Janette Marx
Chair
Marx started with Airswift in 2014 and served as chief operating officer for four years before assuming her present role as chief executive officer. She has a passion for investing in the development of people to help everyone achieve their aspirations. Throughout her career, Marx has championed new initiatives, including diversification strategies, sales and recruitment growth improvements, and operational efficiencies. She has led cutting-edge programs to give her teams a competitive advantage. Before Airswift, Marx served in various leadership roles with the Adecco Group over a 19-year period. She has a bachelor’s degree in business management and an MBA.
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Tom Gimbel
First Vice Chair
Gimbel is the founder of LaSalle Network. Founded in 1998, LaSalle Network is a professional staffing and recruiting firm headquartered in Chicago. LaSalle is a 10-time Inc. 5000 company and is on Glassdoor's Best Places to Work list. Gimbel was honored on the Crain’s Chicago Business 40 Under 40, and was inducted in the Chicago Area Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame. Gimbel serves on the board of directors of Ounce of Prevention, and is an active member in the Young Presidents’ Organization and the Economic Club of Chicago.
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Jeff Bowling
Second Vice
A 28-year veteran of the staffing and recruiting industry, Bowling is the founder and former chief executive officer of the health care staffing firm The Delta Cos. He grew the award-winning business over 19 years, eventually selling in 2014 but remaining CEO for three years after. In addition to his TDC board seat, Bowling quickly found himself on four other boards of human capital-related businesses. In addition to the board work, he began advising companies looking to scale their businesses. One of his clients—a Silicon Valley tech company called Doximity—convinced him to get back into operating a recruiting and staffing company they were acquiring. In April of 2020, Bowling took over the company now known as Curative. He sold off divisions, focused the organization on physician staffing and recruiting, and tripled the revenue in three years despite a Covid dip, eventually leaving in March of 2023. Today, Bowling is back to sitting on boards, investing in staffing and staffing-related companies, and doing occasional advisory work. He especially enjoys advocating for and supporting the industry through his board member and officer seat with the American Staffing Association.
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Ken Taunton
Treasurer
In 2001, Taunton leveraged his expertise in leading senior-level executive searches for private companies and founded the Royster Group, a certified minority-owned business enterprise providing executive search and professional staffing services in the private and public sectors and health care industry. Prior to establishing his company, Taunton was a senior associate with Korn/Ferry International’s health care practice and held various recruitment and sales positions at Merck & Co. In 2015, the Royster Group was named to the Inc. 5000 list of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies for the sixth consecutive year. The company also has been recognized by the National Minority Supplier Development Council as National Supplier of the Year. Taunton is a graduate of the Georgia Mentor Protégé Connection Program and of the Small Business Administration’s Emerging 200 Initiative Program, a federal training initiative that focuses on executives of businesses poised for growth in historically challenged communities. Taunton earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and a master of business administration degree from Mercer University’s Stetson School of Business. He also is a member of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and chairman of the ASA Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Advocacy (IDEA) interest group.
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Dana Baughns
Secretary
Baughns is chief legal officer with Allegis Group. Baughns has extensive legal experience, including risk mitigation and litigation defense, restrictive covenants, contracts formation and negotiation, collective bargaining negotiations, union grievance settlements, and interest arbitrations. Baughns earned a bachelor’s degree in business management from Howard University in Washington, DC, and a juris doctorate degree from the University of Connecticut. She is admitted to practice in the state of Connecticut as well as the federal district of Connecticut and southern and eastern district courts of New York.
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Threase Baker, CSP
Baker is president and an owner of Abbtech Professional Resources Inc. Based in Washington, DC, the company supports both the government and private sectors by providing information technology, engineering, and office–clerical staffing services, as well as personal identity verification. Baker has more than 20 years of staffing industry experience. She is past president of the Capital Area Staffing Association.
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Joanie Bily
Immediate Past Chair
Bily is division president and chief workforce analyst of Employbridge, the largest industrial staffing company in the U.S. In this executive leadership role, she brings together brand enhancement, public relations, enterprise communications, internal branding, and the company’s Voice of the American Workforce program—the largest annual survey of the U.S. hourly workforce—to create a connected internal and external brand experience. Bily also led RemX, the professional staffing division at Employbridge for more than seven years. She is recognized as a prominent authority on labor market data, workplace trends, and expert career advice. She is a frequent keynote speaker and appears regularly on national broadcast networks and major publications. She is the author of Dive In D.E.E.P.: Strategies to Advance Your Career, Find Balance, and Live Your Best Life and hosts a podcast called “Employment Insights by the Duchess of Labor,” available on Spotify. Bily is also a contributing author to the book, Together We Rise, which highlights stories of 15 inspiring women pursuing their goals, building confidence, and overcoming adversity. Prior to joining Employbridge, Bily held executive leadership roles including senior vice president, global market insights, for Monster; senior vice president and chief employment analyst for Randstad; and senior vice president at Adecco.
