Leo Russell Staffing 100 North America List

The entire Pride Global family extends a very warm congratulations to our founder and CEO, Leo Russell, who has been named to Staffing Industry Analysts’ 2022 Staffing 100 North America! This is his second year on the list—and a recognition of his skills in navigating the stormy waters of 2021 in seeking success for the Pride Global family of companies.

In its announcement of the list’s publication, SIA highlighted the unique challenges faced by staffing industry leaders in 2021; in the words of SIA editor and publisher Subadhra Siriam, “Working relentlessly to move their companies and the workforce solutions ecosystem forward, these intrepid professionals have done what it takes to ensure the workforce solutions ecosystem continues to thrive.” Leo joins 99 other individuals who’ve helped drive our industry, as well as the Staffing 25 for Latin America and a new Hall of Fame.

According to Leo, “Helping people find work in America—and now, around the globe—is truly as good as it gets. I’m honored to be included among so many incredible professionals in our industry, and I’m looking forward to doing my part to ensure we’re helping the world work in every possible way.”

With an innovative approach to handling the year’s dynamic employment market and the successful establishment of his company’s new Decidedly Diverse initiative, Leo took care of 2021 and has Pride Global ready to take on 2022. But how did he get here? Global Director of Diversity & Inclusion Kamela Forbes recently sat down with Leo to talk about it for the first episode of Pride Global’s new podcast, But First, People:

“Well, I’ve had several jobs…One of them was running venture capital at Lehman Brothers. On the venture capital side, you get to see a number of very exciting new businesses, new technologies, many of which are going to fail, but some of which are going to succeed. And after two years at Lehman Brothers, I had had enough, I truly enjoy owning my own business. I sat down with my board of directors—which means my wife and several other people—and we decided: what would be one of the happiest businesses I could be in to spend the rest of my career? And helping people find work in America, in my opinion, is as good as it gets.

“Helping people reap the fruit of their labor in one of the most productive, most wonderful companies on the planet is a very fulfilling work. Nobody makes me get up out of bed to come to work every day. I love it…Helping people reap the fruit of their labor is one of the only jobs I can think of where everyone is happy. The employee is happy. The employer is happy. The tax man is happy. The fishmonger and grocery stores are happy. Everyone is happy.”