Monica Hadley is Fairfield’s serial entrepreneur

FAIRFIELD — Monica Hadley has made a name for herself both locally and internationally for her entrepreneurial acumen that helped her to found or play a critical role in five successful businesses.

Hadley’s current occupation is as the co-founder and chief financial officer of AERON Lifestyle Technology. But that’s just the latest in a long string of commercial ventures that started at a young age, including one that forced her into a leadership position after the sudden death of her father, John Herr.

Hadley was born in California and at the age of 3 moved to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, her father’s hometown. At 13, the family moved to Fairfield to be closer to her mother’s family, since she was a native Iowan. Hadley ended up living north of Richland for about 20 years from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s, and her children started school in Pekin before they moved to the Fairfield school district and graduated from FHS.

The first business Hadley worked at was her father’s, called Sunsprout System, which manufactured sprout growing equipment. It had customers all over the world in South America, the Caribbean and Europe. When he passed away suddenly in 1981, Hadley had to take over the reins as the company’s vice president at the tender age of 22. Her brother Bryan Herr, who was 21, inherited the business, and moved back to Iowa from Houston to run the business for nine months before moving it to Texas.

“I had been doing the books for the company since I was 19,” Hadley said. “I had to learn sourcing, design packing, how to hire people, and all our different brands. From doing the books, I already knew who our customers and suppliers were, so that gave me a broader view than you might think.”

Hadley went on to become chief financial officer for her brother’s company called Country Fresh, which was at one time the largest producer of fruit and vegetables in America. She stepped down from that role when he sold the company in 2017.

In 1983, Hadley tried her hand at starting a brand new business called Fairfield Accounting Services, which she began with Ruth O’Day. O’Day moved away a year later, and Margie Wood stepped in as a business partner. The two ran the business together for 37 years until they sold it to Graf & Co last December.

AERON Lifestyle Technology began in 1996. Leroy Smith invented an aromatherapy diffuser that plugged into a car’s cigarette lighter, and had been trying to launch a business from that idea. Initially, Hadley was an investor in the company, and she handled the back office matters. At the time, the business consisted of just her and Smith’s son, Jeffrey Smith. Hadley remembers that in those early years, the aromatherapy fragrance came from essential oils which was rare at that time.

“We were ahead of the market in adopting essential oils,” Hadley said. “We’ve made quite a business out of synthetics, too, so I don’t want to knock them. But if you want natural, we’ve got you covered.”

The company’s first employee was Hadley’s daughter Adrian Hadley, who was in high school at the time. She moved to Texas to become a CPA, and then moved back to Fairfield to become AERON’s vice president of finance.

Hadley said the thing she’s most proud of having accomplished during her tenure at AERON is proving good jobs in Iowa. The company now employs 35 people at its Fairfield office, and more than 50 at its manufacturing plant in Mason City.

“They’re good, steady jobs,” Hadley said. “We have good benefits for everybody, We’re trying to get pay rates for our production workers higher all the time.”

On the lighter side of life, Hadley and her mother Caroline produce a podcast called Writers Voices, which they’ve done together since 2006. The program started as a radio show on KRUU, and can now be found on podcast apps such as Spotify or on their website at writersvoices.com.

  Buy Photo

Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com