Ann Nygard of East Burke returns to lead the USDA grant-funded Incubator without Walls (IWoW), a collaborative project involving Lyndon State College, the USDA, the Vermont Small Business Development Center (VtSBDC) and businesses in the Northeast Kingdom. Nygard was IWoW’s inaugural director, launching the incubator in 2007. She comes back to her native Northeast Kingdom after a two-year commitment as associate director with National Geographic Society’s Center for Sustainable Destinations in Washington, D.C. During this time, she improved the marketing and operational performance of global geotourism programs, oversaw the development of corporate responsibility strategies and supported strategic and business communication planning for small businesses and multinationals alike.
From 2005 to 2007, Nygard was executive director of Northeast Kingdom Travel and Tourism Association, where she worked under a number of USDA grants. She pioneered the National Geographic Northeast Kingdom Geotourism Program, resulting in the Geotourism MapGuide of the Northeast Kingdom which connects NEK businesses to the global market by featuring local products and services. Prior to NEKTTA, she lived and worked in Finland, Sweden, the UK and Rwanda. She was employed by Tiffany & Co. as an internal marketing analyst in the United Kingdom and in New York City. Her other positions include working as an acquisition buyer for the U.S. Library of Congress-East Africa Division in Nairobi,Kenya. Nygard holds an M.B.A. from Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration and a B.S. from Cornell University(College of Human Ecology).
The Incubator without Walls project, launched under a Rural Economic Area Partnership (REAP) zone USDA grant in 2007, was formulated to grow businesses and respond to the changing economic climate in the Derby-Newport area. With the immediate success of the program, the USDA this year approved the expansion of the grant’s parameters to include all of the Northeast Kingdom. Under the IWoW umbrella, Lyndon State College, VtSBDC, and regional collaborative partners will continue working together to empower local area businesses to effectively compete with the addition of big box stores to the area and to overcome other economic challenges.
The Incubator without Walls improves emerging and existing businesses through comprehensive monthly workshops that present cutting-edge business concepts by providing an “incubator experience” to participating businesses and coordinating Lyndon faculty and student to support local business development activities and through making accessible to small businesses the wealth of resources of the VtSBDC and its state and national partners.
Business that have benefited from IWoW support include the Pick and Shovel in Newport, Country Thyme Vermont in Derby, the NorthWoods Stewardship Center in Orleans, the Haskell Opera House in Derby Line, Wider than the Sky bookstore in Newport and others. Small business owners interested in participating in IWoW should contact Ann Nygard at [email protected].