John Wasilisin

John M. Wasilisin is a Maryland economic-development executive best known for his long tenure at TEDCO, the Maryland Technology Development Corporation. He joined TEDCO in 2007 as deputy director, later served as vice president / chief operating officer and executive vice president / chief operating officer, and was TEDCO’s interim or acting executive director from September 2009 to September 2010 and again from January 2016 to August 2017. In 2016, he was listed as TEDCO’s acting executive director, president, and COO.

At TEDCO, Wasilisin helped direct policy and programs for Maryland’s technology commercialization and startup funding platform. TEDCO’s stated role is to identify, invest in, and help grow Maryland technology and life-science companies. During his tenure, he helped launch or expand programs including the Rural Business Innovation Initiative, the Pre-Seed Builder Fund, the Incubator Challenge, the SBIR/STTR Proposal Lab, the Maryland Innovation Initiative, and the statewide Entrepreneur Expo.

Before TEDCO, Wasilisin held senior government roles including Deputy Secretary of the Maryland Department of Budget and Management, Deputy Secretary of the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, Chief Administrative Officer for Baltimore County Government from January 1999 to February 2003, and Director of the Baltimore County Office of Employment and Training. MEDA’s biography says he spent 44 years across business/government service, including 34 years in economic and workforce development.

After leaving TEDCO in January 2019, Wasilisin became CEO and Executive Director of Maryland$aves, the Maryland Small Business Retirement Savings Program. MEDA later reported that he retired from Maryland$aves in fall 2021. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Management and Administration from the University of Baltimore’s Merrick School of Business and is a graduate of the 2005 Leadership Maryland program.

• Wasilisin’s investment work was primarily institutional through TEDCO, not a personal angel-investing practice found in public sources.
• His focus at TEDCO was Maryland-based or Maryland-connected technology and life-science startups that could commercialize research, attract follow-on capital, create jobs, and strengthen the state’s innovation economy.
• He emphasized management quality in startup selection. In a Washington Post interview, he said: “When you’re looking at any company to invest in, the most important thing to look at is the management team, the people,” adding that TEDCO looked at “the jockey more closely than the horse.”
• He supported university commercialization. TEDCO quoted him saying the Maryland Innovation Initiative was “the only program in Maryland that supports the transition of technology from the academic research laboratory through product development to commercialization in a start-up company.”
• He pushed for broader geographic and demographic reach in Maryland, including rural entrepreneurs and economically underserved founders. On rural Maryland, he said TEDCO wanted those founders to be “aware of our resources and had access to them.”
• He also viewed ecosystem-building as part of the investment strategy, creating TEDCO’s Entrepreneur Expo to gather entrepreneurs, investors, researchers, universities, financial institutions, and support organizations in one statewide forum.