Elizabeth Gray

State Director

NH Small Business

Development Center

Liz Gray joined the NH Small Business Development Center as state director in 2018, where she now leads a team that serves the Granite State’s small businesses through confidential business advising and education programs.

Previously, Gray served as director of entrepreneurship at the NH Business Finance Authority, and established Live Free and Start, an initiative to help innovative companies to be able to start, grow and succeed. She held the position of economic development business services manager at the NH Department of Resources and Economic Development and worked for more than 10 years in the offices of governors Shaheen, Lynch, and Hassan, and as a legislative aide in the NH State Senate.

Gray was awarded an AmplifiHer Award from the NH Women’s Foundation and co-founded the Northern New England Women’s Investor Network, serving as the NH lead. She was recently elected to the America’s SBDC (ASBDC) Board of Directors and serves as chair of ASBDC’s Small but Mighty Committee and is a member of ASBDC’s Legislative and Leadership committees.

How important is mentorship to you?

Mentors are so important. You need those champions to be able to bounce ideas off of and give you that little nudge to help you believe in yourself a little bit more so that you take that next step. I have this amazing group of women friends — we’ve all had kids around the same time, we’re all in very similar paths. They’re my core people, my village. We started a text chain right at the beginning of COVID and, had we not had that, I don’t know where any of us would have been.

I’m really fortunate that I worked with so many brilliant and caring people over the years. Whether it was in the Shaheen office, the Lynch office, everything they did, they weigh the pros and cons of any issue. They would not make a flip decision. There’s so much that goes into it and so many different perspectives that they listen to. I think that helped shape how I think, and the questions that I ask to make sure that the SBDC is going in the right direction.

To be able to see that, to listen, to learn from them, but also their chiefs of staff and so many other super passionate people that love the state of New Hampshire and want to move it forward in a good way.

I love that our team cares so deeply about the businesses and their clients, and that we are making a really big difference.

That’s my way. I just want to be a good person. I want my kids to be proud of who I am, what I’ve done, and be a good role model for them.

What advice to you have for the next generation of female business leaders?

If you’re in college, go and talk to your favorite professor and bounce ideas off of them. It can just be someone that you’re comfortable talking to and get their advice and their thoughts. Be comfortable opening up to the other women in your life, because a lot of them are challenged by the exact same things that we are. If it weren’t for COVID, I don’t think like that my village would have been as open. But at that point it was just those terrible, terrible days when you’re completely vulnerable and you’re broken down and being able to share that and to talk. It empowered all of us as individuals. Just make sure that you find your people. You just have to kind of take that chance and ask. And if you don’t hit it off right away with the first mentor that you think of, there’s so many other people along the way that do want to. They want to support you.

Also, be a little vulnerable. Get comfortable being uncomfortable because it’s the only way that you will grow. And I actually wrote that down, so it’s right there to remind me how I push myself.