In 1995, James Champion founded and incorporated The Champion Services Group, Inc. (CSG) in the State of Florida. James leveraged his vast Human Resources knowledge and twenty-five (25) years experience while working for such companies as Chase Manhattan Bank, Merrill Lynch, The U.S. Department of Labor, as well as leading Ryder Systems, Inc. as Executive Director of Human Resources, to launch his own company.

James created CSG with a vision that emphasized many business principles, such as ethical standards, valuing differences, performance excellence, quality service, cost-effective practices, and customer-focused operations. Champion started as a one-person firm, but moved quickly to include others in his dream. By early 1996, CSG grew to four (4) employees and five (5) consultants, and expanded its client base to include The Collection, Hannahville Indian Community, Alliant Food Service, and Florida Power and Light.

In early 1997, CSG won a major contract to design, implement and deliver Diversity/ EEO and Conflict Resolution training to 12,500 Southern California Edison (SCE) employees. The SCE contract propelled CSG to another level as a consulting firm. CSG hired an additional three employees and contracted over thirty consultants to deliver SCE training.

By late 1997, CSG took on another major contract. The firm began training over 5,000 longshore workers in Tacoma, WA in Diversity, Conflict Resolution, Workplace Violence Prevention, and EEO through an agreement with the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) and International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU). During the late nineties, the PMA/ILWU training contract expanded to include other ports, such as Seattle, Portland, and Oakland. During the late nineties, SCE gave CSG a second contract to provide Phase Two Diversity training to its employees and PMA extended its longshore industry training to the Los Angeles port where CSG trained roughly 8,000 union workers and top-level union officials in Conflict Resolution, Hostile Work Environment Prevention, and EEO.

Clients, such as the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., City of North Miami Beach, Miami Parking Authority, Midwest Express Airlines, Madison Area Technical College, Prison Health Services, and the United States Attorney’s Office utilized the services of CSG to: collectively train over 25,000 employees, coach leaders, conduct organizational assessments, manage Affirmative Action plans and EEO processes, mediate disputes, investigate discrimination/harassment complaints, create operational policies, facilitate organizational change processes, implement succession planning, established effective communication systems, design quality (TQM) processes, institute compensation plans, create job designs, conduct executive recruitment searches, and upgrade existing HR initiatives.

Along with many of its original clients, new clients, such as the City of Seattle; City of Eugene, Oregon; County of Los Angeles; King County, Washington; Miami International Airport; County of Los Angeles; Burger King Corporation; Leadership Lancaster, and Miami-Dade County are using CSG to positively impact bottom line performance.

As a full-service human resources and management consulting firm, CSG is certified as a minority-owned business enterprise and small disadvantaged business with federal, state and local agencies, such as the California Public Utilities Commission, State of Florida Management Services Office of Supplier Diversity, Miami-Dade County Department of Business Development and the United States Small Business Administration. •