Huntsville’s A-P-T Research welcomes Lisa Williams to board of directors

Well-known Huntsville entrepreneur and consultant Lisa Williams, president of Soldier I Corporation, has earned a position on the board of directors for Huntsville’s A-P-T Research, Inc., an engineering and programmatic services provider in Cummings Research Park doing business primarily with the government.

Expected to bring principled business leadership to the company, Williams brings new perspective and knowledge as part of A-P-T’s effort to add outside talent to help shape the company’s future.

Williams is no stranger to executive board leadership, having been active on boards for the Tennessee Valley Corridor representing the fifth congressional district, The Committee of 100, Still Serving Veterans, the Liberty Learning Foundation and Leadership Huntsville/Madison County.

Williams also won’t be a strange face on the A-P-T- board. She has worked with many of the employees extensively over the years and is known for her experience in successfully starting up and running a successful business of her own.

Williams was born in Saigon, Vietnam, and came to the United States when her mother married an American soldier during the Vietnam war. She started Soldier 1 as a tribute to veterans — especially to her late father.

After receiving a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Alabama in Huntsville, Williams worked as a production engineer for Morton Thiokol on several rocket motor systems; as a Systems Engineer for Wyle Laboratories supporting the International Space Station; and as a test engineer for TASC and Schafer on several missile systems before starting 3D Research Corporation in 1997.

3D Research was named one of the 500 fastest growing companies in America according to Inc. magazine before she sold the company in 2005 to the Schafer Corporation.

After that, Williams took over as president of Systems Dynamic International (SDI) after their president died unexpectedly, getting the company back on track after little more than a year.

“I call myself a CEO/President-for-hire,” she said in a recent interview. “When companies face hard issues like whether to expand, whether to sell, whether to buy or merge with another business; or if they face unforeseen problems like suddenly losing their CEO, those companies can bring me in because I have the mentality of what a president or CEO should be doing in terms of running the company.”

Williams is very active in mentoring and counseling small businesses in Alabama, and she has won many prestigious awards including Small Businessperson of the Year for the State of Alabama by the Small Business Administration; Top 10 Women Entrepreneurs of America; and the Huntsville/Madison County Chamber of Commerce’s Executive of the Year.

The Women’s Economic Development Council honored her in the technology category at their Women Honoring Women awards ceremony and the UAH awarded her the UAH Business Fellow Award and the Distinguished Alumnus Award. She was also named one of the Women Who Shape the State of Alabama and was recently awarded the Women of Impact Award.

“Business is in my DNA,” she said. “One of the things I am doing currently with Soldier 1 is helping to build a culture where I can work with veterans to help them build their businesses, so they can hire more veterans within their company.”