Michelle Banham is a seasoned executive strategist with a career spanning over 15 years in high-impact roles, partnering directly with CEOs, Co-Founders, Executive Teams, Board Members, and Investors. Currently, she is the Chief of Staff for the fast-growing AI LLM Chat startup, You.com, leading the departments of Ops, HR, Finance, Legal and Admin. She also serves as a Fractional Chief of Staff, where she provides consultative services to innovative, fast-growing startups (such as VenturePark Labs). With her experience and expertise, she aids in hiring founding team members, constructing necessary foundational systems, preparing the business for the launch of its primary product offering and priming the business to scale.
As Chief of Staff, Michelle has overseen fundraising, strategic goals, internal operations, and a multitude of transformational projects that have positioned organizations as upcoming leaders in their space. Her tenure is marked by several successful initiatives, scaling from three full-time hires to a team of 27 in 7 months, restructuring departments, leading business units and building comprehensive employee programs. Her previous roles include Executive Assistant to the CEO at Prodigy Education, where she excelled in a rapidly scaling environment, contributing to a successful Series B fundraise of $152M. In each of her roles, Michelle exhibits an unwavering commitment to operational excellence and strategic leadership. She is known for her capacity to manage complex projects and foster strong relationships across teams.
