Vice President & Chief Operating Officer

Jennifer Hagan-Dier joined Manufacturer’s Edge as the Chief Operating Officer in November 2020.  Prior to taking the COO position, Hagan-Dier worked as the Director of Outreach and Engagement for the NIST MEP National Network Leadership Team, a team made up of NIST MEP leadership, the MEP Center Leadership Team and other stakeholders.   ln her role, Jennifer worked across the National Network to build and expand connections between individual MEP Centers, NIST MEP and other stakeholders identifying opportunities to leverage Network resources to increase the number of manufacturers served and the economic impacts for all manufacturers served by the fifty-one individual MEP Centers.

Jennifer has a demonstrated history of leading and managing complex organizational change, connecting resources to need and extensive expertise in coaching and facilitating community and government relations.  Prior to joining the MEP National Network Leadership Team as the Director of Outreach and Engagement, Jennifer was the Director of the Tennessee MEP at the University of Tennessee Center for Industrial Services (UT CIS).  As the TMEP Director, Jennifer was responsible for leading statewide outreach for consulting and training service delivery to manufacturers, industry and entrepreneurs and TMEP’s business development activities.  In her role as TMEP Director, Jennifer managed TMEP’s connection to state, regional and national partners and served on the MEP Center Leadership Team working to connect TMEP to the National Network.  

Prior to joining UT CIS in 2013, Jennifer worked as a Senior Manager of State and Local Tax Services for Lattimore Black Morgan & Cain, PC (LBMC) and prior to that she served over three years as Assistant Commissioner for the Tennessee Department of Revenue and the Liaison to the Department of Economic and Community Development, where she worked directly with government officials, economic development professionals and companies to negotiate and package relocation and expansion incentives for new and existing businesses across the state.

Prior to joining the State of Tennessee in 2007, Jennifer served two years as a federal judicial clerk for the Honorable Judge Thomas A. Wiseman in the Middle District of Tennessee and four years as an associate with Mayer Brown, LLP in Chicago.

Jennifer received her J.D with honors from DePaul University College of Law in 2001 and a bachelor’s in communications from the University of Tennessee in 1997.