Climate Tech Exchange

As Director of Economic Development Special Projects, Judy Costello works for Montgomery County, Maryland’s County Executive on a variety of business growth, retention, international and domestic attraction activities.  This includes working with businesses of varied sizes and industry sectors to funding, facility space, promotion, technical advice and referrals, and other support. Before joining Montgomery County, she worked for BioHealth Innovation (BHI), a Washington, DC area nonprofit focused on growing the biohealth industry in the region, as Managing Director of Economic Development. Prior to joining BHI, she served as Director of the Maryland Department of Commerce’s Office of BioHealth and Life Sciences and as Deputy Director of the department’s BioMaryland Center. In these positions, she worked to grow the state’s biohealth cluster by supporting industry recruitment and retention, commercialization, workforce, non-dilutive and dilutive fundraising, international soft landing, partnership, and promotion activities. 

Judy previously managed the nonprofit Business Alliance for Innovation and Entrepreneurship organizing venture pitch forums, entrepreneur bootcamps, technology transfer showcases, educational seminars, and other programs connecting entrepreneurs, faculty innovators, students, and industry leaders in Maryland, DC and Virginia with each other and with those providing funding and other resources to young companies. Before serving as Executive Director of the Business Alliance, Costello held positions in financial services marketing, economic development, and university public relations in New York City, Virginia, and Washington, DC. Judy is a graduate of Georgetown University, and holds a MBA from Loyola University in Maryland. Born in Washington, DC, she grew up on a farm in Western Pennsylvania, and has lived in Montgomery County, Maryland supporting entrepreneurs and other growing companies in the region since the mid-1980s.