It?s hard to imagine that 40 years ago, Deborah Stallings, who now owns a Columbia company, was picking cotton on the family farm in Liberty, Miss.
But Stallings? move to Maryland at 27 sparked a seed that today has the Columbia company she created honored as a 2006 Maryland Top 100 Minority Business Enterprise.
As the chief executive officer of HR Anew Inc., Stallings oversees a staff of about 20 employees and helps manage multimillion-dollar contracts. The company provides recruiting, employee training, certification and compliance as well as other human resource work.
The client list includes NASA, the Maryland Transportation Authority, the National Library of Medicine, the National Institutes of Health, the Federal Election Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency, Bon Secours Baltimore Health System and several local hospitals.
Stallings said her success can be traced to her grandfather ? a Mississippi farmer who urged his children and grandchildren to be entrepreneurs.
She worked in human resources in Chicago and a boss asked her to relocate to Maryland to help her head the human resources department at a Baltimore area hospital.
With a nursing and health background, Stallings was recruited by area hospitals during the next 10 years and earned a reputation as a results-oriented, hardworking human resources manager and recruiter.
In 1999, with her daughter well on her way to college, Stallings heeded her grandfather?s advice and started her own business.
“I was actually petrified of the idea of starting my own business,” Stallings said.
She become active in organizations. She is a longtime member of the board of directors of the Howard County Chamber of Commerce. She was a founding member of the Howard County Human Resources Society.
Stalling was the 2004-05 president of the National Association of Women Business OwnersBaltimore regional chapter.
But it was ultimately the work results that have gained her more business, which she has grown from $90,000 in revenue the first year to about $1.2 million last year.
She said she hopes to double it this year.
“I am passionate about human resources. It?s so much fun and rewarding to me,” Stallings said.
“I am very satisfied with the caliber of candidates they refer to us, as well as the program content delivered for our leadership training and development program,” said Gloria Clarke, vice president of Bon Secours Baltimore Health System.
Deborah Stallings
» First job: Administrative assistant for the American Dental Association
» Education/credentials: Working on bachelor?s, communication and information management, College of Notre Dame of Maryland, Professional in Human Resources certification
» Best job perk: Travel
» Number of daily e-mails: More than 100
» Number of daily voice mails: Two to five
» Essential Web sites: Society for Human Resource Management – shrm.org, Howard County Human Resources Society – hocohrs.org, google.com
» Career objective: Grow HR Anew, expand into new markets
» Birthplace: Chicago
» Birthdate: Oct. 30, 1959
» Sports/hobbies: Traveling
