PEO Industry Pioneer, Gone...Not Forgotten

I am sad to announce that last week we lost a PEO industry pioneer.? Bill Mullis spent his career serving small businesses through the genesis of employee leasing.? In 1984 in Bradenton, FL, Bill founded Staff Leasing, one of the first modern PEO’s in the country.? Employee leasing during that time was extraordinarily disruptive to traditional employment, but by leveraging the buying power of many, Bill and his partners were able to deliver economies of scale, employee benefits, and HR services to local businesses, saving them time and money.? Those early days were fraught with regulatory concern both at the state and national levels.? Bill and other early leaders in the space like Rick Ratner, Celeste Dockery, and Mike Miller, led the charge to create a new form of employment and bring economies of scale to small businesses.? Many entrepreneurs are content with building a business into a lifestyle company.? Not Bill.? Bill entered new states, hired sales staff, and worked to drive operational efficiency in his own business, serving more than 140,000 worksite employees.? Not only was Bill one of the first in the space, he was the largest at the time.? This type of scale attracted interest from other entrepreneurs and more importantly, the capital markets.? The company later rebranded to GevityHR and Bill and his partners took the company public, setting the stage to eventually merge with Trinet and continuing to evolve into one of the largest players in the space.

Bill was not content to retire though, there was no time for that.? A few short years later in 2001, Bill again founded a new organization, Employee Leasing Solutions, also headquartered in Bradenton.? Again, a lifestyle company was not in the cards, Bill thought big, and his annual growth rate of 142% caught attention once again, later in 2004 Bill was named Entrepreneur of the Year by the Gulf Coast Business Observer.? Later Bill sold ELS, which later became Workforce Business Solutions and continues under the leadership of Bob Kelly, a longtime friend and colleague of Bill and others during the Staff Leasing era.

Our industry has grown to serve more than 4 million employees in the United States.? Every year continues to be challenging with regulatory reform, changing economic climates…heck, pandemics.? Our industry has seen tremendous growth since those early days of 1984. For those that continue to think about the small business owner, bring Fortune 500 like benefits to the little guy working in the local pizza shop, and help businesses drive new technology solutions to meet the changing needs of their workforce….we all stand on the shoulders of the early pioneers in the space.?

I got into the business in 1996, and at the time Staff Leasing was already a legend in the PEO space for their size and innovation (truth be told they turned me down for at least 4 positions over my career).? I only met Bill a handful of times, but I continue to be eternally grateful for the early work put in to craft the industry I have the privilege of working in every single day.?

Rest in peace, Bill.? You’ll never be forgotten.