Local Business Owner Featured In New Book:

Rebecca Boenigk One of Nine in New Book

Local businesswoman, Rebecca Congleton Boenigk, CEO of Neutral Posture, Inc., has been profiled in a new book. Nine Lives: Stories of Women Business Owners Landing on Their Feet offers a candid look into the hearts and minds of nine extraordinary women business owners from around the country. The book debuts July 1st. One out of eleven American women is a business owner. Yet when Mary Cantando, an expert in the growth of women-owned businesses researched the topic, she was astonished by what she found. "There were tons of 'how-to' books," said Cantando. "But, unlike the many biographies of male business success stories, there was a complete dearth of stories about women business owners." Cantando scoured the country to uncover remarkable women business owners. Boenigk's story immediately grabbed her attention. The CEO of the only woman-owned business ever to trade on NASDAQ, Boenigk found that the quarterly numbers "dance" wasn't to her liking. She bought her company back from the public market. "These women are modern-day heroines, adventurers, survivalists, fighters and visionaries," said Susan Bari, founder and president, Women's Business Enterprise National Council. "They will alter women's perceptions of what it means to be ambitious and successful-in ways they might not expect."

About Neutral Posture

Neutral Posture, Inc. is a world leader in ergonomic seating design and development. The nation's only certified woman-owned seating manufacturer, Neutral Posture is based in the Research Valley area of Texas (Bryan/College Station area), and is heavily involved in ergonomics research, as well as ongoing efforts to develop opportunities for historically-underutilized businesses (HUBs). The company's name is derived from NASA's early research with the Skylab missions, which revealed that the human body has a very distinctive preferred posture, which it automatically assumes in the absence of gravity. Neutral Posture's product line is an outgrowth of that research, and our patented seat designs and system of ergonomic adjustments were developed to help seated workers emulate the same natural, stress-free position that body would assume in the weightlessness of space.

As a research-based organization, it is very natural for Neutral Posture to be based in Research Valley, especially due to the proximity to a world-class university like Texas A&M and the opportunities it offers for quality employees and research collaborations. With ten existing patents, and several more pending, the company's ongoing research efforts encompass a variety of disciplines, from applied sciences such as ergonomics to educational areas like organization development. Specific areas of research include office ergonomics, anthropometrics, occupational injuries and illnesses, and ADA accommodations. In addition to research in our in-house laboratory, our ongoing efforts have included collaborations with the OERC (Office Ergonomic Research Center), The NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Center for Ergonomics at TAMU, Lamar University, Purdue University and NC State.

About the Nine Lives Authors

Mary Cantando is a nationally recognized expert on the growth of women-owned businesses. She is a member of WBENC's prestigious Women's Enterprise Leadership Forum and a facilitator for the Women Presidents' Organization. Above all else, Cantando serves as an advisor and cheerleader to women business owners everywhere. Laurie Zuckerman is a writer and communications consultant.