40 Influential Leaders - Liz Hitchcock

Liz Hitchcock
Principal of Orbit Group, Developer of The Factory on Willow, Owner of Manchester Distillery and Bookery

Liz Hitchcock defies categorization. She owns a distillery and a bookstore, is the principal of an investment and business consulting group, and developed a historic mill building into a haven for artists and entrepreneurs (It also houses apartments, Airbnb rentals and an events center). “Eclectic entrepreneur” is one mantle that seems appropriate. But another one might be “Manchester’s hype-woman.”

Hitchcock is from Rhode Island and met her husband, entrepreneur Jeremy Hitchcock, who is from the Granite State, while they were both at college. “He dragged me up to a place called Manchester, New Hampshire.” That was about 20 years ago, and the city wasn’t as vibrant as it is now. “The glimmers were there, though,” she says. “No matter how you slice the onion, this city has amazing arts and culture.”

Manchester benefits from its diverse population, Hitchcock says, which has long attracted immigrants. “The food is so good here,” she says. “If you want Nepalese that’s just phenomenal, you can find it here.”

When she moved to Manchester, she saw a city already moving toward a brighter future, and she frames her enterprises as efforts to add to that momentum. “I really like the opportunity to connect people,” Hitchcock says of the thread that connects her businesses: the Manchester Distillery, Bookery and Factory on Willow. She has also had a hand in art projects, such as a revival of the street art along “Cat Alley.”

Though she believes her fellow city residents share a fondness for Manchester, she would like to see more of them express it as pride. “Our PR and marketing in the city aren’t as good as they could be,” she says. “If you bring someone in from New York or LA, they say, this city is beautiful, but the story that we tell ourselves is so different from that.” Manchester continues to evolve, she says, and each resident can be an author of that evolution. “Continue to grow our city in ways that you want to see it grow. Maybe it starts small. Maybe you become involved in a nonprofit that you think is doing great things, or you better yourself in some way, so that someday you can do something bigger, create something.”