SBA NEWS RELEASE

Release Date: June 4, 2008

Contact: Kate Herrington (802) 828-4422

Colleen Montague Wins 2008 Women in Business Champion of the Year Award

Colleen Montague, Program Manager for the Vermont Agency of Transportation’s (VTrans) Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) Program, has been selected by the U.S. Small Business Administration as the 2008 VT Women in Business Champion of the Year.  The DBE Program is a certification and business development program for women and minority-owned businesses.  Nominated by Lori Valburn, VTrans’ Civil Rights Chief, Ms. Montague was chosen for the honor based on her outstanding efforts to increase business opportunities for Vermont women.

Valburn’s nomination letter praises Montague for “her creative problem solving abilities, her strong leadership qualities, her sense of humor, and her remarkable work ethic.”  According to Valburn, Montague’s efforts on behalf of women-owned businesses have generated yearly averages of $7.5 million to small businesses working on federally funded projects undertaken by VTrans.  In 2007, women-owned businesses in Montague’s certification program secured more than 130 contracts for jobs ranging from installation of guardrails and bridge membranes to landscape architecture and environmental remediation.

 Montague’s work brings together women-owned businesses with construction firms seeking to comply with federal mandates to hire disadvantaged populations (in Vermont, mostly women).  To meet federal funding requirements, she must ensure that these small businesses are officially certified to work with qualified firms.   To promote participation in government contracting, Montague provides the leadership and resources for women and minority-owned companies to receive business development services and technical assistance, including continuous training opportunities.  She also maintains a registry of certified small businesses. 

Since 1998, when she first started working in the VTrans Office of Civil Rights and Labor Compliance, Montague has seen a major shift in the way contractors and Agency staff perceive the value of the work she and her colleagues perform.  “We see the contractors as partners in our efforts to diversify the highway construction industry and create equal opportunity,” Montague said.  “We have built much stronger working relationships, and the result is a lot of buy-in and support of the spirit and intent of the Agency’s civil rights programs.”

 Montague describes her role as the DBE Program Manager in educational terms.  “It’s exciting to educate people on the value of looking beyond stereotypes,” Montague said with a smile.  “If we embrace diversity, there is often something new to be learned, sometimes even the discovery of whole new worlds we didn’t know existed.” 

 Four of the women-owned businesses Montague recruited, certified, and promoted during 2007 accounted for almost $2 million of the total DBE activity for the year.  According to VTrans’ Civil Rights Chief Lori Valburn, newly emerging businesses would be unlikely to achieve this level of success without Montague’s active support.  In the past two years, Montague recruited and certified more than two dozen women-owned firms, working with each firm after certification to conduct business needs assessments and to help each firm identify and meet those needs.

Montague views her work as creating a level playing field in a market previously dominated by male populations and bigger businesses.  “The construction industry can be a very lucrative business, but many women have never had the opportunity to become involved,” Montague said.  Her success in helping people eliminate job barriers is a testament to her social and negotiation skills, which probably stems from her own multi-cultural experience of growing up in both Ireland, where she was born, and the United States.  

Even greater than her interest in promoting disadvantaged businesses is her passion for organizing activities that bring people together.  Among the events she has organized at VTrans, Montague says some of the most fulfilling have been career days in which VTrans staff described and demonstrated their work to hundreds of high school and technical school students from Central Vermont.  Montague and her co-workers introduced their visitors to a sweeping variety of VTrans jobs — from desk work to digging ditches, plowing roads to fixing vehicles, driving bucket loaders to flying airplanes.  “It felt like a phenomenal success because everybody bought into it and got fired up about it,” Montague enthused.  “It was great to hear my co-workers telling the kids what they loved about their jobs.” 

 In addition to working with women-owned businesses, Montague collaborated with colleagues at other state and federal agencies to develop a women’s business resources and referral network.  She also coordinated an annual Government Contracting Conference and developed and managed a training grant which delivered 44 business development workshops to women business owners throughout Vermont.

Montague’s enthusiasm for her work is exemplary, but she says it’s eclipsed by love for her family.  “They are the underlying part of me,” Montague said.  “Everything I do and think about totally revolves around them.”  As a single mother, she attributes much of her career success to the support of her parents, Dolores and David Montague, and her three children, Rachel, Steven, and Kyle.

Montague was honored for her accomplishments by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) at a ceremony sponsored by Vermont Business Magazine.  The event took place at Burlington’s Waterfront Park, June 4, 2008, 4:00 to 7:00 p.m.