President & Senior Consultant, WesMar HR Consulting, LLC
by Kensie Hamilton
AS A SELF-DESCRIBED go-getter who understands overcoming adversity and attaining success, Sharon Boyce-Werdebaugh is the president and senior consultant of WesMar HR Consulting based in Bridgeport. After accidently stumbling upon the world of human resources, she has used the challenges in her life as the fuel for her success.
Sharon started her human resources career at Manpower in 1996 when she realized that she wanted to complete her undergraduate degree with a focus in industrial relations. From there, she held HR positions at Bombardier Aerospace and Aurora Flight Sciences, both in Bridgeport, before starting her own company in 2005.
“We were doing a reduction in staff,” Sharon says of the downsizing at Aurora. “We had let a number of people go, and in October 2005 my number had come up. I walked out the door that day with my small severance that would carry through to December. I left there as a single mom of two young kids with no income, no child support and no health insurance, and I absolutely felt not even an ounce of panic. I had a peace that something really great was going to come out of this.”
The ride from there was a bit of a rollercoaster. Sharon’s fiancé at the time, Tony Robinson, lived in Northern Virginia and helped open the door to her first consulting client. She then started building a client base and named her company WesMar after her children, Wesley and Mariah. “I went to my CPA, Jim Denny, and told him I was going to do some consulting. He wrote me a letter of recommendation and sent it out to all of his clients at Smith, Denny and Alastanos in Clarksburg.” Sharon then sent the same letter out to members of the Harrison County Chamber of Commerce, and the calls started coming in.
As the company grew, she hired other consultants to help manage the work. In 2007, she brought in a business partner to assist in running the West Virginia operations and Sharon moved to Northern Virginia to build the second branch of the company. In early 2009, her business partner retired and Sharon was supporting all clients from Virginia. After being married and living in Virginia for only 15 months, Sharon’s husband unexpectedly passed away. “We were out on a date night when he became ill and was flown to the hospital. Nine hours later they pronounced him dead. He ended up passing away from undiagnosed heart disease. He was a marathon runner and exercised daily. It certainly was a shock and I was left a widow at the age of 34.”
Not to be held down by these setbacks, she returned to West Virginia to pick up where she left off, and she continues to grow the business. Sharon feels blessed to be married to Scott Werdebaugh. “So many people never get to experience finding a really great partner to share their life with, and yet I have been fortunate enough to be loved by two of the most amazing men.”
Aside from her work at WesMar, Sharon has worked as a Six Sigma Agent and is a graduate of Leadership Harrison where she has been a committee member for five years and now serves as the curriculum coordinator. She is also a PTA member, volunteers at her children’s schools and has worked on the local Health Fair Committee. The Christmas after her late husband passed away, she volunteered her time on Christmas Day to hand out toys to children in the hospital. Sharon recently joined a group called Women’s Wisdom Leadership where she and other women work to inspire and help each other.
Photography by Tracy Toler on location at Stonewall Resort
