Join us to hear from these dynamic speakers:
Delali Dzirasa
CEO and Founder, Fearless
Delali Dzirasa is the CEO and founder of Fearless, an impact-focused digital services integrator building software with a soul, while creating the conditions for organizations and their people to thrive. In addition to Fearless, Delali is the founder of Hutch, a digital services incubator for underrepresented entrepreneurs, and he’s the founder of Fearless Sports, an apparel company with a mission to ignite, equip, and uniform the impactful. Fearless has been named to the Inc 5000 list, and he’s been named as one of Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneurs of the Year for the Mid-Atlantic Region.
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Suzette Moore
Senior Vice President & Chief Procurement Officer
Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA)
T. Suzette Moore is a highly experienced and successful leader with over 30 years in public sector procurement management. She is currently the Senior Vice President & Chief Procurement Officer for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), the second largest heavy rail transit agency in the United States. Prior to her appointment as Senior Vice President & Chief Procurement Officer for WMATA, Ms. Moore was appointed Assistant Secretary for Procurement & Logistics for the State of Maryland Department of General Services. She reported to a cabinet level Secretary and advised all levels of state government concerning procurement laws, regulations, and policy. Preceding her appointment as Assistant Secretary, she served as the Chief Procurement Officer for the Maryland Aviation Administration where she directed and supervised the Office of Procurement, responsible for large, complex and multi-year contracts for BWI Airport.
Suzette is a transformational leader and in each of these positions, she has demonstrated enthusiastic leadership, a positive attitude, and exceptional customer focus. Her can-do spirit, growth mindset and focus on continuous improvement have made positive impacts in every organization she has served. Suzette holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Legal Studies from the University of Maryland and a Master of Science in Organizational Leadership from Norwich University.
“Each year we award over $2.2 billion in annual contract awards. We have large prime contractors and sub-contractors for major construction projects, service contracts, and opportunities for small, minority and disadvantaged businesses,” said Vice President of Contracting and Procurement T. Suzette Moore. “We welcome companies large and small around the region to see what Metro has to offer.”
Debra Brown
U.S. Small Business Administration, Baltimore District Office
Lender Relations Specialist, Economic Development Specialist
Debra Brown is a Lending Relations Specialist and Economic Development Specialist with over 34 years of experience in the banking industry and 16 years in the federal government with the Small Business Administration. As a Lender Relations Specialist, Debra meets with lenders to discuss strategic plans to serve the disadvantaged communities with funding in support of small businesses. Debra also has experience verifying the loan balance, assessing lien situations, confirming disposition of collateral, assessing the assets of the borrower and other guarantors, determining the interests of other creditors and identifying assets of the borrower which may provide recovery to the SBA on a National level, and providing Access to Capital for start-ups and existing small businesses.
As an Economic Development Specialist, Debra conducts training events to ensure that all businesses have an equal opportunity for growth. The trainings are not only for small business but also the lenders to maintain up-to-date within SBA’s policies and procedures.
Kisha A. Brown, Esq.
Founder and CEO, Justis Connection
Kisha A. Brown, Esq., is the Founder and CEO of legal tech startup Justis Connection, an online marketplace dedicated to the Black experience in the law. Currently it operates the nation’s only Black attorney referral & legal resource platform. She is passionate about bringing diverse perspectives to legal tech and democratizing access to the law.
In her past life she revamped the Baltimore City Civil Rights Office as Executive Director, authored several Maryland laws as the Director of Legislative Affairs for the Maryland Office of the Attorney General and as the Director of Civil Rights. She started off as a child support litigator and policy advocate at the Baltimore Legal Aid Bureau. She attended Wellesley College and Georgetown University Law Center.
Randy Croxton
Senior Vice President and Chief Investment Officer
Meridian Management Group
Randy Croxton has nearly 35 years of experience in the public and private financing arena, with particular emphasis on small and minority business development. Mr. Croxton is Senior Vice President and co-founder of Meridian Management Group, Inc., which began in 1995.
