PORTLAND, Maine — The head of the Maine Center for Entrepreneurial Development, Don Gooding, plans to resign in June, as the statewide training program for entrepreneurs faces some fundraising hurdles in the upcoming year.
The newsletter Maine Startup Insider reported that it obtained Gooding’s resignation letter, sent Tuesday.
In it, Gooding wrote that he did not want to focus on fundraising for the group and that his interest remained in early-stage companies. He wrote that the MCED’s board has recently had more interest in helping established companies grow.
The group recently won $390,000 from the U.S. Department of Commerce, which will be used to provide an online entrepreneurship training program and expand its Top Gun training course to a Lewiston-Auburn location.
It now offers the courses in Bangor, Rockland and Portland.
According to Startup Insider, Gooding wrote the group faces a fundraising need of between $130,000 and $150,000 for 2017.