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Jeffrey S. Burnett, CSP
Burnett is president and chief executive officer of Labor Finders International Inc., a national staffing company based in Palm Beach Gardens, FL. With more than 30 years of staffing industry experience, he has held positions ranging from field operations to executive management. An ASA past chairman, he currently is chairman of the ASA audit and finance committee and has been chairman of several association committees. Burnett was president of the Florida Staffing Association, an ASA-affiliated chapter, and StaffPac Inc., Florida’s industry political action committee. He has been named one of the 100 most influential individuals in the staffing and recruiting industry and has appeared on Fox News to discuss employment and the economy. He enjoys all sports and outdoor activities and is the No. 1-ranked tennis player in Florida and a top-five ranked player in the U.S. Burnett holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration (accounting) from Stetson University, has completed postdegree studies in accounting, and is a certified public accountant in the state of Florida.
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Andrea Brenholz
Brenholz is the CEO and president of ATR International headquartered in Silicon Valley. Founded in 1988 by her immigrant parents, Brenholz grew up immersed in the staffing industry holding various roles until assuming her leadership position. She is a mentor and advocate for women and minorities and serves as a member of the National Board for Latinx Professionals. Additionally, she serves on the Women of Color in Staffing Advisory Board, the ASA Foundation Committee, and the Women in Leadership Interest Group. Brenholz is also a board member of the California Staffing Professionals. She was named to the SIA Global Power 150–Women in Staffing list in 2018.
W. Benjamin “Ben” Elliott
Elliott has been with Randstad for the past 20 years. He is presently the U.S. chief financial officer for Randstad North America, responsible for building the U.S. financial shared services center and leading the robotics process automation initiative within Randstad. He is also responsible for the financial leadership of the Spherion Franchise Organization, which is a separate operating division within the U.S. Elliott is a board member for ASA and a member of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce. Prior to Randstad, Elliott served as CFO for numerous organizations, including OneSource Inc., Allied Automotive Group, and National Linen Service. He also has industry experience in electronic payments, dot.com, logistics, and transportation. Elliott began his career as a staff auditor at Arthur Andersen & Co., becoming a certified public accountant in the state of Illinois in 1980.
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James A. Essey, CSP
Essey is president and chief executive officer of the TemPositions Group of Cos., which operates in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and California. He served five terms as president of the ASA-affiliated New York chapter. Essey was elected ASA chairman in 2004—exactly 30 years after his father, Dick, served in the same role—and has chaired the chapter relations, member education and certification, political action, and industry practices committees. He currently chairs the legal and legislative committee and the public policy advocacy taskforce. Essey received his bachelor of arts degree from Trinity College and master of business administration degree from Harvard University.
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Karenjo Goodwin
Goodwin is the founder and chief executive officer of Exact Staff Inc., a family of staffing, search, and recruitment outsourcing companies headquartered in Woodland Hills, CA. Founded in 1996, Exact Staff is one of the largest independent, woman-owned staffing companies in California. Goodwin has served as a founding executive of American Business Careers in New York and has held executive positions for international, national, and regional staffing companies.
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Jeff Harris
Harris is a board member of Workforce Unlimited, with offices in North Carolina and Virginia. An industry veteran and investor, he co-founded ettain group in 1996 and served as chief executive officer and chairman until 2019. In addition, Harris serves on the board of ClearlyRated and is a partner and growth advisor at Four Piers Capital Partners. He co-founded the National Staffing Alliance and the IT Staffing Executive Roundtable.
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Jason Leverant, CSP
Leverant is president and chief operating officer of the AtWork Group, which helps more than 50,000 people find jobs at more than 1,500 client companies each day. Under his leadership, AtWork has grown 61% in annual revenue over the past two years and has been recognized by a number of organizations for accelerated growth and operational excellence, including ClearlyRated’s Best of Staffing–Client and Best of Staffing–Talent; Staffing Industry Analyst’s U.S. Largest Staffing Firms, U.S. Fastest-Growing Staffing Firms, and U.S. Largest Light-Industrial Staffing Firms; and Franchise Business Review’s Top 100 Franchises for Veterans. Leverant is an active and long-time volunteer and in 2016 was recognized with the ASA Volunteer of the Year Award. He has served on the employee safety and workers’ compensation committees, as well as chaired the ASA Tennessee Council. Currently, he is actively involved in the association’s staffing tech taskforce, which he will chair starting in 2023.
