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New England Woman Small Business Owner of the Year

Carol Dancer and Absorbent Specialty Products continues to transform barriers into opportunity

 

Adversity is a fact of life for small business owners, never has a business opened its doors without obstacles immediately baring their teeth; Carol Dancer’s small business journey is no exception. Prior to Absorbent Specialty Products becoming a reality, Carol and her father, Perry, were in business as manufacturers of industrial absorbent materials made from paper mill sludge and landfill waste. In 2001, they lost the business to a devastating fire.

Hurt but determined, Carol and her father began again by seeking out financial partners for a new venture. They soon founded the new company and before long realized their partners had other than honorable motivations. Over the next three years the partners drove the business into disarray, causing Carol and Perry to leave the company.

Undeterred, Carol branched off on her own, taking the knowledge she had gained over years of entrepreneurship and opened the doors to Absorbent Specialty Products. Dancer began Absorbent Specialty Products modestly, focusing on the niche of mortuary reconstruction products. Before long they began receiving requests from customers of the business Carol had left. They were looking for someone who could supply acid and base neutralizers now that the supplier had closed. Carol began manufacturing these neutralizer products for liquid chemical spills immediately, building her customer base.

As Absorbent Specialty Products began to grow so did the scope of what the business produced. Dancer began focusing on her next offering, working on the early stages of what would become the Quick Dam product line. Quick Dam products offer homeowners, hospitals, and hotels the opportunity to stop flooding before it happens. Too often water damage is a reactive issue, demanding hefty restoration prices that may or may not be covered by insurance. Quick Dam offers multiple protective
options from potential disastrous damage.

Dancer’s new line had a dramatic effect on Absorbent Specialty Products, skyrocketing sales over 500% from 2012 to 2017. Carol continues to focus on her three most successful areas of mortuary reconstruction, neutralizers, and Quick Dam products. It is fitting that Dancer’s success comes from the creation of barriers; while she has created barriers to protect homes from disaster, she has faced so many barriers and adversity in her professional life and continued to come out the other side even
stronger. “It gives you a drive; I’m going to do it with or without you,” said Dancer, “When people are thinking you can’t do it, or they’re taking the opportunities away from you, you kind of turn it around and say I can do it, I know we can make it fly,” she added.

 

For her demonstrated success and potential for future growth, the U.S. Small Business Administration is pleased to honor Carol Dancer, President of Absorbent Specialty Products, as the 2018 New England Woman Small Business Owner of the Year.

New England Veteran Small Business Owner of the Year

For John Shepard and Veterans Assembled electronics, ensuring veterans succeed is their full time job Founder and CEO, John Shepard (Center) flanked on his left by COO, Matt Vargas, and on his right by CFO, Michael Videira. John Shepard’s journey and eventual creation of Veterans Assembled electronics began as a prime contractor for a Naval Undersea Warfare Center where he worked on the modernization legacy weapons systems. During this contract Shepard found difficulty in identifying technicians with the skills necessary to fill the demanding role. At the same time Shepard began hearing the concerns of other
prime contractors about the skills-gap in the employment pool – the consistent theme being that traditional academics were failing to fill the industry specific skillset.

Shepard, a veteran himself, asked, “Why don’t we train service-disabled veterans to do this work?” Being an industry professional he knew what skills were needed and was in a unique position to build a curriculum geared towards the direct demands of the hiring companies. John began building the VAe curriculum from the perspective of building value into the veteran, that value being a skillset and practical education that is desperately sought out by employers. Shepard investigated the manufacturing aspect of electronics as well as the electronics technician perspective, integrating the two fields to create a unique and practical academic experience.

VAe began seeking accreditation, and with the support of the Veterans Affairs office, were soon
approved by both the international standard bodies for electronics manufacturing and electronics
technicians. In 2010, VAe hosted their first crop of service-disabled veteran students in a five month
program. Students were immersed in classes for 40 hours per week for 20 weeks, totaling 800 hours of
in-depth, highly personalized education. Students graduate the program with 12 industry recognized
certificates.

Since VAe’s inception they have grown from offering classes in Rhode Island and Florida, to Massachusetts, Connecticut, and North Carolina. By using an SBA line of credit they are able to opening these locations and ensure the proper equipment and services are available to all their students. While VAe continues to grow they are adamant that growth must not come at the expense of the veteran’s experience. “Each location is a small, tactical location,” said Shepard. “There are two advocates and two instructors, and the second part of our success really is through the advocacy role,” he affirmed.

Before onboarding begins each veteran is matched with an advocate to aid them in the educational process. In many instances the obstacle these service-disabled veterans face are more than just educational. “Chances are if a veteran is having a major transportation issue than the there’s something else,” said Matt Vargas, COO. “A lot of times veterans are dealing with three or four issues so we can treat symptoms or we can solve problems. We really try to get to the bottom of what the issues are and try to resolve them so once they get to that career, they see the light and they just take off,” he added.

VAe’s unique pairing of education, advocacy, and placement has produced unarguable results; 90% of veterans who enter their program graduate; of those graduates 80% find employment, of that 80%, 90% stay in that career for a sustained basis. For his demonstrated success, potential for future growth, and dedication to the veteran community, the U.S. Small Business Administration is pleased to honor John L. Shepard, CEO of Veterans Assembled electronics, as the 2018 New England Veteran Small Business Owner of the Year.

