Erie Street Names Michelle Stallings Managing Director
Newly Created Role Reinforces Firm’s Commitment to People and Partnerships to Achieve Next-level Growth
CHICAGO – SEPTEMBER 7, 2022 –Erie Street, a private investment firm that partners with founders, management teams, and investors to achieve next-level growth, announced today that Michelle Stallings has joined as Managing Director of Human Capital Operations.
In the newly created role, Stallings will lead and manage Erie Street’s human capital and business operations activity, as well as serve as an HR advisor to the firm’s partner companies, creating human capital transformation programs that align with business objectives and create value to outsize outcomes.
The addition of Stallings reinforces Erie Street’s commitment to achieving next-level growth for people and organizations. Last June, Erie Street invested in Lacey Lake Leadership – a leadership advisory firm that takes a human-centric approach to talent strategy, executive search, and human capital consulting to accelerate business growth. Stallings will collaborate with the Lacey Lake Leadership team to design and deliver leadership and talent programs for Erie Street’s partner companies on their “disruption to transformational growth” journeys. She will report to Erie Street’s President, Jerry Graunke.
“As a former Chief People Officer with deep agency and business services experience, Michelle understands how important people are to driving growth and creating lasting business value,” said Graunke. “We are excited to have her on board as we design and deliver next-level growth for our partners – which are all service-led and people-based businesses.”
Stallings is a transformational leader with over twenty years of experience leading people teams and delivering innovative strategy and talent programs. Her expertise spans technology, advertising, marketing, and communications organizations, including Leo Burnett and Edelman. Throughout fifteen years at Leo Burnett, Stallings impacted all areas of the talent function as an HR business partner where she led compensation and employee relations and oversaw the M&A process as the lead HR consultant on all acquisitions. During her tenure at Edelman, she redefined and rebuilt the Human Resources and recruiting teams, developing a clear and compelling vision to attract, develop, and retain exceptional, diverse talent.
Most recently, Stallings was Chief People Officer at Palmetto, a high-growth technology company. As the first CPO, she successfully architected and built an HR infrastructure and talent strategy to scale the business, growing headcount by over 90 percent in just three years while significantly changing the talent mix to align with the DEI strategy.
“Erie Street recognizes the undeniable connection between the employee experience and business growth – it’s a powerful connection that I have been passionate about my entire career,” said Stallings. “I’m thrilled to be joining the Erie Street team as we lean further into human capital transformation and people-centric solutions to help our founder partners take their organizations to the next level.”
Stallings is SPHR certified and graduated cum laude from Ohio University with a Bachelor of Science in Communications and Human Resources Management Specialization.