ManpowerGroup has appointed long-time sales and marketing executive Valerie Beaulieu-James as its chief growth officer.

Milwaukee-based ManpowerGroup is the world’s third largest recruiting firm with $17.5 billion in annual revenue. Beaulieu-James is joining the company after a four-year stint at Adecco, the world’s second largest recruiting firm. Her appointment is made all the more notable by the fact that she is ManpowerGroup’s very first chief growth officer. The creation of the role suggests the company may be planning to ramp up customer acquisition initiatives to narrow the gap with Adecco and Randstad, the recruiting industry’s largest player.

Before Adecco, Beaulieu-James spent more than two decades at Microsoft. She was most recently the chief marketing officer of the technology giant’s U.S. business.

As chief growth officer, Beaulieu-James will lead ManpowerGroup’s sales and marketing initiatives. Her work will encompass all three of the brands through which the firm offers its services. There’s the company’s core Manpower division, plus Experis and Talent Solutions. All three units help clients with talent sourcing, but their focus areas don’t overlap completely. Experis provides IT services while Talent Solutions helps companies with workforce management tasks. 

Beaulieu-James will report to ManpowerGroup president and chief strategy officer Becky Frankiewicz, who said in a prepared statement that the executive “will help us add value to our clients as transformation accelerates, and she will create more personalized connections to meaningful work for our candidates.”

Photo courtesy of ManpowerGroup