Small Business Person of the Year

Kelly Mendell: Leading the way for RI Small Business

Kelly Mendell is the president and majority owner of MIKEL, a woman-owned, leading undersea warfare technology company in Middletown. Kelly joined MIKEL in 2002, three years after her father, Brian Guimond, founded the defense technology start-up and by 2008 was the President.

Kelly’s journey began at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where she majored in engineering and began interning in a machine shop gaining hands-on experience in manufacturing, planning, materials, and quality control. Kelly graduated from UMASS with her BS in Industrial Engineering and from Babson College with an MBA and would go to work for companies including Polaroid, Gillette, and Raytheon working as both an industrial engineer and manufacturing manager.

In 2002, after the birth of her daughter Laura, Kelly joined MIKEL as the Managing Director. Kelly was responsible for managing all aspects of the business including billing, payroll, contracts, accounting, benefits, financial tracking, sales, and marketing. A few years later, after her second child, Max was born, the work-life balance became even more demanding and included many trips and long evenings of work after her children went to bed. Mendell, persevered, making strategic personnel decisions during a time of economic downturn and was moved into the role of President.

Kelly reflected on the difficult decisions she had to make in 2008, “We had to do layoffs and that’s what really motivated me to grow because we have a family atmosphere here and I feel a sense of obligation to these people I’m hiring.” She continued, “I want to make sure they have jobs for a long time that are challenging, interesting, and good paying. It’s not pleasant to lay off people that you care for and are good workers, so I decided that I didn’t want to ever be in that situation again.”

To ensure her company’s future would be stable Mendell reached out to SBA resource partners, SCORE and The Center for Women & Enterprise. She began working with SCORE on how to win government contracts while using her CWE counseling to focus on presentation, speaking, marketing, documentation, and professionalism.

These essential educational and personnel decisions allowed MIKEL to garner crucial government contracts that would keep them in the black from 2008 through today. “I was really motivated to grow,” said Mendell, “I wanted our company to rise and I wanted to bring stability to our business at a time when defense was not stable and we had a lot of uncertainty with our programs,” she added. Due to Kelly’s leadership MIKEL was able to stay successful during one of the most difficult economic periods in national history and by the time 2015 had come MIKEL had grown to 110 employees.

Today the company employs over 175 engineers, logisticians, technicians and developers and hopes to continue to provide even more challenging jobs in the future. “The key to growth is to do a really great job on your current work.” In conjunction with this philosophy, MIKEL is on the lookout to work in other high growth areas in the DoD like the unmanned domain and cyber security because companies have to keep up with the market demands to stay alive and viable.

In Kelly’s spare time she holds a leadership role on the executive board for SENEDIA, which promotes the defense business in Southeast New England, STEM in schools, and increases the visibility and education for those in the defense sector. Kelly has also sat on panels for the National Conference on Women-Owned Businesses discussing her Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) success story, and Small Businesses Association of New England (SBANE).

For her demonstrated success and potential for future growth, the U.S. Small Business Administration is pleased to honor Kelly B. Mendell, President of MIKEL, as the 2018 Rhode Island Small
Business Person of the Year.

2018 National Subcontractor of the Year Evans Capacitor Company, East Providence, RI

(L-R) President, David Evans and CEO, Charles Dewey; together they co-founded Evans Capacitor Company in 1996.

Evans Capacitor Company, headquartered in East Providence, develops and manufactures high-energy/high-power density capacitors. Capacitors store energy and then, when needed, release that energy in a burst – like your camera battery releasing stored energy when you use the flash to take a picture. Capacitors are used in a wide-range of consumer and commercial electronic products. Evans’ capacitors, however, are used primarily for demanding aerospace and defense applications, including airborne radar, laser targeting, and electronic warfare systems, where size, weight, power, and efficiency are critically important.

David Evans and Charles Dewey co-founded Evans Capacitor in 1996 to pursue technology Mr. Evans invented. With over 20 patents in capacitor chemistry, design, and packaging, Mr. Evans continues to invent, leading the company’s development and engineering team. Mr. Dewey draws on his significant prior management experience to provide oversight and direction to the company’s administration, production, marketing, and finance. The company is privately held, with over 90% owned by the founders, employees, families and Directors.

Since its inception, Evans Capacitor has been a supplier to Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, which nominated Evans for this award. For more than a decade, Evans has supplied capacitors to Lockheed Martin for use in the Arrowhead® program, which essentially is the vision and targeting package in the U.S. Army’s Apache attack helicopter. In its nomination, Lockheed Martin applauded Evans’ extraordinary delivery and quality, specifically highlighting that Evans’ assemblies as installed in the Arrowhead® system have performed with 100% reliability, without a single report of a capacitor-related problem in flight. This package has improved the safety and efficacy of the program and is described by Lockheed as “a terrific help to the warfighter.”

Last year Evans Capacitor received a STEP (State Trade and Export Promotion) grant – which is funded in part by the U.S. Small Business Administration — to expand their international presence to new markets. Working with the John H. Chafee Center for International Business at Bryant University, Evans received international marketing assistance that Mr. McClennan described as “terrific,” aiding Evans in trade shows in the U.K. and Canada, creating advertising in a U.K. digital magazine, and having representatives participate on Evans’ behalf in a U.K. exhibit. Being recognized as the national subcontractor of the year is “a great honor and extra-ordinary,” said Mr. McClennan. “It is a testament to everyone’s hard work over a long period of time, from the top down.” “It speaks to the value of the technology originally developed and continually improved, placing Evans in the world wide technical lead.”

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