LEXINGTON. Ky. — Since the mid-1990s, Commerce Lexington’s Community & Minority Business Development (CMBD) program have championed the efforts of minority-owned businesses.
Commerce Lexington and partners work to promote and sustain the economic growth, development and self-sufficiency of ethnic minority-owned business owners and entrepreneurs. It now includes a financing program for small and minority-owned businesses, procurement initiatives and events, a Minority Business Resource Guide & Directory, Money Smart for Small Business classes and a Minority Business Accelerator. Minority businesses are offered strategic and business planning, procurement assistance, access to lending tools, and the expertise of a full complement of economic professionals.
The next Opportunity Exchange event presented by Equity Solutions Group 4:30-6:30 p.m. Thursday, March 21, at the Lyric Theatre & Cultural Arts Center (300 E. Third Street) will feature great networking, exchange of ideas, and interaction for minority-owned and small businesses in the Lexington region. The event connects minority business owners with procurement representatives from some of the largest companies in the region.
The featured speaker is Monique Quarterman, executive director of KY Innovation, the state’s engine for innovative small business development. She has an extensive background in supporting Kentucky’s entrepreneurs. In 2012, she supported Kentucky’s founders in the Office for Research & Innovation at the University of Louisville.
Quarterman has been a business development manager at MEMStim, a founder of a Louisville-based innovation consulting practice and collaborated with the Cabinet for Economic Development and KY Innovation in 2020 as the executive director of Kentucky Commercialization Ventures within the Kentucky Science and Technology Corp. This background positions Quarterman to understand the founders’ mentality and identify how KY Innovation can help.
“This event provides an opportunity for business owners and entrepreneurs to not only meet and interact with procurement representatives from some of the largest companies and organizations in the region, but also to be better engaged with the community,” Commerce Lexington’s Senior Vice President of Community & Minority Business Development Tyrone Tyra said. “There are plenty of ways to grow your business, but building relationships with other business professionals is one of the cornerstones to success.”
Registration for the March 21 Opportunity Exchange is available online at commercelexington.com. The cost to attend is $5 for Commerce Lexington members, $10 for non-members. For information about the event or program, contact Falon McFarland at [email protected].
