OCTOBER 26, 2012 L E E S B U R G T O D A Y 37

Women Who Mean BusinessWhen it comes to women-owned

businesses, Loudoun County appears to be faring better than

the state and the nation. Women-owned firms accounted for 32 percent of the businesses in the county, compared with 30 percent for the state and 29 percent for the United States, according to data from the 2007 U.S. Census Bureau’s Survey of Business Owners.

From a global perspective, almost 1 billion women around the world will enter the international economy in the coming decade, San Francisco-based Booz & Co. estimates. In conducting research to create the “Third Billion Index”—a ranking of 128 countries based on how effectively leaders are empowering women as economic agents—the international management consulting firm concluded that “the economic advancement of women doesn’t just empower women but also leads to greater overall prosper ity.”

As the international spotlight is turned on women in the workforce and at the helms of corporations and government agencies, Loudoun Business takes this opportunity to feature some of the top women of influence in the business community:• Robyn Bailey, Loudoun County

Department of Economic Development • Kristina Bouweiri, Reston Limousine• Michelle Frank, Orbital Sciences Corp.• Heidi Seibentritt, Loudoun County

Department of Planning• Colleen Gillis Snow, Cooley, LLP• Mary Ellen Taylor, Endless Summer

Harvest• Kate Zurschmeide, Great Country

Farms

“What is certain is that women-owned firms are making a critical contribution to the U.S. economic engine.”

National Women’s Business Council

Kate Zurschmeide, OwnerGreat Country Farms

Kate and Mark Zurschmeide are co-owners of Great Country Farms south of Bluemont, known as much as a tourism destination as a farm-ing operation. The Zurschmeides bought the farm 19 years ago. Since then, the couple has built a thriving rural business, with a deft mix of pick-your-own opera-tions, community sup-ported agriculture and family events, including fishing and pig races.

If Mark has the vision and ideas, it is his wife’s business outreach and communications skills that help bring those ideas to fruition and have influenced the company’s growth. A former director of product development for C&P Telephone, Zurschmeide used that background to grow the company as well to play a significant role representing the industry in various Loudoun business organizations.

She currently is serving on the board of directors at the Loudoun Chamber of Commerce, and has served on the board for the Loudoun Convention and Visitors Association, as well as on the county’s Rural Economic Development Council.

“People make a business. I like interact-ing with really smart people in Loudoun,”

she said. A recent example of expanded rela-tionships—along with doubled production and expansion of its wholesale business—is the farm’s lease of land from Holy Cross

Monastery. For the monks, the partnership brings in revenue, keeps their land in produc-tion and provides them with fresh vegetables.

All the excess production goes to Loudoun Interfaith Relief and Zurschmeide’s hope is to “use the farm tours to get to the next level; to hold a food drive at each farm.”

Entrepreneurs should stay involved. “If you stop caring, you should do something else,” she says

- Margaret Morton

Mary Ellen Taylor, President Endless Summer Harvest

A woman who has introduced Loudoun to the virtues of hydroponic (water) gardening, Mary Ellen Taylor, co-owner of Endless Summer Harvest near Purcellville is a bundle of cheerful vigor and enthusiasm.

Taylor shortly will double production from 12,000 to 24,000 square feet of pes-ticide-free, hydroponic lettuce, salad greens and herbs under glass.

The virtues of hydroponic production are numerous. One 12,000-square-foot greenhouse equals 12 acres of traditional lettuce production. “There’s no frost, no drought, no deer and no stink bugs to worry about—they don’t like lettuce,” Taylor said.

The original partners in the 2002 busi-ness included Taylor’s husband, Wally Reed, curator of the U.S. Botanic Garden, who taught the partners “the production side.” She entered the business full-time around 2006, eventually buying her co-owners out. Her business partner is her father, retired Brig. Gen. and Navy JAG lawyer Chet Taylor.

It is her marketing and retail experi-ence that was most instrumental in shifting the business from a “hobby to a thriving commercial business,” Taylor said. “Why not put my 30 years’ marketing and retail experience into the business?”

Based on her experience at Woody’s department store, “my business philosophy is all about relationships, and letting people know they can trust our products,” she said. “We cycle 4,000 seeds per week; through germination, harvesting, planting out and distribution.”

Taylor has always aimed high, selling at major Washington, DC, markets, top restaurants, high-end events and specialty outlets. “I could sell the crop three times over,” she said.

