Over the past thirteen years, Christian has worked to build the Pennsylvania Small Business Development Centers (SBDC) program – a $14 million, statewide consortium of eighteen, university-based centers that provides management consulting and education to 35,000 entrepreneurs annually through utilizing professional staff, students, faculty and volunteers – into one of the preeminent economic development programs of its type in the country.

As Interim State Director, Christian is responsible for directing, managing, promoting and evaluating Pennsylvania SBDC services to improve service delivery and impact.

During his tenure, he worked to expand the state of Pennsylvania’s investment in the program from $1.9 million to $8 million to enable the SBDCs to add new centers and programs for small businesses across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As a result, each year 3,000 new businesses are started, 10,000 new jobs created and over $1.3 billion of Pennsylvania products and services are sold around the world. Mr. Conroy has also testified before both houses of Congress in support of bills to expand the SBDC program. His efforts were recognized with awards from the Association of Small Business Development Centers in 2001, 2004 and 2006.

Christian is active in a number of other organizations including the national Association of Small Business Development Centers (ASBDC) and the Pennsylvania Downtown Center. He was Chair of the ASBDC Marketing Committee for three years and continues to serve as a member of the Accreditation and Legislative Committees. For the last several years he has been the Chair of the Governance Committee for the Pennsylvania Downtown Center.

Before joining the SBDC program Christian was a key staff member for a New York State Assembly Member and managed marketing and fundraising programs for a variety of arts, health and social services organizations. Christian has degrees in urban studies, economics and psychology from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of New York at Albany. His Master’s thesis analyzed the role of the arts to the economic competitiveness of the greater Philadelphia region.

A native of New York’s scenic Hudson River Valley, he currently resides in Philadelphia.