WORKSHIFTER - Dispatches from the New Executive Frontier

News On Women features Linda Stewart 

Linda Stewart, Chief Executive Officer of Epoch Workforce, has always understood that having the right people in the right place is the only way to ensure strong business results. She believes it is even more important today because of the convergence of four significant marketplace factors in this new economy: the pressure to deliver better business results and manage fixed costs; the growing demand for leadership talent as 77M baby-boomers begin to exit the workforce; the requirement to remain globally competitive when life cycles for products and services has decreased from an average of 5 years to less than 14 months; and the emergence of accomplished professionals and executives seeking alternatives to traditional employment.

In response to this, Linda, who is a former Executive Vice President of Fidelity Investments, created a business to help companies meet these challenges in a cost effective way and help accomplished executives find great project based work. Her business, EPOCH Workforce, a talent broker of sorts, was built around a new way to deploy and manage talent; one that helps companies solve specific business problems or accelerate critical initiatives with experienced "done it before" talent. This new workforce model, while relatively new in the US, has been practiced in Europe for decades. It represents the intersection of three well known and mature businesses, Executive Recruiting, Consulting, and Temporary Staffing of high level professionals. While this model makes great business sense for companies, it is also an attractive model for professionals including women, and EPOCH has engaged many who have established independent practices in significant project based work. The staffing industry analyst group predicts that by 2020, over 20% of the total workforce will be made up of independent contractors and EPOCH seeks to be the thought leader in this market and the "go to" organization for companies seeking the best talent in the marketplace today.

To read this directly from their website, go to http://www.newsonwomen.com/.

Barbara Haith has joined EPOCH as Vice President of Business Development at EPOCH, focusing her energies on educating organizations on EPOCH's model and executive talent resources while developing a strong network of long-term client partnerships for EPOCH and interim executive portfolio.  Barbara is a strategic sales leader with over 15 years experience delivering workforce and HR-related solutions to Fortune 1000 companies nationally.  She has direct experience providing outsourced recruiting and staffing solutions to clients within the Financial Services, Life Sciences, Higher Education and Technology industry sectors. Barbara's background includes 10 years as a senior manager leading high performing field sales teams.

Prior to joining EPOCH, Barbara recently served as Vice President of Business Development at TAC Worldwide where she helped customers create practical talent acquisition and workforce strategies for the high tech manufacturing, medical device, and life science industry sectors.

Before joining TAC Worldwide, Barbara was Vice President of Sales for Veritude, a Fidelity Investments company.  In that capacity, she was the primary business development leader for Managed Services Programs and Recruitment Process Outsourcing solutions, initiating and closing more than 20 multi-million dollar accounts including Millipore, EMC, Avid Technology, Akamai, Boston Scientific, JP Morgan Chase, Citizens Bank, MIT, and Columbia University.

Prior to joining Fidelity, Barbara served in senior level sales capacities within the outsourced recruiting sector with firms including Randstad and MRI International.  Earlier in her career, Barbara held executive level field sales management roles in fashion retailing for the specialty retailers Banana Republic and The Limited.

Barbara graduated from Lesley University with a degree in Organizational Development.  She resides in Boxford with her husband Malcolm, and retriever champion Hunter.