As a Partner, Mr. Croxton is responsible for initiating, underwriting, structuring, closing, syndicating, and monitoring of investments for MMG Capital Partners. He received his bachelor’s degree from Morgan State University.
Louis “Lou” Hutt
CEO and Founder, The Hutt Company
CEO and Founder of The Hutt Company, Certified Public Accountants, LLC, and The Hutt Law Firm, Lou Hutt established both firms over 25 years ago. Lou provides financial management and advisory services to individuals and enterprises. He specializes in regulatory and tax compliance, financial oversight and risk management, and strategic financing alternatives. He is recognized as an innovator in business accounting and law. His contributions have been recognized by Washington University’s Olin School of Business, who named Lou its Distinguished Alumni of the Year and the U.S. Small Business Administration, who named Lou as an Accounting Advocate of the Year.
Lou brings his vibrant energy and unique insight into financial planning to a national audience on The Lou Hutt Show, airing weekly on SiriusXM Radio and has authored The Road to Mega Success: Simple Strategies for Enriching the Bottom Line, a go-to guide for best practices in financial leadership which is now in its 3rd edition. Before launching his own firm at the age of 28, Lou completed a legal clerkship with the Honorable Robert Bell, Retired Chief Justice of the Maryland State Court of Appeals, worked as a senior auditor at Ernst and Young, and lectured at Morgan State University as the Ernst and Young Visiting Professor of Accounting. As a graduate of the Olin Business School of Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Maryland School of Law, he is a pioneer for diversity and representation in finance and accounting. He is motivated by his wife of 41 years, Nellie, their three children, and their two granddaughters.
Y. Maria Martinez
Special Secretary
Governor’s Office for Small, Minority & Women Affairs
Y. Maria Martinez was appointed Special Secretary of the Governor’s Office of Small, Minority & Women Business Affairs by Governor Wes Moore and began service to the State of Maryland in July 2023. As a coordinating office within the Executive Branch, the Office of Small, Minority & Women Business Affairs connects the small business community to greater economic opportunities. Special Secretary Martinez is responsible for the administration and implementation of the state’s Minority Business Enterprise, Veteran-Owned Small Business Enterprise, and Small Business Reserve procurement programs across 70 agencies and departments. Her unit conducts statewide training and outreach programs and connects small, minority, women, and
veteran business owners to a vast array of state, federal, and local resources.
A first generation American and lifelong Marylander, Maria has more than 25 years of experience in the private sector. Prior to joining the Moore-Miller Administration, she was the Chief Strategy Officer for Project Enhancement Corporation (2017-2023) and Owner/CEO of Respira. Throughout her entrepreneurship journey, she has opened, closed, and sold multiple small and micro businesses and mentored over 200 entrepreneurs.
As a transformational leader, Maria was honored to have been part of the inaugural class of the Conflict Resolution Public Policy Fellow Program of the University of Maryland School of Law and Mediation Conflict Resolution Office and the Greater Baltimore Committee Leadership Program.
Maria is a fierce advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion. She has served on numerous boards and organizations, including the Governor’s Commission on Hispanic Affairs, the Maryland Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the United States Chamber of Commerce, and the NAACP Baltimore Chapter Advisory Board. She has also testified before the United States Senate and Congress on a variety of matters related to women and minority owned businesses and served on the Economic Recovery Advisory Board Workforce Development Task Force under President Obama.
An active community volunteer, Maria has held leadership positions with the United Way of Central Maryland, the Dean’s Advisory Board of Morgan State University, the Weinberg Center for Women’s Health, Goodwill of Central Maryland, the Maryland Women’s Heritage Museum, and the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship. She currently serves on the board of the Latino Education Advancement Fund and the Ellicott City Partnership.
Maria is a proud wife, mother, and grandmother of a blended family. She resides in Howard County.
Melanie Reeder
Vice President, Commercial Relationship Manager
Fulton Bank, 2023 Maryland Small Business Awards – Financial Services Champion
Melanie Reeder currently serves as the Vice President, Commercial Relationship Manager for Fulton Bank. She has guided clients through financing options for real estate and asset purchases, using both traditional and modern banking methods. In the community, she is a frequent presenter for the Maryland SBDC, volunteers with the Anne Arundel County YMCA, and is a founding member of PaceSetters of Annapolis.
