Women in Leadership: Opportunities and Challenges

Laura H. Williams is Senior Vice President and Deputy General Counsel for Ahold USA, Inc., the parent company of Giant Food Stores (Carlisle, PA), Giant Foods (Landover, MD), and The Stop & Shop Supermarket Company (Quincy, MA).  Her responsibilities include leading the Asset Protection, Risk Management, Real Estate Law and Mergers and Acquisitions activities for Ahold’s U.S. businesses.  Prior to joining the Ahold family of companies, she was a partner at McNees Wallace & Nurick in Harrisburg, PA, where her practice focused on business transactions and financial services.   

In addition to her professional activities, Ms. Williams is the 2013 Chair of the Harrisburg Regional Chamber.  She also serves as a board member of the Central Pennsylvania Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel and is active in the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Commission on Women in the Profession.  She is an Elder at The Camp Hill Presbyterian Church.

She was recently featured in Business Woman Magazine, and has been recognized as one of the “Top Women in Grocery” by The Progressive Grocer and the Griffin Report.  She has been given the YWCA’s Tribute to Women of Excellence Award, and has been a member of the MS Society’s Leadership Class. 

Ms. Williams is a graduate of Dickinson College and the Dickinson School of Law.  She and her husband live in Camp Hill, PA.  They have two grown children.

Shari Franey, CSP '82

Shari Franey is a founder and the President/COO of The CODESMART™ Group, Inc. The CODESMART™ Group, previously International Alliance Solutions, was founded in January of 2011. The CODESMART™ Group provides a complete, integrated solution for ICD-10 transition and education, including CODESMART™ University, an online university for clinicians, existing coders and new coders. In addition, CODESMART™ provides coding and auditing services.

Previously, she was a founder and owner of the The Performance Group which was established in 1993, and reached revenues of $26 million dollars. Mrs. Franey grew the company into several divisions including: a regional managed staffing division, a national Human Resource Outsource Division, a Direct Hire division, a Diversity/Language division, and Healthcare Network, a global healthcare consulting division. Mrs. Franey has overseen the deployment of as many as 8000 employees/consultants to customers on a simultaneous basis.

In addition to her position, Ms. Franey has been involved in industry and community boards. She served for six years as President for Pennsylvania Staffing Association, and she has served on the Board of Directors and Executive Board of Directors for Lancaster Chamber of Commerce and United Disabilities since 2005, as well as, on the President's Advisory Council of Messiah College, her Alma Mater. She also is the Chair of the Advocacy Committee for the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce.

Ms. Franey graduated from Messiah College, as well as, MIT's program, Birthing of Giants. She has been recognized as being one of the 50 Best Business Women in Pennsylvania and a finalist in Ernst and Young's, Entrepreneur of the Year.

She is married and has two daughters.

Deb Pierson '89

A certified PMI Project Management Professional, Deb Pierson has excelled for many years of technical support and project management services to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, first at IBM and now at PCCi, which she founded in 1993. As President and CEO, Deb oversees business development, business operations, and project operations, as well as establishes relationships with key business partners. Deb thrives on team work. She especially enjoys watching her team members exceed customer challenges because of the way they work together. Recently, she was honored as a national finalist for the 2008 Enterprising Woman of the Year by Enterprising Women magazine.

PCCi also enjoyed media attention as a finalist for the Central Penn Business Journal’s Small Business of the Year and as a finalist for Harrisburg Regional Chamber’s Small Business of the Year. A 2007 YWCA Tribute to Women of Excellence winner, Deb is a passionate community servant. She generously donates time to Silver Spring Youth Baseball, the Alzheimer’s Association of Greater PA, the Technology Council of Central Pennsylvania, the Harrisburg Regional Chamber, and the West Shore Chamber and its Technology Council. Married to Jeff Pierson, Deb counts herself profoundly grateful for his personal and professional support. Deb and Jeff have two teenage daughters, Jackie and Elizabeth. The family owns a German Shorthair Pointer, a cat, and a miniature schnauzer, Annie, who does double duty as the PCCi office mascot. Deb’s hobbies include scrap booking, reading, and antiquing.

Dr. Connie Ostwald

Connie is a business consultant and economics professor, currently serving on the faculty at Messiah College and with TeamSpeak Consulting, Inc. Through her position in teaching, Connie has done capacity building and leadership training for development professionals around the world. She has taught in China, South Africa, Kenya, Mexico, Italy, Romania, and Thailand where NGO, business, and government professionals have come from the surrounding regions to join her program.

In her consulting work she has provided training and materials for a variety of private sector and non-profit organizations, focusing in the areas of social entrepreneurship, strategic marketing, professional leadership development, and teambuilding. Clients include United Banks, First American Mortgage Company, International Communication and Research Associates, SBIDC (Small Business International Development Center for the Small Business Association), World Vision, Habitat for Humanity, Amity Foundation, Allstate Insurance, Pfizer, Inc., Progressive Designs, Inc., and the US Olympic Training Center.