YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The mission of APEX Accelerators is simple: help small companies do business with the government marketplace.
The APEX Accelerator Program, formerly Procurement Technical Assistance Centers, was established to help create a more robust and resilient supply chain for the federal government by tapping into small, domestic companies, says Scot W. Loveland, procurement counselor for Ohio’s APEX Accelerator at Youngstown State University. There are more than 300 APEX offices in the United States.
In 2020, Ohio was home to more than 3,200 companies engaged in the government marketplace, and they won 291,000 defense-related contracts worth $8 billion, Loveland says. The APEX Accelerator at YSU, located in the Williamson College of Business Administration, helped local companies win almost $45 million in contracts in 2022, Loveland says.
“As domestic, private sector markets dwindled or came to an outright screeching halt during the pandemic, the government marketplace grew rapidly,” Loveland says.