Before joining Fulton Bank, nineteen years ago, Reeder owned a restaurant and coffee shop in Fells Point, employing over 125 people having used SBA loan guarantees to get her businesses up and running.
Michael Schneider
Vice President, Wolf Den Associates
Michael Schneider is an accomplished business professional and management consultant with over 25 years of experience within a diverse range of industries and business environments. Michael is highly skilled in the areas of business development, government contracting, contract management, project management, business readiness, public speaking, strategy, and PMO/Program Control.
As the founder and President of Bounce Back Consulting, Michael has grown Bounce Back from a single person operation into a full-service boutique consulting firm focused on pursuit, transition, and service delivery of government opportunities at the federal, state, and local levels. Under Mr. Schneider’s leadership, Bounce Back has assisted clients in attaining over $4 billion in government contract awards (federal, state, and local), as well as conceptualizing solutions for several Fortune 200 companies. At the start of 2022, Bounce Back Consulting merged into Wolf Den Associates (WDA) a premier, industry leading Government Consultancy located in Northern Virginia.
Michael serves as Vice President supporting WDA clients’ most strategic growth initiatives using his wide range of government, consulting, technical, and business experience. Michael supports complex engagements across all four of Wolf Den’s primary lines of business, including capture and proposal efforts, management consulting and strategic planning, buy-side transaction advisory support, and market research and competitive intelligence. Michael also serves as the Orals Practice lead and coach supporting clients in preparation for presentations to government.
Alison Tavik
Director, Communications & Outreach
Governor’s Office of Small, Minority & Women Business Affairs
Alison Tavik is the Director of Communications and Outreach with the Governor’s Office of Small, Minority & Women Business Affairs. Her 25+ years of public relations, marketing, and outreach experience in both the public and private sectors make her an excellent resource for small, minority, women, and veteran business owners.
In her current role, Tavik oversees a statewide outreach program that reaches over 15,000 entrepreneurs each year on both virtual and live platforms. She helps them navigate complicated procurement processes, shares strategies for mining public data, and connects them to a broad range of small business resources.
Her responsibilities include management of the agency’s outreach and educational programs, social media channels, web content, media relations, and legislative reporting requirements. Tavik joined the Office of Small, Minority & Women Business Affairs in 2012 after serving four years as the Public Relations Manager of the Maryland Department of Transportation’s Office of Minority Business Enterprise, the State’s official certification unit. During her private sector career, she worked in the banking and healthcare industries where she was responsible for media relations, marketing, advertising, public relations, and consumer education.
Raised in Frostburg, Maryland and a graduate of Salisbury University, Tavik resides in Anne Arundel County.
Russell C. Teter III
Director of Training
Maryland Small Business Development Center (SBDC) Network
Russell C. Teter III, CVB, M.B.A/Technology Management is a certified coach/facilitator and has personally coached over 13,000 entrepreneurs (with a focus on government contractors) during a 25-year career across nearly every major industry sector. Mr. Teter is currently the Director of Training for the SBDC at University of Maryland, focusing on creating and conducting executive training/coaching for CEOs of independently-owned businesses (www.mdsbdc.umd.edu/accelerator). He is certified by Franklin Covey, the world’s premier leader in the areas of strategy execution, decision-making, customer loyalty, leadership, and individual effectiveness. He is also a Certified ValueBuilder (CVB) Coach and Kaufman Foundation TechVenture facilitator. He also partners with Dale Carnegie Training.
Teter has acquired hundreds of millions of dollars in equity/debt financing for his clients; coordinated/ facilitated thousands of training programs; obtained/managed multi-year government contracts; assisted in developing leadership materials for Fortune 500 executives; performed tax/bookkeeping/auditing services; and handled legislative/constituent issues for a member of Congress at his Capitol Hill office. He also served as an AmeriCorps member (First Class) where he focused on at-risk youth, flood victims, environmental issues and disabled veterans. Mr. Teter is a published author and has received numerous awards.