Profile: Express Employment Professionals

Company Overview

Express Employment Professionals was created in 1983 by founders Robert A. Funk, William H. Stoller and James Gray, from the dissolution of Acme Personnel, a Washington-based company in which all three were associates. After the death of Acme president Bill Reiff, the three purchased and operated several franchises of Acme which became Express Employment Professionals.

In 1983, the partners began arranging to franchise Express. The company, headquartered in Oklahoma City, struggled during a time when the oil industry took a devastating downturn. Although local banks and businesses were failing daily, Express managed to keep afloat. That first year, Express was able to generate gross revenues of $2 million in spite of the depressed economy.

In 1984, due to the bankruptcy of Acme, the partners acquired the franchise rights to 30 Acme offices across the United States. In 1985, when the first Express office was franchised, the company experienced phenomenal growth. Within five years, Express ranked among the top personnel firms in the United States and was recognized as one of the fastest growing privately-held companies in the country. In 1990, Funk and Stoller purchased Gray's shares of the company.

By 1994, Express Employment Professionals had 180 franchise offices with sales of more than $325 million. In 1999, the company posted $1 billion in sales, followed by $916 million in 2000 after the sale of its PEO subsidiary. Today, Express boasts nearly 600 franchises in the United States, Canada, South Africa and Australia. Express reached $1.55 billion in revenues in 2005 and $1.8 billion in revenues in 2006.

The Express companies include Express Employment Professionals and Express Professional Staffing. Through these entities, Express offers a full range of staffing services, including temporary placement, evaluation hire, flexible staffing and professional search. In addition to "Express University" at corporate headquarters in Oklahoma City, two regional training centers in Portland, Oregon and Rochester, Minnesota support the franchise network.

Express officers, franchisees and employees sit on the boards of directors and serve as trustees of such organizations as the International Franchising Association (IFA), the American Staffing Association (ASA) and the Women's Leadership Board of the John F. Kennedy School at Harvard University, as well as state and local organizations. The company has won many honors, including the coveted Blue Chip Award and over 600 national and international awards for its marketing and advertising programs. Individual honors awarded to staff members and franchisees within the Express system abound, including Robert Funk's selection as the 1999 IFA Entrepreneur of the Year.

The company reflects the personal and business ethics of its founders. Robert Funk says, "For many people who have lost their jobs, often through no fault of their own, we provide great hope. Our mission is to help people find jobs and our client companies find good employees, and to help those clients to make those jobs and those employees even better."