Member since August 2023
As the executive director of FORGE, a non-profit dedicated to bridging the gap between startups and the manufacturing community, Laura Teicher is an in-demand speaker who can address some of the leading issues in the manufacturing and startup world. She has spoken at such prestigious and diverse events as the Milan Design Week, Boston Startup Week, the Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM) Annual Meeting and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Industry Growth Forum. Laura leads and participates in workshops and panels on behalf of both FORGE and other organizations. She is a subject matter expert who has been interviewed on podcasts such as MassMEP (Massachusetts Manufacturing Extension Partnership), Agents of Innovation, and in the media. Her favorite topics include (but are not limited to): localization and diversity in supply chain, sustainability in manufacturing, innovation, intrapreneurship, leading for impact and through change, and design as action for social change.
As a speaker, Laura illustrates how startups, manufacturers, and suppliers working together can build a more resilient and impactful world. Laura credits the creation of local innovation ecosystems as the best way to increase advances in technology, domestic production, and to create jobs. She can also offer a deep dive into the nonprofit scene and the world of funding and grants. Laura is as comfortable keynoting before thousands as she is teaching smaller groups in interactive settings.
Laura is passionate about fostering young talent and promoting the value of nontraditional pathways to success. She enjoys hiring young people from diverse backgrounds, and rejects the idea that those backgrounds could be barriers. She believes the best way to make an impact on local communities is by recruiting from within and cultivating the interests and strengths of young people. Laura is an Advisory Council Member of Net Impact Boston, whose focus is to drive transformational change through mobilizing professionals.
Laura advocates for economic empowerment as a means to cultivate equity and to protect the environment. She sees localizing manufacturing and the supply chain as an essential, and often missed, way to achieve both economic and climate health. She is a Board Member of Climate XChange, an organization which empowers state governments to make the best environmental choices for their regions.
After speaking at Startup Boston Week, Laura was approached by an engineer looking for a job. she connected the engineer with a U.S. startup. The engineer was hired, and went on to work for a highly successful battery startup.
Early in her career, Laura worked as a district aide under a state senator, and gave speeches on their behalf. She frequently represented the district at local initiatives and events, and although public speaking was not part of her initial career vision, Laura credits her teachers as well as her penchant for reading as useful tools in adapting to the practice.
Sourcing through the local supply chain can help innovators succeed. It invigorates domestic manufacturing, attracts young workforce, and builds resilient regional economies. Manufacturing and innovation can play an outsized role in any region’s economy, and connecting the two is a powerful economic engine. Especially given the economic landscape of the last two years, FORGE is using localization to focus on pandemic recovery, and showing how it can drive future resiliency and jobs in the New England region in an eco-friendly manner.
Key takeaways:
How the innovation and manufacturing communities can work together to drive economic recovery and resilience
How localizing manufacturing and suppliers can increase competitive advantage for innovators
How we can reduce our carbon footprint by localizing production and supply chains
This talk is designed for suppliers, innovators, manufacturers, or organizations that support these groups. Laura can present it as an interactive, roundtable discussion, panel, or a classroom style lecture.
After speaking at Startup Boston Week, Laura was approached by an engineer looking for a job. she connected the engineer with a U.S. startup. The engineer was hired, and went on to work for a highly successful battery startup.
Early in her career, Laura worked as a district aide under a state senator, and gave speeches on their behalf. She frequently represented the district at local initiatives and events, and although public speaking was not part of her initial career vision, Laura credits her teachers as well as her penchant for reading as useful tools in adapting to the practice.
Sourcing through the local supply chain can help innovators succeed. It invigorates domestic manufacturing, attracts young workforce, and builds resilient regional economies. Manufacturing and innovation can play an outsized role in any region’s economy, and connecting the two is a powerful economic engine. Especially given the economic landscape of the last two years, FORGE is using localization to focus on pandemic recovery, and showing how it can drive future resiliency and jobs in the New England region in an eco-friendly manner.
Key takeaways:
How the innovation and manufacturing communities can work together to drive economic recovery and resilience
How localizing manufacturing and suppliers can increase competitive advantage for innovators
How we can reduce our carbon footprint by localizing production and supply chains
This talk is designed for suppliers, innovators, manufacturers, or organizations that support these groups. Laura can present it as an interactive, roundtable discussion, panel, or a classroom style lecture.
