PORTLAND, Maine — The rural community development nonprofit Coastal Enterprises Inc. has selected two people to succeed President and CEO Ron Phillips, who plans to retire later this spring.
CEI announced Tuesday that its board of directors selected former Maine Technology Institute president Betsy Biemann as its next CEO, and it will promote Keith Bisson to serve as its president.
Phillips, who has led the rural development group for 38 years, said Bisson and Biemann have skills that are complementary for the organization, which also has an affiliated for-profit investment group.
“CEI is a mix of nonprofit and for-profit economic development financing,” Phillips said. “[Biemann’s] track record of strong leadership and extensive connections to regional and national foundation networks are vital to CEI’s growth and impact. [Bisson’s] years of experience at CEI and in community development locally and nationally make him the perfect choice to take operational responsibility for CEI’s activities.”
Biemann served as the president of the Maine Technology Institute from 2005 to 2012. Before that, she was an associate director at The Rockefeller Foundation in New York City. Bisson has worked at CEI for 12 years and is its senior vice president of program management and development.
CEI is a nonprofit community development corporation and has a subsidiary, CEI Capital Management, that has received the largest allocation of tax credits that it can award to investors through the federal New Markets Tax Credit program.
The nonprofit and its subsidiaries said Tuesday they have $770 million under management or committed to investments.