FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 24, 2022
Contact: Sarah Mote, Marketing Director
smote@joinsourcelink.comKansas City, MO – SourceLink, a program of the University of Missouri-Kansas City Innovation Center, is proud to announce two of its employees have joined leadership positions with organizations dedicated to economic development and entrepreneurship ecosystem building.
Rob Williams will be serving a two-year term on the board of directors of the International Economic Development Council (IEDC), and Dara Macan will serve one year on the Ecosystem Building Leadership Project provisional council led by the International Business Innovation Association (InBIA) and funded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.
“I am thrilled to have two SourceLink team members asked to play leadership roles in building the field of entrepreneurship-led economic development. It’s a testament to their hard work in helping others build entrepreneur ecosystems and the impressive impact we’ve achieved through SourceLink. We are excited to see how Rob and Dara continue to advance entrepreneurship across the country,” shared Maria Meyers, executive director of the UMKC Innovation Center.
The International Economic Development Council (IEDC) is a non-profit, non-partisan membership organization serving economic developers. With more than 4,800 members, IEDC is the largest organization of its kind. Economic developers promote economic well-being and quality of life for their communities by creating, retaining and expanding jobs that facilitate growth, enhance wealth and provide a stable tax base. From public to private, rural to urban, and local to international, IEDC’s members engage in the full range of economic development practices. Learn more at iedconline.org.
The Ecosystem Building Leadership Project (EBLP) is an initiative to advance the entrepreneurship ecosystem building field of practice by designing, building, testing and validating a field-wide infrastructure to accelerate adoption of ecosystem building in the United States. Over the next 12 months the provisional council will oversee the implementation of several projects and shepherd the development of a permanent governing body to advance the field of entrepreneurship ecosystem building. Learn more at ebleadershipproject.com/launch.
“SourceLink has been a key partner of both these organizations. Rob and I are honored to bring our perspective of on-the-ground ecosystem building to help inform and guide this important work,” added Macan, SourceLink’s national director of partnerships and engagement. Macan served as a member of the charter team for five months, prior to her election to the provisional council.
“SourceLink champions those who want to better support entrepreneurs,” added Williams, director of SourceLink. “This is a natural extension of our work to help connect people and organizations to each other to build diverse, equitable and sustainable economies of all shapes and sizes.”
About SourceLink
Founded in 2003, SourceLink is a national program of the University of Missouri-Kansas City working to build vibrant and cohesive entrepreneurial ecosystems that attract startups, accelerate business growth, create jobs and develop sustainable partnerships. SourceLink provides access to a community of entrepreneurs, government leaders and ecosystem builders who share best practices and lessons learned for building diverse and equitable entrepreneurial ecosystems. Learn more at joinsourcelink.com.
