BALTIMORE, MD – (Draft) – Baltimore City’s business incubator, Emerging Technology Center (ETC), announced today that Trusted Technologies LLC – one of its technology tenants and a professional services and IT solutions company –  has been recognized by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) as the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) 2009 Small Disadvantaged Business Contractor of the year for providing exemplary services to APHIS.

The 16th annual Small Business and AbilityOne Award Program was held this year in a ceremony at USDA Headquarters to recognize small businesses, individuals and individual employees for their diligent work and outstanding service to USDA. Thirty-five small businesses and eight AbilityOne nonprofit organizations were awarded for their services. During the ceremony, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsak stated that USDA is committed to working with small business and awarded 54% of its total 2008 procurement budget to small business.  Trusted Technologies is an SBA recognized 8(a)/SDB (small disadvantaged business) enterprise.

“Trusted Technologies provided us with a top level business assessment and recommended immediate improvement,” said Cindy MacLeod, Enterprise Infrastructure Services Manager, APHIS-USDA “They delivered 100% of the tasks on time and within budget, it was a delight to work with them as contractors.” Trusted Technologies was assigned to assess and report on the current state of the APHIS  e-mail and collaboration support system. They assessed, analyzed, reviewed, and documented the current APHIS architecture and also identified best practice strategies focused to  enhance and strengthen the Agency’s security and system performance, and reduce the administrative processes that burden the staff.  More importantly, during this exercise Trusted Technologies showed their extreme expertise and value by resolving some of the organizations most critical issues.

“Trusted Technologies is honored to be recognized with this prestigious award,” said John Woodley, founder and CEO of Trusted Technologies. “Receiving this award is a testament of the hard work and pride customary of all our employees and their dedication to the success of our clients.”

“Trusted Technologies is a great role model for other technology companies at ETC,” said Ann Lansinger, President of the ETC. “This is a well deserved award for Trusted Technologies. They have a great understanding of their clients needs and perform an excellent service on providing the solutions.”

The award is another in a continuous series of accomplishment and growth acknodledgements for Trusted Technologies.  The company featured in SmartCEO’s “Big Idea” Book for 2007 and won the “SmartCEO Future 50” award in 2006, 2007, and 2008. They were also finalist at the 2007 Maryland Incubator Company of the Year awards in “Best Technology Company” category.  Trusted Technologies was also recognized in 2008 as an SBA emerging 200 company.

About the ETC www.etcbaltimore.com

The ETC, a venture of the Baltimore Development Corporation, is a non-profit business incubator focused on growing early-stage technology and biotechnology companies.  The ETC promotes economic development, providing business, technical, and networking connections to help these companies grow and prosper – adding to both the job and tax base of Baltimore City. To date, ETC client companies have received over $865 million in funding and have been issued nearly 200 patents.  Since 1999 ETC has provided assistance to 172 companies of which 68 are current companies. Eighty-three percent of its graduate clients are still in business.