Michelle Banham 🦄 5x Chief of Staff for GenAI + SaaS startups

Chief of Staff

elvex

Sep 2025 - Current (1 year 2 months)

As chief of staff, Michelle looks after HR operations, finance, and legal matters for an enterprise AI software that has been experiencing 200% growth year over year. This role also owns the area of PR and other strategic initiatives as needed.

Chief of Staff

Youcom

Dec 2023 - Apr 2025 (1 year 5 months)

This fast growing LLM hit Unicorn valuation ($1.5B) shortly after Michelle spent 15mo leading the Ops, HR, Finance, Legal and Admin departments for You.com, as well as, guiding company strategy, strategic project management and investor/Board relations. Recent accomplishments include fundraising and due diligence for $50M Series B round with investors such as Georgian, Nvidia, SBVA, Salesforce and other notable funds, implementing company wide programs and policies (PEO, 401k matching, centralized storage system, employee handbook, performance management system, compensation audit, pay-band and role levelling system, etc)

Founder

MB Consulting for Startups

Mar 2023 - Current (3 years 8 months)

Multiple fractional consulting assignments as an experienced Chief of Staff assisting early stage, fast growing startup organizations. Clients include;

VENTUREPARK LABS , ACCELERATOR [2023-2025]
Human Resources consulting services for Venturepark Labs, the top accelerator in Canada for food, beverage, health and wellness entrepreneurs originally founded by Arlene Dickenson. HR / People Operations support will include reviewing existing HR policies and procedures, as well as creating and supporting new HR projects required for the business' growth trajectory. Consultancy also included running recruitment of critical functions such as President and Board Member, as well as terminations / lay offs of multiple team members, d

Fellowship

On Deck

May 2022 - Dec 2023 (1 year 8 months)

A cohort of 120 global applicants selected this fellowship. OnDeck is a community for accomplished Chiefs of Staff who want to empower their principals and teams through professional development and access to a trusted peer network. Undergoing High Performance Coaching sessions on a monthly basis, as well as participating in peer to peer Mastermind Sessions.

Chief of Staff

Offsite

Feb 2022 - Jun 2023 (1 year 5 months)

Michelle steps into the role of Chief of Staff (acting Head of Ops) at Offsite and will oversee Offsite's upcoming fundraising efforts, strategic goals/OKRs, internal operations, SOPs, as well as driving foundational projects to establish Offsite as a leader in the Executive Retreat space.
• Accomplishments include scaling the business 400% GMV year over year, data room + due diligence for $3M Seed Round fundraise, OKR management, created new manager training program, hiring/onboarding and performance improvement SOPs, business development for SaaS marketplace, offsite event planning, hiring + onboarding the team from 3 to 27 in 7 months, financial modeling, complete audit and optimization of Client Success team (incl. re-org of team)

Executive Assistant to Chief Marketing Officer

Prodigy Education

Aug 2021 - Dec 2021 (5 months)

Please see a thorough description of this role and accomplishments outlined on the CV

Executive Assistant To Chief Executive Officer and Chief Marketing Officer

Prodigy Education

Oct 2020 - Aug 2021 (11 months)

Please see a thorough description of this role and accomplishments outlined on the CV

Executive Assistant To Chief Executive Officer

Prodigy Education

Mar 2020 - Oct 2020 (8 months)

• Successfully supported two very busy executives in a high growth, rapidly scaling Ed-Tech environment (150 colleagues to 500 colleagues in 1yr)
• Accomplishments while partnering with the CEO: Data room + due diligence for $152M Series B fundraise, board + investor relations, calendar strategy and prioritization for CEO (and subsequent roll out to the entire ET), finance and operational support for India office, ownership of company events (All Hands), assisted with C-Suite executive searches (CFO, CPO, CMO), organized offsites, interviewed, onboarded and trained four colleagues to the Admin Team, Partnered with Finance to select and implement a new Corporate Card program
• Accomplishments while partnering with the CMO: Extensio

Executive Assistant To The President

Stanley Black Decker Inc

May 2018 - Dec 2019 (1 year 8 months)

• Dedicated support to the President, additional support to the CFO and CHRO for this global enterprise / Fortune 500 company
• Accomplishments included planning, budget management, and all event logistics for the Annual Customer Incentive Trip ($1.3M budget, 300 attendees for a weeklong offsite event complete with trade show and presentation components, 1:1s, breakout sessions, product demos, activities, and entertainment), fleet management of 150 vehicles, onboarding of new hires, event planning for various employee resource groups, managed traditional tasks, travel arrangements, expense reports, invoices, calendaring, logistics, reporting, and documents required for the President, coordinated Town Halls and social events, triaged, r

Executive Assistant to VP of Human Resources

Greater Toronto Airports Authority

Jun 2016 - May 2018 (2 years)

• Dedicated support to the Vice President of HR and Corporate Services for the second largest airport in North America, with 1500 corporate colleagues and 40,000 airport colleagues
• Accomplishments included authoring documents and presentations for frequent Board Meetings, Compensation Committee Meetings, and reoccurring meetings with the CEO, CFO, VPs, coordinated large scale office renovations, departmental floor plan changes, member of the HR engagement action planning team, logistics and facilitation for leadership team meetings and offsite meetings, traditional tasks included international travel arrangements, expenses, budget forecasting, invoicing, calendaring, head of Social Committee, event planning, maintaining strong workin

Executive Assistant to CMO

FRHI Hotels Resorts

Sep 2011 - Feb 2016 (4 years 6 months)

• Dedicated assistance to CMO for this global enterprise, now known as Accor with over 5000 properties world wide
• Accomplishments included planning international Offsite meetings for leadership team, company wide communications, hosting Town Hall meetings, and owning the accuracy of the Sales and Marketing intranet site, traditional tasks included arranging travel for the CMO (traveling 3 out of 4 weeks of each month to global destinations including India, UAE, Asia, Africa, Europe, South America), incoming email/phone correspondence, calendaring, meeting logistics, presentations, documents, and minutes, planning and execution of Quarterly Sales & Marketing meetings, Quarterly Direct Report meetings, Annual Holiday Parties, storage a

Executive Assistant to CEO

Cambridge Group of Clubs

Aug 2008 - Jul 2011 (3 years)

- Assisted CEO with incoming email/phone correspondence, calendaring, day to day tasks
- Coordinated schedules & documents for all Executive, Strategy & Board of Director meetings
- Had exposure to legal agreements and correspondence for all legal matters
- Arranged all business travel and personal appointments for CEO
- Organized annual Roundtable Meetings for all management across the company
- Handled CEO’s expenses, cheque requests, payments and received invoices
- Designed and deployed all marketing/advertising materials for the Cambridge Club
- Designed and published a book for the history of the Cambridge Canadian Collection
- Designed departmental newsletters for membership, all in house a

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Annual Volunteer

The Volunteer Builders

May 2008 - May 2013 (5 years 1 month)

Volunteered annually for an organization that helps build facilities for Summer Camps throughout Ontario, who are in need of assistance. Have spent a few years as a builder and other years on the executive team who are responsible for hosting and organizing the build itself. As fundraising chair in 2010, we raised $19,000+ for the build through hosting events and a successful silent auction.

Reference letters attached from fellow Executive Team members.

Michelle Banham

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Michelle Banham

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