Serving Caroline, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Anne’s, Somerset, Talbot, Wicomico, Worcester Counties in Maryland
Rick Leibowitz has over 12 years of experience supporting small businesses as Director of SBDCs in six different States. In the private sector, he has served on the executive teams in the food manufacturing, hospitality, and professional services industries. He began his professional career as a small business owner, having operated four retail/wholesale bagel bakeries in NJ, Pennsylvania, and Alaska. He most recently served as the CFO of Business Impact NW, a Community Development Funding Institution (CDFI) working with the finance team to help support organizational decision-making, grant management, and budgeting fiscal resources. Business Impact NW manages a loan portfolio with $21M in assets. The organization also provided technical assistance programs for small in the Pacific Northwest through their Veterans Business Outreach Centers, Women's Business Centers, a Minority Business Development Agency, Food Business Resource Center, and Loan Readiness Center programs.
Rick received his MBA from Western Governor's University and his bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University. He enjoys playing ice hockey, hiking beautiful trails, and baking artisan pizzas.
Administration
Caroline, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Annes, Talbot - Eastern Region
Vanette is the Administrative Associate for the SBDC Eastern Region at Chesapeake College. After retiring from 32 years of service with the State of Delaware, she worked in the President/Vice President office for five years at Chesapeake College. She has a BS in Organizational Leadership and Management from Regent and a MS in Information Technology from American InterContinental University (AIU).
Business Consultant
Caroline, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Annes, Talbot - Eastern Region
Greg joined the SBDC Eastern Region Team in July, 2020 and primarily supports clients located on the Upper Shore from Dorchester to Kent County. He holds a BS from SUNY Stony Brook and an MS from UMBC and brings to the role more than fifteen years of experience as a medical practice administrator. His career includes broad business management, facilitation and consulting experience and is a certified medical practice executive (CMPE).
Sumathy Chandrashekar is a professor of Information and Decision Sciences at the Perdue School of Business, Salisbury University. She received her bachelor's degree, majoring in Economics, History and Sociology, and her Master of Arts in Philosophy (M.A) from Bangalore University, India. Subsequent to that, she received her M.B.A. from Salisbury University and has over 15 years experience in teaching basic statistics, regression analysis, and time-series forecasting, statistical quality control, and other related operations management topics to undergraduate students.
In addition to being faculty, Sumathy serves as a small business consultant at the SBDC, and has considerable consulting experience working with area small businesses assisting them with writing business plans, formulating financial statements, performing financial analysis, market research and market analysis. She also has taught several business planning workshops.
Being a teacher in business and a business consultant has enabled Sumathy to enrich the classroom experience with real-life business situations and, by the same token, to be able to apply the academics to the small businesses she consults with.
Business Consultant
Caroline, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Annes, Talbot - Eastern Region
Richard (Rich) Loeffler is a BSME graduate of Newark College of Engineering (now known as New Jersey Institute of Technology), who for the last 16 years has worked for the Maryland Small Business Development Center (SBDC) on the Eastern Shore of MD as a Business Consultant.
Prior to working for the "SBDC", Rich was part owner of a small manufacturing company located in a very rural section of the Eastern Shore, Dorchester County, MD. This business grew to be number one in its field and recognized as a leader in the industry not only in the USA but also throughout the world. Rich retired in 1998 after selling his interest in the business to his partners. The business continues to thrive today.
Rich has taken his experience in operating a small business and applied that knowledge to assisting others currently in business or those striving to start their own business. As a firm believer in “understanding the numbers", Rich emphasizes to business owners, that particularly in today's economy, the savvy business owner must be knowledgeable not only in the product and people side of the business but also in the financial side of the business. Rich uses his personal experiences to help business owners grow their businesses.
