Business

Two Baltimore companies, FBH Corporation and cybersecurity firm ZeroFox, are financially linked to bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, according to a recent court filing in the U.S. District Court of Delaware. In November, the exchange valued at $32 billion plunged into bankruptcy, rocking the cryptocurrency industry and spurring government investigations and lawsuits. The exchange’s founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, was arrested in December on eight criminal charges and faces up to 115 years in prison.

The firm behind one of Baltimore’s biggest technology developments now has a new CEO. Baltimore’s Wexford Science & Technology Inc., which is developing the University of Maryland BioPark, promoted Ted Russell to the president and CEO on Feb. 1. Russell previously served as both the chief financial officer and chief operating officer of the over 50-person company and will continue to serve in the CFO role. Before joining Wexford in 2009, Russell was vice president of RBS Greenwich Capital’s real estate finance group.

Equipped with clear ceiling heights ranging from 16 to 28 feet, rear loading docks and a platform dock, a truck court and free surface parking surrounding the building, 1201 67th St. overlooks Pulaski Highway (US Route 40), is adjacent to Interstates 95 and 895 and is approximately five miles from the Port of Baltimore and 10 miles from Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. (Submitted photo)

TEDCO, Maryland’s economic engine for technology companies, Thursday announced its Seed Funds invested $500,000 from its Cybersecurity Investment Fund in Foretrace Inc., a Columbia-based cybersecurity company focused on providing cost-effective information to help secure businesses from cyber attackers. TEDCO’s Seed Funds invest in early-stage, technology and life sciences companies and provides access to gap financing.

Graduate student workers pursuing PhD degrees at the Johns Hopkins University officially voted to unionize this week with a 97% majority. Of 3,335 PhD students registered with the National Labor Relations Board, 2,053 voted yes and 67 voted no, a turnout of 64%. The union, which calls itself Teachers and Researchers United, better known as TRU, is affiliated with the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America. “We are so excited to unite so many graduate workers. This is a clear sign that we face real issues at Hopkins and are able to solve them together,” said Alex Peeples, a graduate worker in the history department, in a news release.

A new Gaithersburg biotech has launched with millions of dollars in new financing to make a key technology for gene therapy companies. The firm, called Vector BioMed Inc., raised $15 million in late 2022 and is now putting that money to work — to speed up its commercial operations and bring customers on board. It plans to manufacture lentiviral vectors, a type of therapy used to deliver genes into human cells in cases such as cancer and rare disease, and to supply those vectors to other biotechs developing and commercializing treatments that use them, Vector BioMed co-founder and CEO Boro Dropulić told the Washington Business Journal, a sister paper to the Baltimore Business Journal.

Tessemae’s, a Baltimore-based organic salad dressing maker, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to restructure debts and stop what it called costly and distracting litigation by a former lender. The seller of dressings and condiments sold at dozens of national and regional retailers filed a voluntary petition for bankruptcy reorganization Wednesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Baltimore. The filing lists liabilities in a range of $10 million to $50 million. The Chapter 11 process will allow the manufacturer to preserve its assets, obtain new capital to fulfill customer demand and stop litigation, the company said.