MICHAELINE DOYLE: A WORKHORSE SPIRIT

If you’re in the PEO industry, you know there is no greater honor than winning the Michaeline A. Doyle Award.

Created in 1995, it’s an accolade bestowed upon someone who has provided exemplary leadership and service to NAPEO and our industry and whose business philosophy is to improve the industry while simultaneously improving his or her own PEO.

But if you do any digging on the award namesake, little appears.

There’s good reason to not find much about Michaeline. As anyone who knew her would tell you, she thrived working behind the scenes. The spotlight was not for her.

Still, she couldn’t shake a legacy that has made her name synonymous with dedication to the PEO industry — especially in the Midwest.

Born in September 1941 to Michael Colangelo and Londa Powell, Michaeline was raised in the suburbs of Chicago with her siblings, Richard, Robert, and Lenora. Archives from the May 3, 1959, issue of the Chicago Tribune tell you that Doyle was a student librarian president, honor student, and the winner of an Illinois state scholarship to Loyola University.

A Chicago Tribune article from 1959 written by Michaeline Powell (later Doyle). She advocates for the voting age to remain 21, while raising the age to serve in the armed forces to 21, too.

Mission-driven, she went on to operate her own employee leasing company alongside early female industry pioneers like Fran Morrissey, the co-owner of Rockford, Illinois-based Morrissey Family Businesses.

Morrissey first met Doyle in the mid-1980s. They quickly bonded over both having small businesses from outside of Chicago and the desire to organize an industry dealing with pension issues, some bad actors, and federal and state government bodies that weren’t keen on PEO growth.

Employee leasing companies faced an uphill battle of acceptance in the Midwest during this time and were frequently challenged by the IRS, state insurance commissioners, and unemployment agencies. The Department of Labor “laughed” at Morrissey when she educated officials on the PEO model.

“We hit roadblocks everywhere we turned,” Morrissey said.

The National Staff Leasing Association (NSLA), later to become NAPEO, at the time had roughly 50-60 members with a heavy concentration of them from Florida, Texas, or California. Annual meetings would be held in one of those three states, which posed a challenge to the many smaller, entrepreneur-led PEOs from the Midwest. With no investors and a lack of accessible capital, many couldn’t afford to make the trip to the annual convention. Communication and PEO owner engagement was fragmented. Doyle talked with Morrissey about the need to have chapter and regional meetings with startups and fellow smaller companies.

Before Morrissey could blink, Doyle had single-handedly gathered everything she could find relative to bylaws and established a prototype for state and regional chapters. This chapter system became the basis for the NAPEO of today.

“She just did it,” Morrissey said. “It definitely took a lot of her time. She cared about the industry and wanted to see NAPEO grow to what it deserved to be. And she wanted it done right.”

Doyle phoned AccessPoint CEO Greg Packer and said she needed him and Dick Light of Vincam Group —an industry competitor but also a friend of Packer’s— to meet in Chicago the following weekend. Short notice, but it was important: she had organized the inaugural meeting of the NSLA’s Midwest chapter. She’d get the two of them early in the morning from O’Hare International Airport and have them out by the end of the day.

“She pulls up in this gangster-looking car puffing away at a cigarette in a cloud of smoke,” Packer said. “I said to myself, ‘God, I don’t want to sit in the car with this gal.’”

It’s a good thing he did.

True to her no-nonsense, blunt personality, she quickly outlined a vision for a six-state Midwest chapter that included Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin. Unbeknownst to them, Packer and Light were already assigned to the new chapter’s board as its Michigan delegates before they even stepped foot in the car. Florida-based Vincam Group didn’t even have a Michigan presence, but Doyle quickly persuaded Light to open an office in the Wolverine State.

With Doyle as the first chair, the Midwest chapter was a well-oiled machine. Information flowed freely, members were engaged, and the group of 10-12 met several times a year for formal meetings. While other chapters faced financial hardships and organizational hurdles, Doyle’s chapter thrived.

“Our chapter functioned well because Michaeline set the tone early,” Packer said. “She was the biggest cheerleader of our industry and a champion of us against the world. Michaeline was a tireless worker behind the scenes.”

Doyle never had aspirations of becoming the president of the NSLA, though she reluctantly served on the board for two years. And in meetings with legislators and regulators, she didn’t want to lead the discussions. She wanted to make sure the chapter had the best spokesperson do the talking. Her job was to pull the strings to make the meetings happen and better spread awareness and acceptance of the PEO industry. She embraced the gritty, often thankless work that served as the foundation for industry expansion and unification.

“If we met as a group and something needed to be done, Michaeline did it,” Morrissey said. “She talked to anyone. She went above and beyond.”

But as fate would have it, Doyle died of cancer in April 1993 at just 51 years old, shortly after an industry gathering in Orlando. It was a blow to lose someone who cared deeply about uniting competitors for the greater good of the industry. But her legacy would not be lost.

Morrissey led a group that included Packer to create the Michaeline A. Doyle Award to recognize industry members who possess a workhorse spirit like its namesake did. Nearly 30 years later, Doyle’s impact still resonates with the most recent winner of the award, Propel HR President Lee Yarborough.

“Although I never knew Michaeline, I like to think she would be proud of our industry and how her early influence created space for today’s female PEO leaders,” Yarborough said. “She left a lasting legacy on the PEO industry through her advocacy, leadership, and influence in our space.”

Even though Doyle likely wouldn’t be thrilled with a multi-page magazine article written about her legacy, Morrissey said it is important to recognize her contributions and selfless efforts to help create the landscape we operate in today. Though some industry challenges remain, they pale in comparison to what they once were.

“She was an icon for us to do the best we could for our industry,” Morrissey said. “She forever spent her time helping people and doing what needed to be done. She truly made such a difference”