🔒On the Record: Sarah Delmar aims to bolster Maine’s life sciences industry

Sarah Delmar, an economic development expert who grew up in the Hancock County town of Orland, recently returned to Maine from Boston to lead the new Maine Life Sciences Center — a statewide initiative housed within the Maine Technology Institute. Mainebiz caught up with her at Cloudport Coworking in Portland to find out more. Mainebiz: How have your rural roots shaped your career trajectory? Sarah Delmar: I spent my career in economic development after growing up in a mill town and seeing how our community has never fully recovered from the loss of the mill. That gave me a firsthand view of what over-reliance on a single industry can look like and how hard reinvention is without the right investment and support. Coming back to Maine after working in urban centers on next-generation economies driven by startups and company creation, my North Star is: How do those models translate to rural communities and how do they show up in my own community? The other thing that stands out to me is how connected Maine is. We’re just one degree of separation away from one another. That gives us a competitive advantage because we can work together quickly and get to decision-makers fast. We have opportunities to collaborate in ways that I didn’t experience in Boston. MB: What is the Maine Life Sciences Center? SD: The Maine Life Sciences Center has an economic development mandate to grow this important sector here in the state. Modeled after well-established best practices from other states, we are a strategy and advocacy body, not a program operator, designed to set direction and mobilize partners. Life sciences is a complicated and capital-intensive industry. The states that have been most successful are the ones that are best organized and mobilized around making sustained, forward-looking investments. This is Maine acknowledging what’s already here and committing to accelerate life sciences for the next generation. MB: As the center’s inaugural director, what are your priorities for the first year? SD: In the first year, we need to demonstrate early momentum and show what this model can unlock for the state. We’ve convened our inaugural advisory board, and we’re focused on advancing a small number of near-term, high-impact initiatives that build credibility while defining where Maine can compete and win. MB: Where do you see Maine’s biggest competitive advantages in life sciences? SD: One of Maine’s defining characteristics is that life sciences doesn’t show up as a single dominant industry — it cuts across a number of sectors. Here, life sciences is just as likely to come out of our oceans and forests as it is to be traditional drug discovery. What makes Maine unique is our ability to lean into those advantages — whether that’s blue biotech, animal health or innovations in rural health care delivery and health tech — alongside world-class anchor institutions like the Jackson Laboratory, which brings deep expertise in genetics and genomics. MB: How long will it take to build critical mass in life sciences? SD: Life sciences operates on long time horizons — it’s a marathon, not a sprint. But the reason states lean into it is because of the outsized impact: it drives high-quality jobs, attracts investments and delivers real advances in human, animal and environmental health. Growing a sector like this takes decades, not years. The key is capturing and concentrating what’s already here, because the decisions we make now will determine whether Maine fully captures that opportunity. We also need to do a better job of telling our story. MB: Why is this work so important for Maine’s future? SD: Life sciences is already an important industry for Maine, and it’s only going to become more important. When we look at the economy of the future, it’s going to be a huge piece of that economy. It’s critical not only because of the kinds of problems it solves and the ways it improves the lives of Mainers, but because it can continue to be a major competitive engine for the state, particularly as Maine looks to diversify its economy and create high-quality jobs across both urban and rural communities.