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As the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer for The Champion Companies, Michelle Yeager-Thornton leads Champion’s operational efforts and oversees the day-to-day actions of the company’s portfolio of communities, which includes 5,000 apartment homes with assets totaling more than $1 billion.

Michelle has overall responsibility for setting the operational strategy, driving execution and creating best practices for Champion. She oversees the company’s marketing and communications efforts, sales and leasing operations, maintenance systems and their customers’ satisfaction. Her operational acumen has helped guide Champion to becoming a top fifty fast-growing private company in Central Ohio for eight consecutive years.

Michelle prides herself on leading Champion’s philanthropic initiatives, including the creation of the Champion Cares Foundation in 2014. She has a passion for helping others and continually supports local organizations that allow her to give back to those in need, including the YWCA Family Center, Children’s Hunger Alliance, Habitat for Humanity, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Ohio, Reeb Avenue Center, and Boys & Girls Clubs of Columbus. Champion is a five-time recipient of the Corporate Citizenship Award from Columbus Business First for its efforts in the community, as well as a Medical Mutual Pillar Award in 2015 & 2017.

Michelle has been honored with a Columbus Business First 40 Under 40 Award, and received a 2018 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for the East Central Region. Additionally, in 2018, she was inducted into the prestigious Women of Achievement Academy by YWCA Columbus, an award program that has been honoring Columbus’s most influential women leaders for more than 30 years.

In addition to her work at Champion, Michelle is a member of the Reeb Center Advisory Board, and sits on the Board of Trustees for YWCA Columbus.