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Betsy Biemann is the Chief Executive Officer of Coastal Enterprises, Inc. (CEI), a Maine-based community development financial institution with a mission to build just, vibrant and climate-resilient futures for people and communities in Maine and rural regions.  CEI does this by integrating finance, business expertise and policy solutions in ways that make the economy work more equitably.  She serves on the boards of CEI Ventures, CEI Capital Management LLC and CEI-Boulos Capital Management as well as of New Innovation Growth Network (NGIN), a national nonprofit working to ensure that economically disenfranchised people and communities can lead, shape and benefit from regional economic growth and prosperity.   She also serves on the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston’s Inclusive Economies Working Group.

Prior to joining CEI, Betsy led the Maine Food Cluster Project of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at Harvard University and was a consulting advisor to businesses, nonprofit organizations and social enterprises in Maine and nationally. She previously served for seven years as President of the Maine Technology Institute, which invests in Maine companies and initiatives seeking to grow high-potential sectors of Maine’s economy. Prior to that, she was an Associate Director at The Rockefeller Foundation in New York City, where she worked for nine years managing a national grant program and impact investment portfolio aiming to increase employment and economic mobility in low-income communities.  She started her career as a Warren Weaver Fellow at the Rockefeller Foundation then working in international development, with a focus on how girls’ education, smallholder agriculture and partnerships could expand economic opportunity in sub-Saharan Africa.

Betsy lives in Brunswick, Maine with her husband and their two dogs.

Education

• Princeton University, MPA
• Harvard University, BA (History of Science)
• Stanford University Graduate School of Business, Certificate (Executive Program for Nonprofit Leaders)
• National Venture Capital Association, Certificate (VC Institute)

Community Connections

Betsy has served on boards in the role of chair, vice chair, treasurer and chair of equity and strategic planning committees for national and local organizations in the fields of community development finance, youth development and place-based philanthropy. 

Early in the pandemic, Betsy was appointed by Governor Janet Mills to serve on Maine’s Economic Recovery Committee tasked with recommending strategies to stabilize, support, sustain and grow the State’s economy, for which she co-chaired the Innovation and Entrepreneurship subcommittee.