CHRISTOPHER BRANDT TO SERVE AS CEO OF UPSURGE BALTIMORE
(BALTIMORE, Md.) — The Greater Baltimore Committee (GBC) today announced a commitment of $1.6 million in operating support for UpSurge Baltimore, GBC’s innovation and entrepreneurship team, over the next two years.
The commitment is funded by a coalition of leading Maryland institutions, including Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures, The Bisciotti Family Foundation, Brown Advisory, and the University of Maryland Medical System. Together, the organizations are providing the majority of UpSurge’s operating support and aligning behind a shared strategy to build a more competitive and connected innovation economy in Greater Baltimore.
GBC also announced that Christopher Brandt will serve as Chief Executive Officer of UpSurge Baltimore and join the GBC Executive Committee. Brandt will lead UpSurge’s work to advance Greater Baltimore’s innovation economy and strengthen collaboration among the region’s leading institutions, entrepreneurs and investors.
Brandt brings more than two decades of experience building, investing in, and scaling companies at the intersection of healthcare, technology and innovation. He founded Audacious Inquiry, a Baltimore-based healthcare technology company that grew to serve more than 1,100 hospitals and 75 million patients nationwide before its acquisition by PointClickCare in 2022, in one of the largest technology company exits in Baltimore’s history. He is also Managing Director of Audacious Capital, a private investment firm focused on healthcare, technology and innovation.
“We’re excited about this extraordinary commitment to UpSurge and about Chris’s leadership at this important moment,” said Mark Anthony Thomas, President and CEO of the Greater Baltimore Committee. “Since bringing UpSurge into GBC last year, we’ve worked to align its innovation strategy more closely with the region’s broader economic goals. This investment gives Chris and the UpSurge team the foundation to connect our assets more effectively, help promising companies grow here, and strengthen Greater Baltimore’s competitiveness.”
The commitment builds on growing momentum around Maryland’s unique position at the intersection of healthcare, life sciences, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity. That momentum was on display at the recent Inflection Point Healthcare Summit, which convened more than 350 policymakers, healthcare executives and innovators to explore how Maryland can leverage its value-based care model and innovation assets to improve health outcomes and drive economic growth. Maryland forms a crucial part of a broader phenomenon of biotechnology activity throughout the state, as well as Virginia and Washington, D.C., that Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News recently named the country’s third largest biopharma cluster.
“My colleagues and I believe Baltimore has the potential to become one of the nation’s premier centers for innovation-driven growth,” said Christy Wyskiel, Senior Advisor to the President of Johns Hopkins University for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. “Johns Hopkins generates extraordinary discoveries and talent. UpSurge is helping strengthen the connections among research, entrepreneurship, capital and industry that are essential to translating those discoveries into companies, jobs and lasting societal impact.”
“Increasingly, talent, capital and innovation determine which regions thrive,” said Mike Hankin, Co-Chief Executive Officer of Brown Advisory. “UpSurge is helping Baltimore compete at a higher level by bringing together leaders from across the public, private and nonprofit sectors around a shared vision for growth and opportunity.”
“The future of Maryland’s economy and the future of healthcare are increasingly intertwined. Our region is home to extraordinary strengths in medicine, research, technology and entrepreneurship, yet our greatest opportunity lies in connecting those assets more intentionally and at greater scale,” said Mohan Suntha, M.D., MBA, President and Chief Executive Officer of the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) and immediate past Chair of the GBC Board. “UpSurge is helping create that connectivity, enabling innovation that can improve lives, strengthen communities and position Greater Baltimore as one of the nation’s leading centers of health and life sciences innovation. UMMS is proud to be part of that effort.”
“We believe entrepreneurship can be a powerful engine for expanding opportunity and strengthening communities,” said Ryland Sumner, Founder and Managing Partner of Point Field Partners, on behalf of The Biscotti Family Foundation. “That belief led us to launch Blackbird Laboratories, where we are working with Baltimore’s world-class research institutions to translate promising science into new companies, attract talent and capital to the region, and build a stronger life sciences ecosystem. UpSurge has an important opportunity to extend that kind of connectivity across Baltimore’s broader innovation economy — bringing together our universities, healthcare systems, entrepreneurs, investors and major employers to help more ideas become companies and more of those companies grow here. We’re excited to support that work and its potential to create economic opportunity across our hometown.”
“Greater Baltimore already possesses many of the ingredients required to become one of the nation’s leading innovation economies,” said Brandt. “Our opportunity is to connect those assets more effectively — research, entrepreneurs, investors, healthcare systems, corporations and government — and translate them into more investment, more high-growth companies and greater economic value for the region. In particular, we have an opportunity to activate our anchor institutions to embrace innovation, adopt new models and partner more aggressively with innovators driving constructive change. This commitment provides a powerful foundation for that work.”
Over the next two years, UpSurge will focus on activating Greater Baltimore’s anchor institutions, expanding access to capital, strengthening commercialization pathways, connecting growth-stage companies with major customers and partners, attracting talent, and elevating Baltimore’s national profile.