Mary Ann Kristiansen
Hannah Grimes Center
Founder & Executive Director
Mary Ann Kristiansen was born and raised in Fergus Falls, Minnesota. She moved to New York City in 1985 and to a farm in New Hampshire in 1991. There she began making soap, building gardens and raising sheep and chickens. Through her soap making, gardening, and farming contacts, she realized there was a shortage of markets for locally-made products, while at the same time there was a shortage of business skills on the part of local producers to enter and succeed in those markets.
She founded Hannah Grimes Marketplace in 1991 as a "retail classroom" providing both a market for locally made and grown products as well as business support to those makers and growers. These efforts expanded in 2006 with the Hannah Grimes Center for Entrepreneurship – a thriving entrepreneurial hub with workshops, programs, and networking that helps businesses of all sizes, stages and sectors start and grow.
Prior to that Mary Ann also worked as Administrative and Marketing Consultant to small and medium-sized businesses in New Hampshire and New York, was Medical Administrator for Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. in New York, NY, and worked in the media department of J Walter Thompson Advertising. She holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration from New York University Graduate School of Public Administration and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications and Geology from Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, MN.
She serves on a range of boards and commissions that impact small business owners throughout the state including the NH Community Development Finance Authority, Senator Shaheen’s Small Business Advisory Committee, and the SeVEDS board of Southeastern Vermont.
