Coastal Enterprises Inc., a Brunswick nonprofit that invests in rural economic development in Maine and across the country, has selected its new chief executive officer and president.

Betsy Biemann will be the new CEO and Keith Bisson the new president, the private community development corporation announced Tuesday.

CEI founder Ronald Phillips said last year that he would step down as president and CEO in 2016 of the organization he founded in 1977.

CEI invests in companies and projects in a number of industries, including farming, fishery, aquaculture, health care, forestry, renewable energy, nature-based tourism, as well as commercial real estate and affordable housing developments.

Biemann is a consultant to FocusMaine and recently was the project director at Mossavar-Rahami Center for Business and Government at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. The center recently concluded a case study of what makes Maine’s food economy tick and how it can be strengthened. Biemann also served as the president of the Maine Technology Institute from 2005 to 2012.

Bisson is CEI’s senior vice president of program management and development.

Ellen Seidman, chairwoman of CEI’s board, said in a statement that the Biemann and Bisson “have the leadership strength to continue and grow CEI’s impact in communities in Maine and across the rural United States.”


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