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Steven A. Silverman, Director
Montgomery County Department of Economic Development
(Biography)

Montgomery County, Maryland, is your gateway to the Mid-Atlantic's robust business community! Centrally located at the epicenter of the region's federal and advanced technology marketplace, we are literally next door to the Nation's Capital and are home to:

• Over 200 biotech companies
• The highest concentration of Ph.D.s in the nation
• One of the nation's top public school systems and an array of outstanding private schools
• Premier higher education offerings, including Montgomery College, the Universities at Shady Grove and Johns Hopkins University
• More than 100,000 advanced technology workers
• Nineteen federal research and regulatory agencies
• More entrepreneurs than any other jurisdiction in the nation
• The largest number of women and Asian owned businesses in Maryland
• Half of all Hispanic owned businesses in Maryland
• The 2nd largest and fastest growing number of African American owned businesses in Maryland

Montgomery County is two hours or less by air from 60 percent of the U.S. and Canadian population. We have three major airports offering 476 weekly non-stop flights to 35 destinations in 30 foreign countries. Federal agencies including the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) all call us home. So do industry leaders like Discovery Communications, Hughes Network Systems, Human Genome Sciences, Lockheed Martin, Marriott International, and MedImmune.

Our highly-successful Business Innovation Network nurtures and grows young entrepreneurs into thriving county employers.
Our nationally renowned 93,000-acre Agricultural Reserve helps protect, promote and support our diverse agribusinesses.
Our award-winning Small Business Mentorship Program pairs new business owners with successful business leaders.
Our Local Small Business Reserve Program helps ensure that local businesses get their share of county procurement contracts.

Combine this with our world-class conference and performing arts venues and array of culturally diverse restaurants and neighborhood communities, and it's easy to see why Montgomery County, Maryland is "The SMARTBusiness Location."