds a BA in Religion and a BA/MA in from the University of Florida (Go Gators!). Her desire to study economics stems from her passion for economic development in Maine as well as internationally. She has volunteered in community development projects around the globe, including India, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, and Nepal. She is currently an ambassador to an economic development NGO, PISC-Nepal, located in Kathmandu, Nepal. Additionally, Emily has worked with USAID to research and develop a gender analysis used to direct gender mainstreaming into USAID/Mongolia’s programming efforts. Though much of her experience has been international, she is excited to be back in her beautiful home state to support Maine businesses.