Media Contact: Ashley Eiler, (202) 333-4444, [email protected]

Dayton, Ohio
,
Mar 18, 2009
 –
Dr. Dave McWhorter, a principal with Catalyst Partners, will join other experts at the 2009 Ohio Business Matchmaker event to educate small business owners on how to work within the evolving homeland security industry. Specifically, McWhorter will focus on the business development opportunities offered by the SAFETY Act (the Support Anti-terrorism by Fostering Effective Technologies Act of 2002), a piece of legislation that provides critical liability protections for technology providers in the event of a terrorist attack.  

Held at Wright State University, the 2009 Ohio Business Matchmaker brings together small businesses – including veteran-, minority- and women-owned businesses – with government buyers of goods and services. In addition to facilitating matchmaking opportunities, the event will provide educational seminars for small businesses on topics such as how to sell to the government, the basics of the GSA schedule, ways to improve access to capital, and the fundamentals of surety bonding.

McWhorter will host one of these educational workshops that focuses on how small business owners can leverage their products and services to establish themselves within the homeland security industry, and the benefits that the SAFETY Act can offer in achieving success in this market.  McWhorter, who regularly helps Catalyst Partners’ private sector clients in their business development efforts by helping to navigate through the complicated SAFETY Act approval process, will explain the legislation’s role as a vital first step for those entering or expanding in the US homeland security marketplace. He will also provide insight on the strategies that small business can use to leverage the SAFETY Act and its protections in the long-term business development planning.

Prior to joining Catalyst Partners, McWhorter spent over seven years at the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), where he served as the deputy project leader for IDA on the SAFETY Act.  In this position he led the technical evaluations of SAFETY Act applications from companies seeking protection for their anti-terrorism products and services.

To view McWhorter’s presentation from the 2009 Ohio Business Match, please click here.