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Laura MacNeel
MacNeel is chief legal officer at Aya Healthcare, where she advises on various legal matters, including litigation, employment, contracting, risk management, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, compliance, and governmental affairs. She previously worked at Finch, Thornton & Baird LLP, representing management in labor and employment matters and business litigation. MacNeel received bachelor of arts degree in economics and Spanish from Duke University and her juris doctorate degree from the University of San Diego School of Law, from which she graduated cum laude.
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Kelly McCreight, CSP
McCreight is the chief executive officer of Hamilton-Ryker, which provides commercial and IT staffing, IT managed solutions, and vendor management system (VMS) and managed service provider (MSP) services across the Southeast. McCreight began his career with Hamilton-Ryker in 1993 as a staffing coordinator. Over his more than 20 years with the firm, he has worked as a vendor-on-premise, branch manager, business development manager, and controller; he became president and CEO of Hamilton-Ryker in 2009. McCreight is also a past president of the Tennessee Staffing Association and the current treasurer of the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce.
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Robin Mee
Mee is founder and president of MeeDerby, a search firm in the staffing industry. She is a passionate advocate of staffing, a volunteer industry leader, and a regular speaker at staffing events nationally. In 2016, ASA recognized Mee with its first-ever Volunteer of the Year award. Mee has served on and chaired several ASA committees and task forces including the staffing as career; women in leadership; education and certification; direct hire; and inclusion, diversity, equity, and advocacy (IDEA) groups. Her firm is a supporting sponsor of the ASA women in leadership interest group.
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Ranjini Poddar
Poddar is chief executive officer and co-founder of Artech LLC, the largest woman-owned information technology staffing firm in the U.S., providing global workforce solutions to more than 80 Fortune 500 and government clients around the world. Through her leadership, Poddar has established a philosophy of client centricity and execution excellence that is instilled in the company’s culture. It is this operational and service delivery direction that has driven Artech to become an $810 million company with a team of more than 10,500 staff and consultants at more than 35 locations in the U.S., India, China, and Canada. Poddar earned a juris doctorate from Yale Law School and a bachelor’s degree in information and computer science from the University of California.
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Peter W. Quigley
Quigley is president and chief executive officer of Kelly. Prior to his current role, he was president, global staffing, and general manager for the company’s information technology and global business services. Prior to that, he served as chief administrative officer for the company and also served as the company’s general counsel. As a key member of Kelly’s senior leadership team for more than 10 years, Quigley has progressed through the leadership ranks since joining the company in 2002. Quigley earned his juris doctorate with honors from the National Law Center at George Washington University and a bachelor’s degree with distinction from the University of Michigan. He is a member of the state bar of Michigan and the District of Columbia bar.
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Joyce Russell
As president of the Adecco Group US Foundation, Russell is committed to making the future work for everyone. The foundation launched in January 2019 and focuses on upskilling and reskilling American workers and helping to ensure work equality for all. Russell has firmly established her reputation and passion for working with people and providing new opportunities for both employees and companies. She constantly strives for growth both personally and professionally, while remaining focused on work-related programs, partnerships, and investments that create greater economic opportunity for American workers. In 1987, Russell joined Adecco as a branch manager in Charlotte, NC. From 2004 to 2018, she served as the president of Adecco Staffing US, leading the largest business unit of Adecco Group North America—with more than 450 branch locations, approximately 1,800 colleagues, and a diverse portfolio of clients. Russell is a member of the Committee of 200, a founding member of Paradigm for Parity, and a member of Women Corporate Directors. She holds a degree in business and communications from Baylor University.
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Mark Toth, CSP
Toth is chief legal officer for ManpowerGroup’s North American operations. He also serves on its global leadership team and North American lead team. Toth is a frequent speaker on workplace legal topics and writes an award-winning employment law blog.
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Steve Wehn
Wehn joined AMN Healthcare in 1993 and is currently vice president of government and community relations. His responsibilities include legislative and regulatory advocacy and compliance as well as overseeing the company’s corporate social responsibility programs. Prior to 2005, Wehn served as senior vice president of client services in AMN’s travel nurse and allied divisions.
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DeLibra Wesley
Wesley is the founder and chief executive officer of Texas-based National Recruiting Consultants. Wesley previously was part of the leadership team at the Delta Cos., where her nearly 14-year tenure progressed to the role of chief operating officer of the company, where she oversaw all aspects of operations from training and compliance to project management and human resources. She was the company’s first minority executive and led its diversity council. Wesley has nearly 20 years of health care staffing experience throughout her career. She was named to the SIA Global Power 150–Women in Staffing list in 2018 and 2020.
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