By Jennifer Farnsworth

Duct work testing, air testing, and fume hood testing are not career areas associated with  females.

Eileen Venn saw things very differently when she and her husband, Brian, took over Mechanical Testing Inc. in 2008.  As the CEO of the company, Venn is making her mark in the industry.

MTI, located at 70 Lake Ave., Saratoga Springs, is an independent, certified test and balance (TAB) contractor. It provides clients with reliable and repeatable TAB services for the heating, ventilating and air conditioning industry. It was established in 1967.

“It can be very intimidating, women in construction. You need to be confident and it helps to have  a strong support group, which I have,” said Venn.

Venn is a graduate of SUNY Albany with a degree in business. She said her background helped her fight through any doubts.

“I came in with experience in the alcohol and beverage business,” said Venn.

It has been two years since Heidi Ives, Dorothy Rogers-Bullis, and Rachel Spensieri first began discussing the need for a women’s networking group in Saratoga Springs.

While each of these women comes from differing professional backgrounds and industries, they pooled their collective talents, and from those early conversations, the Saratoga Women in Business (SWIB) was established.

SWIB targets female professionals in the greater Saratoga Springs area and offers free bi-monthly fellowship opportunities, hosted and sponsored by various local businesses. Wine and light snacks, donated by the host business, are provided at each gathering, and door prizes, provided by SWIB members, also are awarded.

“I often point out that men do their professional networking on the golf course, and women often have a tough time finding a comfortable venue that serves that same purpose,” said cofounder Heidi Ives, a manager and mortgage loan originator with HomeBridge Financial.

“One of my primary goals for the SWIB gatherings was to provide a casual, unintimidating atmosphere for professional women to enjoy a glass of wine and network with each other,” she said. “Our unofficial motto for SWIB is ‘Make friends first, and the business will follow,’ and time and time again, this is exactly how new business relationships are formed.”

By Maureen Werther

Some people may wonder why a person would choose mortuary science as a profession, and others might even consider it to be depressing. For Kathleen Lowes Sanvidge, being a funeral home director is the fulfilment of what she terms a God-given gift.

Lowes Sanvidge is the owner of Townley and Wheeler Funeral Home at 21 Midline Road in Ballston Lake, which she purchased four years ago after working as a funeral director in the Clifton Park area for 20 years. Owning her own business has meant being able to do the work she feels she was meant to be doing, while offering the compassionate care to her clients and their departed loved ones.

Lowes Sanvidge first became interested in the profession as a Shenendehowa senior. She had an internship at Ellis Hospital, where she met people who worked in the funeral home industry. She said she realized they were a special kind of people with whom she related on a spiritual level. After graduating from Shenendehowa, Lowes Sanvidge went on to obtain a degree in mortuary science from Hudson Valley Community College.

Over 25 years later, Lowes Sanvidge is more invested in her work than ever. 

“This is not a morbid business,” she said. “Doing this work fills me with a sense of grace and purpose that I realize not everyone is fortunate enough to feel.”