KELLY SERVICES, INC.
TROY, MI

A People Company, Staffing the World  Kelly founded the temporary staffing industry in 1946, and has maintained a leadership position for more than 70 years of sustained innovation that’s based on a valuable premise: we invest in people. Today that same focused expertise benefits our customers wherever they operate around the globe-in a growing number of specialized fields. And we’ll continue to meet the evolving challenges of workforce flexibility with staffing solutions tailored to your precise business needs, both locally and worldwide.  As a global leader in providing workforce solutions, Kelly Services, Inc.  (NASDAQ:  Company Overview | Kelly Services USA and Global Company Overview William Russell Kelly founded the company in Detroit on October 7, 1946, operating as the Russell Kelly Office Service. He is widely credited with pioneering the modern temporary help industry. The company was renamed Kelly Girl Service in 1957, and it became Kelly Services® in 1966 to reflect the growing services of the company. In 1968, Kelly Services opened its first international office in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The company’s first European office opened in 1972 in Paris, France. Today, we offer a full suite of outsourcing, consulting, and staffing solutions—delivered globally from over a 70-year heritage of dynamic talent innovations. in 1946, Kelly Services has provided workforce solutions to customers in a variety of industries throughout its history. Our range of workforce solutions and geographic coverage has grown steadily over 70 years to match the needs of our customers. It began with office services, call center, light industrial, and electronic assembly staffing. Today, Kelly expertise also spans an array of outsourcing and consulting solutions, including recruitment, human resource management, vendor management, and outplacement services on a global basis. For more than 70 years, Kelly has steadily evolved from a United States-focused company concentrating primarily on traditional office services into a dynamic global workforce solutions leader with a breadth of specialty businesses. Consider these milestones: 1946 – William Russell Kelly opens a service bureau in Detroit William Russell Kelly, founder of Kelly Services, Inc. and creator of the modern temporary help industry, came by his pioneering spirit in the most direct way possible. Russ inherited it from his father. As the New York Times put it in a 1963 article, Russ's father, James Watson Kelly, was "one of the great oil pioneers at the turn of the century, who gained and lost fortunes in France, Spain, South America, Canada and the United States." Getting an early start, Russ began college in 1922 at the age of 16, at Vanderbilt University. At his father's suggestion, he transferred to the University of Pittsburgh a year later because the school offered a program in oil management. He studied business administration, but with the Jazz Age in full swing, Sigma Chi fraternity life received more of young Russ's attention than did his books. A stern letter from his father -- half a world away on an oil project -- made an impression he never forgot. The letter closed with a reminder that hard work was the only path to success. Seeking an income that was steadier than selling automobiles, Kelly visited Altoona, Pennsylvania, where he was introduced to the Assistant Treasurer of The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, the A&P. He was hired on the condition that he work extra hours on his own time, learning the food business and the techniques of auditing. Part of the appeal for Russ was that the A&P accounting office was brand new and utilized the latest business systems and procedures. The stock market crash in 1929 and the ensuing Depression brought difficult times for ambitious young people. The early days with the A&P were characterized by frequent moves, but much to the frustration of a young man with plans and dreams, they were mostly lateral. During one year, Russ recalled, he worked under five different managers, doing much the same thing. Between 1928 and 1938, by dint of sheer hard work, his salary moved up from 35 to 55 dollars a week. That was a tidy sum during the Depression years and enough for a serious young Russ Kelly to marry Marian Hines in 1937. Then, in 1938, with the economy showing signs of recovery and the company reorganizing to take advantage of it, Russ thought things might finally be opening up for him. And when he was called into his boss's office on his tenth anniversary with the A&P, Russ was prepared to receive a promotion, a raise, or at least a note of recognition for his decade of hard work. Instead, he was fired. The reorganization had eliminated his job and left him an early victim of what today would be identified as corporate "downsizing." Although he was disappointed, Russ's ten years at the A&P had been a valuable experience. It had brought out his natural inquisitiveness, giving him the desire to thoroughly learn and understand every operation with which he was involved from both the human and the process point of view. He gained the experience of working with and understanding a large organization. And he learned to be flexible and persevering, qualities that would serve him well in future jobs, and even more when he started his own business. To round out his business experience, Russ took a series of jobs, each of which prepared him for the responsibilities he took up during World War II, and ultimately for the establishment of Kelly Services. He sold home-study courses with the International Accountants' Society to hone his skills in sales. Although Russ proved effective at sales, he jumped at an opportunity to put his knowledge of organizations and systems to work with the Frontier Fuel Company in Buffalo. Even closer to the mark was his next move, to Pacific Transport, a Buffalo trucking company. Kelly had developed a keen interest in trucking through work with A&P suppliers. It was said that he could look at a stack of orders or a warehouse full of produce and know exactly how many trucks, drivers, and helpers were needed to get the job done with a minimum amount of spoilage and downtime.