Michael T. Willis

Chairman

Michael T. Willis has made a career of identifying unrecognized needs and opportunities, responding with creativity and vision, and delivering consistent value to the markets and stakeholders which he serves. His personal efforts and ventures have resulted in positive fundamental change across numerous industries including contingent staffing, human capital management, and information technology services. Additionally, Mr. Willis’ role in consolidation has been integral in achieving critical mass in nascent and fragmented industries and the evolution of multiple marketplaces.

During a brief tenure in the corporate arena, Mr. Willis recognized that organizations could benefit from specialized support in the acquisition of their most crucial asset: talent. His formation of Willis & Associates in 1971, serving the executive recruiting needs of the local banking community, would be the springboard for his highly successful venture, Talent Tree.

Founded in 1976, Talent Tree offered administrative and clerical staff on a contract basis and allowed clients to utilize these resources as they needed them under a “just in time” model introducing a new flexibility and unprecedented control over a key variable cost. Under Willis’ direction, Talent Tree pioneered the “Vendor on Premise” delivery model, the pre-cursor to the Vendor Management and Managed Service Provider models experiencing rapid adoption today. Over the course of six years, the firm expanded operations nationally and by 1986 had experienced organic growth from $15 million to $70 million. The company was acquired in 1987 by British company, Hestair PLC, as a platform for the acquisition and integration of other US staffing concerns. Talent Tree’s unique status as the first staffing firm to be fully computerized made it an ideal vehicle for Hestair’s activities. In 1988, Willis was appointed Chief Executive Officer for Hestair’s US operations, now consolidated under the Talent Tree brand, and also served on Hestair’s Board of Directors.

In 1993, Willis founded COREStaff, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSTF) in partnership with Golder, Thoma, Cressey, Rauner Inc. (GTCR). Under his leadership, COREStaff quickly became a leading staffing industry consolidator. In 1995, Willis was the first commercial staffing executive to begin acquiring information technology companies. Ultimately, COREStaff integrated nearly 60 acquisitions resulting in one of the nation’s largest information technology staffing and services providers. Later, COREStaff went public and sold its commercial business to focus entirely on the IT space under the name Metamor Information Technology Services (Metamor).

In 1999, Willis and GTCR acquired Metamor. The company was renamed COMSYS and Willis became Chairman, President and CEO. By 2003, Willis had grown COMSYS to the 13th largest U.S. based IT services firm. COMSYS offered a new platform for scalability and performance to IT and business organizations through contract and permanent staffing, project services, outsourcing and vendor management. In 2004, COMSYS merged with publicly traded Venturi Technology Partners creating one of the largest publicly traded IT services providers in North America. Mr. Willis resigned as Chairman, President and CEO in February 2006.

In 2007, Mr. Willis was elected President and CEO of Westaff, Inc. (NASDAQ: WSTF). Willis took a number of measures to strengthen the company’s position including the sale of its UK operations and the establishment of a $50 million credit facility based on qualified receivables. Westaff merged with Select Staffing (Koosharem Corporation) in 2009 at which time he resigned as President and CEO.