|
 |
BRENDA NEWBERRY
president & CEO, The Newberry Group |
A PROMISE
|
By Pam Droog
When Brenda Newberry married her childhood sweetheart after attending
Purdue University for two years, she made a promise to her grandmother,
a promise that influenced the rest of her life. “Grandmother said,
‘You have to finish college, someone in this family has to be the
first.’” Newberry recalls.
The Gary, Indiana native fulfilled that promise in a roundabout
way—she joined the United States Air Force, along with her husband,
Maurice, in 1973.
In the Air Force, Newberry did everything from driving a forklift
and a ton-and-a-half truck, to working in drug counseling and supply
warehousing management. She also gained her first experience working
with computers, doing keypunch and running a remote Univac 1050.
The young couple was stationed at Torrejon Air Force Base in Spain.
“We were young with no kids. It was great,” Newberry says. In 1978,
she was selected from 570,000 candidates as one of 12 outstanding
airmen. And she also kept her promise to her grandmother, earning
an undergraduate degree in business from the University of Maryland
European Division, and topped it off by completing a master’s degree
in business management from Webster University after she left the
Air Force in 1979.
At that time Newberry went to work for McDonnell Douglas (now The
Boeing Company), first as a logistics engineer, then as a systems
programmer. In 1984, she joined MasterCard, where she advanced to
vice president and managed the global growth of a profit and loss
business unit that provided imaging technology.
The upside was that Newberry built the unit from eight systems to
more than 300 worldwide in four years, and traveled frequently to
Europe and South America. The downside, she says, was “long work
days. Often I’d go in to the office at 7 a.m. and leave at 1 a.m.”
When she had an opportunity to move to another position in the company,
or move to New York, she says, “I thought maybe it was time to do
something else. I always worked harder and longer, because I felt
as a woman and a minority, I have to do a better job. But I said,
if I did this for myself, I could really be a success.”
Newberry formed The Newberry Group in February 1996, with a $1,000
personal investment, and continued the work ethic. “As a business
owner you have to be prepared to do anything from meeting with prospects
and making presentations, to changing a printer cartridge and vacuuming,”
she says. That summer Newberry signed up her first client, Mallinckrodt,
and hired an employee. Today, The Newberry Group has more than 105
employees, including one in Bahrain, with offices in St. Louis,
Stroudsburg, Penn., Columbus, Ohio, Kansas City and Washington,
D.C.
Newberry explains, the company, ranking second in the 2003 St. Louis
Regional Technology Top 50, offers three core competencies: applications,
programming development and system integration; local and wide area
network services from server to desktop; and cyber security program
management. Her day typically starts at 4:30 a.m., when she and
Maurice run five miles. Then they arrive at the office around 8
a.m. (Maurice joined the firm in 2001 as executive vice president
and COO).
Despite long workdays, Newberry makes time to teach operating systems
and network communications at Washington University. She also participates
in numerous professional and civic organizations including the Missouri
Minority Business Advocacy Commission, St. Charles County Planning
and Zoning Commission, Washington University National Council for
the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Civic Entrepreneurs
Organization, St. Louis Minority Business Council and the Institute
for Women’s Policy Research for the Status of Women in Missouri.
Newberry also serves on the boards of the National Association of
Women Business Owners, Missouri Small Business Development Statewide
Advisory Board, The St. Louis Enterprise Centers, United Services
for the Handicap Inc., the St. Charles County advisory board of
Frontenac Bank and the RCGA.
“I only join organizations for which I can fully participate,” Newberry
says, adding it helps that her two daughters are grown and away
at school.
Through her career and community involvement, Newberry has earned
several impressive honors. This summer, for example, her company
was named the USDA Office of Procurement and Property Management
Woman-Owned Business of the Year and the National Minority Supplier
Development Council Regional supplier of the Year.
As a small business owner, Newberry believes the region needs to
offer more support for local companies. “It’s very important to
nurture and develop that next group of companies that will become
the sustainers of the region.”
On a personal level, Newberry sustains herself by focusing on health
and nutrition through reading and cooking. She also enjoys suspense
novels and books about “working your faith within your business,”
she says. She hopes to expand The Newberry Group’s international
presence, and to continue to manage the business “for something
greater than ourselves,” she says. “I continue to see miracles.
And now I can see a lot of the value of the past. Who would have
known being a veteran would be such a positive thing, all because
of a promise to my grandmother to finish college?”
Pam Droog is a frequent contributor to St. Louis Commerce Magazine.
|
|
|
|
|
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
|
