BALTIMORE, MD, USA - The husband-and-wife team of Peter Bowe and Barbara Stewart imported a little Chicago flavor to try to boost Baltimore's international business scene. Bowe is the president of Ellicott Dredge Enterprises LLC on Bush Street in Baltimore, a heavy manufacturing company with major sales in international markets. Stewart was an executive at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in Chicago until 2010 and now serves as executive director of the couple's Bowe-Stewart Foundation. When they started talking last fall about helping Baltimore-area companies increase their international business capabilities, they decided to bring their two worlds together.

The result is a new training program for mid-level managers starting in September and being run by Baltimore's nonprofit World Trade Center Baltimore. Called the Emerging and Developing Global Executives, or EDGE program, it's loosely modeled after the well-known Chicago Council on Global Affairs' Emerging Leaders Program. "We wanted to promote Baltimore as an international city and Baltimore as an international economy," said Bowe, who is also a director at the World Trade Center Baltimore. "There's no reason why we can't." The Chicago Council on Global Affairs worked with the World Trade Center Institute to help it construct the EDGE program, Stewart said. The Baltimore program ended up different in key ways from its Chicago predecessor. It's shorter, set to last ten months instead of two years. And it's tailored to meet the needs of businesses in the local market. "I think it's more focused on Baltimore-oriented companies," Stewart said. "And I think it's a little bit more business focused, where the Chicago Council is maybe a little more current events focused." The Baltimore program will include sessions on global strategy, negotiation, marketing, finance and supply chains. It also has small-group meetings with global executives scheduled, along with speakers from companies like Lockheed Martin, Under Armour Inc. and Ciena Corp.

To learn more about the EDGE Program visit the original article by the BBJ here.

Visit www.wtci.org to learn more about World Trade Center Baltimore.

Original article written by Rick Seltzer, Reporter Baltimore Business Journal