Marina Bowie, a program associate at Biobased Maine, has been named executive director of the trade organization, which promotes the state’s biobased manufacturing industry.
Bowie, who has been with the organization since graduating from the University of New Hampshire in 2018, replaces Charlotte Mace, who was named director of the state’s new Office of Business Development and Innovation in May.
Biobased Maine works to attract investment for the state’s biobased manufacturing industry, in which renewable chemicals and products are sustainably made with renewable resources from forests, farms and the ocean.
“I’m honored to take on a leadership role at Biobased Maine, and to build on the major progress we’ve made for this emerging industry in Maine in recent months,” Bowie said in a news release. “We marketed Maine’s assets for investment at national and international biotechnology conferences, and brought back promising leads for Maine.”
She said the organization remains heavily involved in the FOR/Maine coalition to help achieve the goal of 40% growth of Maine’s forest products industry by 2025, and is working with the Maine Technology Institute to finalize the first comprehensive database of emerging biobased technologies in the state.
“I look forward to engaging more deeply with our members to grow this innovative, sustainable industry and bring high-paying green jobs to our state,” she said.
Jamie Chittum, Biobased Maine’s board president, said Bowie “will build on the excellent work” of Mace, “who established and grew the emerging biobased industry in Maine.”
“Under Bowie’s leadership, I know that Biobased Maine will be well-positioned to advance the industry and bring major investment to this growing sector in Maine,” Chittum said.
Bowie studied economics and sustainability at UNH. While there, she spent a semester in Denmark, where she saw first-hand how an economy can prosper and a country’s citizens can thrive in a sustainable way, the release said.
“From her experience in Copenhagen as well as from working as a sustainable economies intern at Manomet — a Massachusetts-based nonprofit that works to apply science and engage people to integrate sustainability in all industries — Marina discovered a passion for sustainable development that promotes economic growth,” the release said.
Mace, as director, led an economic development strategy focused on the diversification of Maine’s natural resource-based industries and also worked to attract outside investment to Maine by developing relationships with investors, technology companies and brands, and matchmaking with industry and rural communities, the organization said when she stepped down.
She was a 2016 Mainebiz Next List honoree and was recognized for her advocacy of the emerging biobased manufacturing sector and its potential to create new opportunities for adding value to Maine’s vast forest resources in a time of rapid change and transition for the rural communities that have lost their major employer and taxpayer.