WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Jay Rockefeller met with and congratulated Judy K. Sheppard, President/CEO of Professional Services of America (PSA) Inc. on being named West Virginia's 2011 Small Business Person of the Year by the Small Business Administration (SBA).
"People like Judy, and all small business owners, are an enormously important part of the economy in West Virginia. She has set a great example for other aspiring businessmen and women of what they can accomplish with smarts, ingenuity and hard work. Judy has made West Virginia very proud and I congratulate her on this wonderful recognition."
Ms. Sheppard was born and raised in Roane and Ritchie counties and established Professional Services of America Inc. in 1989 in Parkersburg. The company is focused primarily on staffing and human resources.
In the last five years, PSA doubled its size and today is an $11 million corporation. PSA has contracts or subcontracts with 29 different federal agencies to fulfill a wide diversity of needs and services for the agencies. PSA has contract employees in over 40 states and has offices in Washington, D.C.; Gulfport, Mississippi; Chicago; and Fort Bliss, Texas.
Ms. Sheppard was honored as the Ernest & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2003, Minority Entrepreneur of the Year in 2004, Small Business of the Year in 2005, SBA Women in Business Champion in 2006, Who's Who in West Virginia by the State Journal in 2007, top 100 Women Business Enterprise (WBE) owners impacting supplier diversity by Women's Enterprise USA magazine in 2008, the WBENC Southeast Division's Women's Business Enterprise of the Year for West Virginia in 2008.
As an advocate for businesswomen, she also pioneered West Virginia's first Executive Women's Conference.
