Michelle Sims is the CEO of YUPRO Placement, an industry-leading skills-first placement firm bringing together a purposeful workforce ecosystem that champions sourcing, recruiting, retaining, and advancing traditionally overlooked talent at a critical time in our workforce where disrupting outdated hiring practices and building career pathways for non-degreed talent is essential to corporate talent acquisition.
YUPRO Placement’s unique talent matching approach combines workforce development, award-winning upskilling pathways, and wraparound support services resulting in industry-leading tenure on assignment and higher than U.S. BLS average wages enabling upward socioeconomic mobility for those overlooked by traditional recruiting methods.
Under Michelle’s leadership, YUPRO has received many industry awards earning both the American Staffing Association Elevate Award for Best Work-Based Learning Program for and the ClearlyRated Best in Staffing Client Satisfaction Award for three consecutive years. Michelle received honors as a 2022 and 2021 Staffing Industry Analyst (SIA) Top 50 DE&I Influencer and is named on the SIA Global Power 150 – Women in Staffing 2022 and 2021 lists. In addition, the growth of YUPRO has resulted in a two-year recognition on the SIA Fastest-Growing US Staffing Firms, with 300% growth through a pandemic.
Prior to serving as CEO, Michelle was on the Board of Directors for YUPRO while leading as Regional Vice President at Hospitality Staffing Solutions, the largest, national hospitality staffing firm, where she supported 120 hotel client partners and led expansion markets to success resulting in a 40% year over year growth rate.
Alongside her professional career, Michelle taught and mentored racially diverse young adults for 17 years at Houston Community College, School of Business Administration where she experienced firsthand the impact that both an individual and a socially responsible organization have in shaping children, families, and a community toward economic stability.
With Michelle’s passion of uplifting and supporting women in the workplace in pursuit of diversity, equity, and inclusion, she is a member of the Women’s Leadership Board at the Harvard Kennedy School Woman and Public Policy Program and Volunteers for the American Staffing Association on both the Women in Leadership Council and the Mentor Match Program. Michelle is a member and contributor on the Forbes Business Council and is a member of YPO and active in the YPO West Region Women’s Business Network. In addition, Michelle is a signatory member of CEO In Action, the largest business community of CEO’s driving more inclusive workforces at scale.
Michelle holds a BBA in Marketing from Texas A&M University and her MBA from Houston Baptist University, where she returned in 2010 to teach Human Resources for the Executive MBA program.