Firm has grown to 47 employees in five years

Ron Williams, president and CEO of Unified Consultants Group Inc., of Fayetteville, Ga., has been selected the 2006 Minority Small Business Person of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Georgia District Office.

Williams received the SBA annual award on August 14 at the annual Minority Enterprise Development (MED) Week Awards Luncheon in Atlanta. MED Week is sponsored by the SBA and the U.S. Department of Commerce Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA).

The luncheon was part of the 24th annual observance of MED Week in the United States. MED Week helps to recognize the tremendous contributions minority entrepreneurs make to the economic well being of the United States and to celebrate the free market that makes these contributions possible.

SBA Georgia District Director Terri Denison presented the 2006 award to Williams at the MED Week luncheon hosted by the Atlanta Business League.

“Ron Williams is an excellent example of someone who has pursued the American Dream through entrepreneurship,” said Denison. “Unified Consultants Group demonstrates what happens when expertise, strategy, resources and commitment come together.”

Williams, who retired as an Army major after 20 years of military service, joined with some colleagues in 1999 to form a new company. The venture went nowhere for a couple of years until he and Johnny Asbury, another military veteran, decided to acquire the firm and try to put new life into what had become a listless small business.

“We took the business over, restructured it and began to run with it,” recalled Williams of his first commercial venture as a civilian. During this run, Williams has served as president and CEO of Unified Consultants Group Inc., while Asbury, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, is vice president of the business based in Fayetteville, Ga.

At first, Williams says his company, with basically no track record, started knocking on the doors of federal contractors. But his efforts generated little results as the company tried to get work at various federal installations including nearby Ft. McPherson.

This all started to change when Williams’ firm was certified in the SBA’s 8(a) Business Development Program in February of 2002. The company, now with 47 employees, is servicing three contracts obtained under 8(a) including a $4.9 million contract at Ft. McPherson for anti-terrorism analysis and other technical support to the Third Army Central Command.

Unified Consultants Group provides logistics and management support as well as other services related to antiterrorism/force protection to various government agencies. Under another 8(a) contract, the company is providing annual property security surveys to the Social Security Administration for between 100 and 150 of its offices. The company has another contract at Ft. McPherson to cover supply functions at the base, including transportation.

In 2003, Williams’ company posted total revenues of about $148,000. In 2004, the revenues had grown to $2.04 million with net profits of $313,388. Last year, revenues went to $3.9 million while profits reached $855,000.

“We would not have made it without the 8(a) program,” said Williams who spent four months in Kuwait in 1994 handling Army equipment shipments and other field logistics. “The 8(a) program opened a lot of doors for us when, at first, it was difficult to get federal contractors to even listen to us.”

In the Army, Williams, as a maintenance officer, was heavily involved with logistics and did evaluation research on new Army equipment including field artillery and tactical missile systems. He was able to use his military background in guiding Unified Consultants Group into the antiterrorism field.

Williams said he has spent the past four years slowly growing his company, making sure the foundation was right for future expansion. The company is using bank financing to acquire property in Fayette County including a building being converted into a new headquarters in Fayetteville. But other than the bank loan, the company is debt free.

This year, the company, as Williams puts it, has started “to blossom.” It is actively competing for four new contracts including $2 million in new business at another out-of-state military base. “We believe we will have between $4 million and $5 million worth of new contracts by the end of this year,” he said.

Williams grew up in Newport News, Va., where he attended public schools. He is a graduate of North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro where he earned a bachelors degree in mechanical engineering. He later attended Virginia State University in Petersburg where he received a masters degree in economics.

Williams and his wife, Deanna, have four children, three of whom are working with their father’s company. Williams and his wife live in Peachtree City.

A native of Roanoke Rapids, N.C., Williams is active with alumni affairs at North Carolina A&T where he received his officer’s commission through the college ROTC program. Williams provides other support to Carver Bible College in Atlanta.

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