Effort To Encourage, Empower Women At Maser Consulting

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By Chris Rotolo |
RED BANK – Maser Consulting PA, a privately owned consulting and engineering design company, is taking steps to encourage women in male-oriented engineering and consulting organizations, starting in their own headquarters in Red Bank.
A female-focused internal initiative called Maser Women’s Organization aims to show support for its female workforce, with a program to educate, engage and empower. A goal is to create an influential network of career-minded women at the company.
“It’s exciting because, since its inception, we’ve seen this program work and start to create a lot of positive change in the Maser community,” said Allison Colantuoni, director of human resources and principal who cofounded the organization with director of marketing Michele Ouimet in January 2017.
Advocating for women is a focus of the organization, but so is helping outside groups that support women. On Jan. 24 the group held an event supporting the non-profit Oasis: A Haven for Women and Children. It included a cocktail fundraiser with Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg as guest speaker, raised $8,000 in funds and collected 70 boxes of diapers in a company-wide drive.
In March, Colantuoni became the first woman in Maser Consulting’s history to be named to the company’s executive committee. Maser Consulting chairman and CEO Richard Maser noted she earned her spot at the table for her “long-term leadership and dedication to the company.”
The company’s first hire in the human resources department, Colantuoni has helped the organization grow from fewer than 100 employees to upward of 700 employees throughout 23 offices nationwide. As her department grew, so did her responsibilities. She earned a post on the Strategic Planning Committee in 2006.
“We have a number of women coming into the company each year, and it’s important for them to see women at the top,” she said. “It makes a positive impact on them. When they see a woman as part of the leadership team, it lets them know that with Maser Consulting, they have a voice, their voice does matter, and they can achieve their goals here.”
Said her colleague Ouimet, “I think Allison is a shining example of what can happen when women are provided opportunities to advance.”

“I was hired in 1999, got married in 2005, had my first child in 2006, and throughout it all, it was never in question. I always knew I wanted to be working in the corporate world, and because of our company’s culture, I never had to look anywhere else,” Colantuoni said.
“I’m just very fortunate that I’ve always been given an opportunity to contribute and to voice my opinions and ideas. Now it’s my turn to provide that opportunity to other women. I’m proof that if given the right opportunities, women can be successful and achieve all of the career and personal goals they set for themselves.”

This article was first published in the June 7-June 14, 2018 print edition of The Two River Times.