THE SHAPERS · PROFILE
Lester Davis, Gov. Wes Moore’s right hand, steps in as interim CEO of Maryland’s startup-funding engine.
On Thursday, the board of the Maryland Technology Development Corporation, better known as TEDCO, named Lester Davis its interim chief executive. He starts November 27, taking over from Troy LeMaile-Stovall, who has led the agency since 2020 and stays through November 26. The board says it will now run a search for a permanent CEO, which makes Davis, for the moment, the person in charge of keeping the lights on and the checks moving.
Until now, Davis was the governor’s chief of staff, running the day-to-day of state government and, as TEDCO’s announcement puts it, a $70 billion budget. That is the sort of job in which one learns where everything is buried.
The job
Interim Chief Executive Officer, TEDCO
Starts
November 27, 2026
Succeeds
Troy LeMaile-Stovall, CEO since 2020 (serves through November 26)
Next
The board searches for a permanent CEO
Before
Chief of staff to Gov. Wes Moore
What he is walking into
TEDCO identifies, invests in and helps grow technology and life-science companies in Maryland. The General Assembly created it in 1998. Under LeMaile-Stovall it launched the Equitech Growth Fund and the Urban Business Innovation Initiative, and it became a direct participant in the federal State Small Business Credit Initiative. It has also had a hard history: a 2019 state audit found significant problems with its Maryland Venture Fund.
The road to the corner office
Davis grew up in Washington and built his career in Baltimore. He studied print journalism at Norfolk State University and started out in the field. He then spent roughly a decade at Baltimore City Hall, first as director of policy and communications for then-Council President Jack Young, later as deputy chief of staff when Young became mayor. From there he moved to the national communications firm SKDK as a vice president of public affairs, and then to CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, where he was vice president and chief of staff. At CareFirst, TEDCO says, he worked with the CEO and fellow executives to strengthen the company’s venture arm, which invests in startups and health systems.
Moore named him chief of staff in September 2025, and he took over that fall. In his first 100 days, he told the AFRO that everything “starts and ends with the budget.” In TEDCO’s account, he also led the administration’s economic agenda, tightened accountability and audit functions across agencies, and shaped the governor’s budget and legislative priorities.
The case being made for him
In the announcement, Moore says Davis inherited a difficult budget, a strained relationship with the federal government and economic development projects that still needed finishing, and delivered on them. “There is no one I would rather see lead TEDCO,” Moore says. TEDCO board chair David Tohn calls it steady, experienced leadership at an important moment, and says Davis’s mix of government and private-sector experience will keep programs and investments moving while the board finishes its work. Davis himself calls the job the opportunity of a lifetime, and describes TEDCO as the place where the state’s economic agenda becomes lasting. Senate President Bill Ferguson and House Speaker Joseline A. Peña-Melnyk both congratulated him.
What to watch
The word that matters is “interim.” The announcement does not say how long the search will take or whether Davis will be a candidate. Until it does, the questions are practical: whether the Equitech Growth Fund, the urban business program and the federal small business money keep their pace, and what a former government insider does with an agency whose job is to back founders who have not made it yet.
Sources
- TEDCO, “TEDCO Board Names Lester Davis Interim Chief Executive Officer” (Nov. 5, 2026)
- Office of Gov. Wes Moore, “Governor Moore Names Lester Davis as New Chief of Staff” (Sept. 2025)
- Baltimore Banner; Maryland Matters; Daily Record; Baltimore City Mayor’s Office biography
- AFRO / NNPA, “Lester Davis speaks on first 100 days as chief of staff”
- Maryland Matters (2019 audit coverage); Maryland Association of Counties (TEDCO founding)