- Margaret Morton

38 L E E S B U R G T O D A Y OCTOBER 26, 2012

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Heidi Siebentritt, PlannerDepartment of Planning

When anyone wants to learn about the growth of preservation planning in the county, there are few who know more about the subject than senior Loudoun County plan-ner Heidi Siebentritt, who has been a quiet but influential presence in the field for 14 years. Today, she serves as liaison to the Historic District Review Committee and the Loudoun County Heritage Commission.

Siebentritt came to the depart-ment in 1999 with a background in archaeology. Her first job was to work with the county’s historic dis-trict ordinance, but soon after was selected to fill the county’s newly created position of preservation planner.

She began preservation planning in 2000, when the county was doing an update of its

Comprehensive Plan. “It was a good time to be here, and we had room to look at preservation in a different way; to be more inclusive,” Siebentritt said, recalling the county had no preservation policies. The guidelines were established in 1984 and revised comprehensively in 2008.

Under the Ordinance for Historic District Overlay Zones, established in 1972, the county HDRC oversees six historic districts, the largest of which is the 11,000-acre Goose Creek district; one historic district roadway district; and two historic sites.

Siebentritt considers her greatest influence has been to help planners develop policy with the result that “preservation has a seat at the table as part of the overall land use process.”

Her quiet advice is appreciated. One Heritage Commission member described Siebentritt as “steady, and you can always rely on what she says.”

- Margaret Morton

Colleen Gillis Snow Partner, Real Estate GroupCooley

Chances are if you’ve found yourself in the county boardroom for a Board of Supervisors hearing or meeting in the past several years, then you’ve seen Colleen Gillis Snow at work. As a partner at the Cooley law firm, Gillis Snow has been working as a land use attorney since 2004, representing clients large and small. She

has been a lead on several of Loudoun’s biggest projects, among them Ashburn’s One Loudoun development, Dulles World Center along Rt. 28, Brambleton, Willowsford, Leesburg’s Oaklawn development and the Leesburg Promenade. She also has worked with small property owners, helping them through the county’s zoning and permitting process. She also was very involved in the public process of creating new development policies for the Rt. 28 corridor.

“I wanted to do something where at the end of the day I could broker a deal where both sides could walk away and feel like they’re winning,” she said. “It is a com-munity building process. My hope is to make it so my client advances their business perspective, but the community feels like they’re winning, too.”

She said she does not see herself as a “woman working in a man’s world” but instead views herself first as a resident of Loudoun and the mother of two daughters. “I am someone who drives the same roads, uses the same services and has the same goals and aspirations as everyone else,” she said.

Gillis Snow’s work in Loudoun goes far beyond the boardroom. She serves on the board of directors of the Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce and on the organization’s Public Policy Committee, and co-chairs the Virtual Realty Tour. She has been involved in the cham-ber for four years.

Gillis Snow also is involved in the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties, the Northern Virginia Building Industry Association and the Urban Land Institute.

As for the future, Gillis Snow said she wants to continue the work she has been doing. “I want to continue to be a part of the community and among business leaders that are shaping today what Loudoun will look like in 2025, 2050.”

-Erika Jacobson Moore

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Kristina Bouweiri, CEOReston Limousine

Twenty-two years ago, Kristina Bouweiri quit her job in advertising sales to work with her new boyfriend, who owned Reston Limousine. At the time, the company was a mom-and-pop transportation business operating out of the Hyatt Reston hotel with just five vehicles.

Within a year, Bouweiri married her boyfriend—the couple is now separated—and began growing the business by diversifying its markets, reaching the wine tour industry and nail-ing down government contracts. During the first 10 years, Reston Limousine grew to a $5 million business. In 2000, her husband became a stay-at-home dad to their four children, moving Bouweiri from vice president to president of the company. Since then, the business, now located in Sterling, has more than tripled in size, racking in revenues of $18 million—and much of the growth can be attributed to Bouweiri’s attention to customer relations.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the transportation industry took a hit, causing Bouweiri to step out of her office for the first time in 10 years to network. “I saw the impor-tance of getting to know people, getting involved with the community,” the Loudoun resident said.

“I joined the chambers and other associations. I saw that was a great way to grow the business.”

But Bouweiri soon had yet another idea to gain clients—hosting her own networking events. She has been putting on Sterling Women busi-ness networking luncheons once a month for four years; she invites 50 clients to lunch each

month; and she conducts focus groups with clients.

“Now I get to just do what I like to do,” she said of getting to know her clients on a deeper level. “That is really why raw talent is the networking, public relations, and it has paid back in big dividends.”

