Straight from the source.

Sheila Talton, CEO of Unisource Network Services, has taken the Windy City by storm

If you had to describe Sheila G. Talton in one word, it would be tenacious. It is a trait that has helped Talton build Chicago-based Unisource Network Services Inc. into a top-flight telecommunications and network-integration firm. Unisource clients include BancOne, the Federal Aviation Administration and EuroTunnel/Transmanche-Link, which runs the Chunnel that connects France and the United Kingdom. As the head of a company with revenues of over $9 million and offices in Washington, D.C., and New York, Talton has cleared a path for herself in an industry dominated by white males. Not only has her tenacity served her well in winning clients, but it has also proved useful in gaining members for her company's board of directors.

"I had declined joining the Unisource board several times before Sheila finally convinced me to `just attend' a board meeting to get a feel for it," says Michael S. Fields, chairman and CEO of the Fields Group, a technology management consulting firm in Pleasanton, California (see "The Black Digerati," March 1998). Fields was already an active member of seven other boards. At dinner later that evening, Talton put her request in plainer terms. "She eventually said, `You can join the board and participate in this company officially or not. It doesn't matter because I'll bug you for advice anyway. The only difference is that you won't be a board member,'" recalls Fields. It was an offer he couldn't refuse.

Founded in 1986, Unisource grew out of Talton's desire to be a driving force in the information technology (IT) industry. Just two years prior to launching the company, after having worked in the IT industry for her entire adult life, Talton, 45, reached an epiphany. "When I looked at the people above me, there weren't any who looked like me," says the Ohio native, who saw neither females nor African Americans in the executive ranks. "My feeling was that if I was going to blaze new trails and be a pioneer, then I may as well maximize my return and become an entrepreneur." At the time Talton was a sales manager in the Chicago office of Applied Data Research, a division of Ameritech Inc.

Coincidentally, the government was completing the forced breakup of telecommunications powerhouse AT&T. "I began to investigate what opportunities would arise from the divestiture of AT&T," explains Talton. "I knew there would be a market for telecommunications services and that's where I needed to be."

She decided to launch a network-engineering firm that would assist businesses in designing and implementing communications infrastructure for computer, data and voice communications. The investment community, however, did not share Talton's enthusiasm. "In the '80s, venture capitalists weren't investing in service firms because they were still of the mind-set that you had to have assets--and not the kind that walked and talked," she recalls. Being an African American female certainly didn't help assuage doubt. "It's hard for women to raise capital because the investment community often doesn't believe you can be serious about running your own business," says Talton, a single parent. "They assume that as soon as you get a husband, the focus changes and priorities shift away from the business."

She tried in vain to raise start-up capital before being introduced to Saskatchewan Telephone, a Canadian telecommunications company then interested in entering the U.S. telecommunications market. By late 1986, the company invested $600,000 in exchange for 49% ownership of the company.

Although she had plenty of contacts from her long career, Talton still recalls struggling for the first five years. "The turning point was a multimillio-dollar contract from the Federal Aviation Administration, which allowed us to build the infrastructure we desperately needed in order to grow as a company," says Talton.

Since then there has been no turning back. In 1993, Talton bought out her partner's share of the company. She won't give the exact figure, but says she paid less than it was sold for. Although margins were thin, Unisource had built a reputation for thoroughness, good customer service and an excellent management team. In addition to adding more employees--Unisource now has a staff of 90--the firm opened an office in Washington, D.C., in 1994. The move gave her better access to government contracts from agencies such as the departments of Defense, Justice and Treasury.

Although they had no office in Los Angeles at the time, Unisource was even able to loan its technological expertise to Seagram's Universal Studios and the company's Wines and Spirits group in New York. "Unisource is absolutely one of the better firms in the U.S. at what they do," states Stephanie Parson, who brought Talton's firm in to handle the telecommunication needs for the local and wide-area networks. Parson was so impressed with Unisource that she hired the company to manage the internal Y2K fixes at Parson Brinckerhoff, a global engineering firm in New York where she now works as CIO.

By 1996, it was time for Unisource to raise the funds to fuel even more growth. "We were looking for companies that have a legitimate chance to grow 10 times in five years and Unisource fit," says Derrick Collins, a general partner with Polestar Capital Partners in Chicago, Polestar helped the firm generate over $4 million in venture capital to set up future satellite offices in Atlanta, Dallas, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

"Our growth is being fueled by our core business area--network and telecommunications--as well as geographic expansion," explains Talton, who expects to double 1998 revenues this year to the tune of $18 million.

"We were very impressed that she was focused and knew exactly how she was going to grow the company rapidly over the next three to four years," says Collins, whose firm invests specifically in minority-owned technology companies. Lately Unisource has been working on a million-dollar project to connect all of Chicago's 550 public schools via a wide-area network that will enable them to share administrative and classroom resources.

Talton sees herself as not merely a purveyor of technology. She hopes to bring real value to any company she works with. "This is an industry that is constantly changing, and I'm glad I've been allowed to make a contribution," she says.