Waterville’s Dirigo Labs names growth manager

WATERVILLE — Emalee Couture has been named growth manager for startup accelerator Dirigo Labs. Couture will be responsible for developing and managing

relationships with organizations, startups, founders and business professionals across New England, catalyzing entrepreneurship and innovation for mid-Maine, according to the Central Maine Growth Council.
Couture was previously an associate officer at the Massachusetts Institute for Technology Licensing Office, where she was responsible for evaluating and protecting inventions and working with entrepreneurs as well as established companies to execute on intellectual property agreements, enabling the commercialization of MIT inventions
She is a 2018 University of Maine graduate, with a bachelor of science is engineering physics with a concentration in mechanical engineering.
Applications for the accelerator will open late this year, with an anticipated launch in early 2022. The cohort of innovation-based startups will participate in an entrepreneurship-focused curriculum, targeted mentoring sessions, and leverage the academic expertise from the accelerator’s partner institutions, student interns, and the region’s general business community. For more information, visit centralmaine.org/region/dirigo-labs.