Aside from her networking efforts, Bouweiri is also working to make the business an outlet for other transportation companies. Not only is Reston Limousine opening another location in Maryland, but its vehicle maintenance shop also serves other businesses. Its risk man-agement consultant teaches safety

classes; it has become a GSA mentor, helping small companies learn how to do business with government partners; it has created a social media network of limousine companies worldwide; and it plans to open a driving school for commercial drivers, among other ventures.

Bouweiri hasn’t stopped for more than two decades, and it’s paid off. “You can’t really com-pare what we are today to what we were then,” she said.

- Lindsey Brookbank

40 L E E S B U R G T O D A Y OCTOBER 26, 2012

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Robyn Bailey, Business Infrastructure ManagerLoudoun County Department Economic Development

A former competitive rider who won the Washington International Horse Show children’s jumper championship when she was 16, Robyn Bailey has been clearing hurdles for the county since her teens.

Bailey, manager of business infrastructure with the county’s Department of Economic Development, grew up riding at her family’s home north of Leesburg. She competed—and took home ribbons—on the local circuits, eventually qualifying for the international arena that year. “I really wanted to go but I didn’t think I even stood a chance because once you get to that level it’s all about the who’s who,” she said. She ended up winning, however, and the achievement opened her eyes. “It got me thinking, ‘you could do whatever you want. It doesn’t really matter who are you and whether you played the game.’ I didn’t politic and my parents weren’t politickers, they were just, ‘Do your job, do it well and do the best you can.’”

Staying above the fray and focusing on the

job has been her professional style ever since. It’s one that has served her well as she worked her way up in county government over the past 20-plus years to become the department’s point person on commercial real estate development. It’s all about the job for Bailey, and when it comes to the job, gender has no place at the table. “As long as the work is there and we’re talking about

what needs to happen, I don’t think it matters. And I don’t think people treat me differently, that there’s less respect or more respect because I’m a woman,” she said.

As someone who’s grown up in Loudoun, she’s watched it grow from a sleepy suburb to the fastest growing county in the nation, and she’s thrilled to be a part of the process. “I appreciate the growth. I appreciate the struggles that there are with the growth. I’m glad I’m not a board member having to make

those decisions, and I’m glad I’m here to help facilitate taking some of that pressure off,” she said. “We are government, we have to protect the interests of the public but also remove the hurdles or perceived hurdles, and let the development occur in an organized, thoughtful way that we can all be proud of someday.”

–Therese Howe

OCTOBER 26, 2012 L E E S B U R G T O D A Y 41

Michelle Frank, Director, Government RelationsOrbital Sciences Corp.

As the daughter and granddaughter of engi-neers, working in the aerospace industry might have seemed like a natural career progression for Michelle Frank, but the director of government relations for Orbital Sciences Corp. stumbled upon the career that has been hers for more than a decade.

After receiv-ing degrees in broadcast journalism and political science, Frank started out at a CBS affiliate, before moving to Washington, DC, and work-ing in the White House Press Office and then on political cam-paigns. She then, in her words, “went corporate” and began work-ing in corporate communications. That is where she started at Orbital in 2002, before moving over to fill a need in government rela-tions in 2004.

“I just sort of up ended up here, but to do what I do with the material you get at Orbital is really ‘cool, gee whiz’ kind of stuff,” Frank said. And Frank says she hopes to be there in the years to come. “Orbital is 30 years old this year. In 10 years it will be the 40th anniversary and who knows what new launch vehicle or spacecraft they will be developing at that point. It is constantly changing and that is part of what makes it so exciting.”

As the head of government relations Frank serves as a lobbyist for Orbital at both the state and federal level, “educating and informing leg-islators and keeping them up to date on all the neat and incredible stuff Orbital is up to.”

But Frank also is very involved in the

greater Loudoun community, something she said began to ramp up about five years ago when she was first selected to serve on the Economic Development Commission, a position she still holds as Orbital’s representative. As the third largest public employer in the county, Frank said it is important that Orbital be involved in the community. “We employ a lot of Loudoun resi-dents so we try to make sure it is a good, condu-cive environment for them to live and work in.”

Among the other groups that Frank rep-

resents Orbital on are the Rt. 28 landowners commission, the Northern Virginia Technology Council, the governor’s Aerospace Advisory Council, Women in Defense’s Capital Area Chapter and Women in Aerospace.

Frank, who lives in Loudoun and whose son attends Loudoun County Public Schools, said it is important for her to stay involved locally. “There is nothing more true than the fact that all politics are local,” she said. “The day-to-day impact of what is done at the county level is so big compared to even the state level, but especially the federal level. You see things where decisions are being made every week at board meetings. I love being able to have an impact on the community.”

- Erika Jacobson Moore