By Megan Sayles
AFRO Business Writer
msayles@afro.com
The Greater Baltimore Committee (GBC) will hold its 69th annual meeting at Tradepoint Atlantic in Sparrows Point on May 23. The event will mark the unveiling of the organization’s 10-year economic opportunity plan, which will create a roadmap to achieve a globally competitive and equitable economy in the region.
The strategy is a part of GBC’s larger multi-year agenda that is designed to accelerate economic opportunity, transportation, infrastructure and collective impact in Greater Baltimore.
“Over the last year, we’ve pursued the Tech Hub, we’ve launched an effort to design a regional brand and an effort to tackle the city’s vacant housing challenge. The 10-year plan will institutionalize that level of work,” said Mark Anthony Thomas, CEO and president of GBC.
“We’ll outline the types of things the region needs to collaborate on, the areas of big opportunity where we see growth and potential job opportunities and the ways we want to collaborate to create opportunities that are critical for the region.”
Established in 1955, GBC maintains over 400 partners, including leading businesses, higher education institutions, nonprofits and philanthropic organizations. Together, they work to address civic challenges and advance the region’s economy.
In 2022, GBC merged with the Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore, aligning the two organizations under the mission of positioning Greater Baltimore to prosper in the global economy. Thomas became president and CEO the same year.
Under his leadership, GBC became the lead organization of the Baltimore Tech Hub, a designation bestowed by the federal government last October. Through the program, Greater Baltimore is competing for funding for projects in predictive healthcare technologies.
GBC also joined Mayor Brandon M. Scott and Baltimoreans United In Leadership Development (BUILD) in an agreement to confront Baltimore City’s vacant housing crisis over the next 15 years.
Thomas considers the Greater Baltimore region a hidden secret.
“We have a lot of great assets. People obviously know the institutions that are here,” said Thomas. “But, when you think about development language and the narrative that the rest of the world looks for in markets where they’re expanding and investing, we haven’t had the chance to tell that story the right way.”
He thinks GBC’s recently released Investment Scorecard for the Region and the upcoming 10-year economic plan will help to better illustrate the economic momentum of Greater Baltimore.
“These are foundational efforts to start to build awareness around Baltimore as a place where people should be investing and Baltimoreans as a people that folks should be investing in,” said Thomas.
GBC’s Annual Meeting will run from 5:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Registration for the event closes on May 21.
“If you’ve never been to Tradepoint Atlantic, and you’ve never seen our port, export and industrial economy up close and personal, we’d love to have you at the meeting to be a part of it,” said Thomas.
Megan Sayles is a Report for America corps member.
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