“Women Owned Businesses and the Regional Economy.”

  JILL CHENG — President, Cheng & Tsui Company, Inc.
Cheng & Tsui Company was recently featured in a report on the rise of Asian-owned businesses in Massachusetts, developed by the Immigrant Learning Center. Read on to learn more about the start of our company, our founder, and our mission of "bringing Asia to the world".
“My friends thought I was out of my mind when I left a high paying job in a successful publishing company. But I wanted to do something meaningful, something that would bring cultures together and something that would utilize my international background.”

Jill Cheng had the good fortune of being exposed to the publishing world starting with a part-time job in college. “I grew up in Tokyo and came to college in the U.S. I was on scholarship but needed to earn more money. I didn’t have any experience in being a waitress which was the natural choice for struggling young people.What I did have was editing experience from high school.” So Jill applied for a part-time job with a small, local publisher and began her adventure in the publishing world.

“After I got my Master’s degree, I went to work full-time for the same firm. I was fascinated by the business side of publishing. The owner was wonderful to me, mentoring and supporting me in learning the business.”
Jill ultimately became Executive Vice-President of the company earning a good salary. But there was a nagging sense that she needed to do something that had personal meaning for her. With her husband busy with his research, she used nights and weekends to develop ideas for a new business.
“I borrowed some seed money from my younger brother to put out my first catalogue of books in Chinese and Japanese that would be suitable for academic and library audiences. I had obtained high quality pieces of literature for my husband to read and thought others might enjoy these texts. And I actually got some nibbles! This began the opportunity that I was looking for: to bring Asia to the world.” Thus began Cheng & Tsui Company.

Publishing is a capital-intensive and risky business and Jill did not have high expectations of making a lot of money. “Money was never my goal anyway but bringing cultures together was and is very important to me.
There were lots of years of not paying myself. It takes a long time to build the expertise, capital and talent to do a quality job. But we have grown steadily.” Today, Cheng & Tsui is a leading publisher and distributor of Asian language textbooks and educational materials about Asia. They publish in all areas including literature in translation, history, religion and culture. They have an especially strong presence in providing high-quality language textbooks for learning Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian and other Asian languages. The best-selling Integrated Chinese and Adventures in Japanese textbook series have been recognized internationally. Cheng & Tsui’s latest publication, “Startup Business
Chinese: An Introductory Course for Professionals,” is likely to be a hit with U.S. business people as the West focuses on China.

  LIVIA COWAN — President and Creative Director, Mariposa
Livia Cowan founded Mariposa over twenty years ago as a personal quest, a worldwide journey, in search of the handmade and the beautiful. What began as a youthful endeavor (Livia drove the truck; her parents’ garage was the
warehouse) has become a successful company that’s really an extended family. In partnership with our retailers, we offer our customers the specialized knowledge and aesthetic loyalty that’s behind every Mariposa piece they bring home.

Livia was always passionate about her mission: to raise the everyday life of tableware to the summit of what it can be. This has meant a happy marriage of our designers’ original, innovative ideas with the age-old techniques and superb materials of the finest Italian, French, Eastern European and Mexican artisans working in ceramics, cutlery, glass, and aluminum.

It has meant, on Livia’s part, a commitment to unique design. All Mariposa’s designers are artists: painters and sculptors. Our craftsmen, the very best we can find, have become our friends, and view each piece they make as art, not product. (We’ve worked with the same aluminum artisans in Mexico for fifteen years.) But in an age when so little is made by hand, we never question our mission to keep such individual crafts alive — they’re simply better.


VICTORIA JACKSON — Owner, Atlantic Lab Equipment, LLC
  VICTORIA JACKSON — Owner & COO, Atlantic Lab Equipment, LLC 
 Victoria B. Jackson, of Salem, Massachusetts is the owner and Chief Operating Officer of Atlantic Lab Equipment LLC, whose mission is to help labs save money by providing reconditioned instruments at significant savings.  Atlantic Lab Equipment has been assisting scientific and laboratory companies for over 6 years with their equipment needs.  Prior to helping her husband found Atlantic Lab Equipment LLC six and half years ago, Victoria was a stay-at-home mom for 13 years, caring for the couple's four kids, all of whom are now teenagers.  Her first career was in English as Second Language instruction.  She graduated from Lesley College with a Bachelor's in English, received a Master's in ESL from Boston University and taught at the Harvard Summer Program and North Shore Community College.   Someday, she hopes to do stand-up comedy.

JANET SANTA ANNA — President, The Resource Connection Inc.
Janet Santa Anna is co-founder and co-owner of The Resource Connection, Inc. (TRC).  TRC is an award winning, SOMWBA certified, women-owned and managed full service staffing company headquartered in Middleton, with a branch office in Boston.  TRC provides temporary help services, specializing in office support and administrative personnel.  Janet is a Certified Staffing Professional (CSP) with over 28 years of experience in the staffing services industry.  In addition, TRC has been recognized as one of the Top 100 Women Led Businesses in Massachusetts.

She currently serves as President of the Board of Directors of Strongest Link AIDS Services.  Janet also serves on the Business Advisory Boards of The Commonwealth of Massachusetts’s Affirmative Market Program and North Shore Community College.   Active memberships include The Commonwealth Institute, Center for Women & Enterprise, Middleton Board of Trade, North Shore Chamber of Commerce, American Staffing Association, and Massachusetts Staffing Association.   Janet holds a Masters of Management degree and a specialized graduate certificate in Organizational Development from Cambridge College School of Management. 

 

Christine B. Sullivan- Executive Director, Enterprise Center
Christine Sullivan comes from a background that encompasses entrepreneurship, economic development, public policy and education. In 1986 she founded Hawthorne Media, a marketing, advertising and public relations firm specializing in the training/learning industry. Prior to starting her own business, Christine was Massachusetts Secretary of Consumer Affairs, responsible for consumer advocacy and the oversight of various regulatory agencies. She has also done extensive work in economic development and tourism, and was Chief of Staff in a Congressional office in Washington, DC. She is a professional speaker, seminar developer, leader and course instructor in strategic marketing planning, mass communications, and entrepreneurship. At this time she is a member of the Salem Planning Board and the Salem Redevelopment Authority. She received a BA from Vassar College and a Masters Degree in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

 

Dr. Patricia Meservey ---President, Salem State College

Elected by a unanimous vote of the College's Board of Trustees, Dr. Patricia Maguire Meservey became the 13th President of Salem State College on July 29, 2007.

The former Provost and Academic Vice President of Suffolk University in Boston, Dr. Meservey is recognized for her work in the advancement of teaching excellence, promotion of faculty scholarship, and academic and administrative strategic planning.

Prior to Suffolk, Dr. Meservey was Vice Provost for Faculty and Budget at Northeastern University, where she held a number of positions, including Professor of Nursing, Special Assistant to the President, and interim Vice Provost for Enrollment Management. Dr. Meservey also was the Executive Director of the Center for Community Health Education, Research & Service, and the National Director of the Community Partnerships in Graduate Medical and Nursing Education Initiative. Both initiatives were funded by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation.

Dr. Meservey provided leadership in the transformation of nursing and medical education, bringing students into the fields of community health and primary care. Her work with the neighborhood health centers of Boston provided learning opportunities for students and improved health care options for patients and community members. She is published in the fields of nursing, health professional education, and health policy.

Dr. Meservey holds a Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration from Boston College, an M.S. in Parent-Child Health Nursing and a B.S. in Nursing from Boston University, and a Diploma in Nursing from Faulkner Hospital. She is a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing.

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