Senator John Kerry, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship honors two Massachusetts’s business women at today’s “Opportunities and Challenges for Women Entrepreneurs on the 20th Anniversary of the Women’s Business Ownership Act” roundtable event.
Kip Hollister, a participant at the roundtable, is founder and CEO of Boston Recruiting Agency Hollister, Inc., a recruiting and job placement firm in Boston. Hollister was the winner of the 2008 Boston Chamber of Commerce’s Pinnacle Award for Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Woman of the Year Award.
“I am honored to have Kip here today to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of her business. She’s one example of the many successful women entrepreneurs in this country who have faced adversity but keep their dreams afloat,” said Kerry.
Babson College’s Trish Costello, another participant at the roundtable, has been internationally recognized for her work in educating and preparing venture capital investment partners through the Kauffman Fellows Program and for providing women entrepreneurs help in accessing capital.
“While the number of women-owned small firms increases, their access to capital lags and Trish has raised awareness of this challenge,” said Kerry. “I’m proud to sit alongside her today.”
Kerry recognized that despite accounting for 30 percent of all small businesses, women-owned firms receive less than 3.5 percent of federal contracts. To boost women entrepreneurship, Congress passed the Women’s Procurement Program in 2000 – which has yet to be enacted by the President. But the SBA has chosen the narrowest possible way to implement the program – labeling just four of 140 industries studied underrepresented. They submitted this rule for consideration in August and if it is implemented, contracting officers will only be able to restrict competition to women-owned businesses in these limited industries.
“I am vehemently opposed to the Bush administration moving forward with the unconstitutional women’s procurement rule that makes it harder for women to access federal contracts,” said Kerry. “If the Bush administration gets its way, the underlying principles of the Woman’s Procurement Program will be severely undermined and any meaningful change that we could have enacted will be vastly constrained.”
Hollister is a leading woman owned full-service Boston Recruiting Firm firm passionate about connecting Massachusetts’ opportunity with talent. Based and home-grown in the Greater Boston region, Hollister is well positioned to see the Massachusetts job market from both sides. They essentially have two sets of clientele that they show up for every day- Massachusetts companies and its active and passive jobseeker. For 20 years, Hollister has been the bridge that connects professionals with jobs in Massachusetts and companies with the best employees. Whether you are searching for Massachusetts jobs or to hire your next best employee, they are the network you are looking for.