Michael Shirley began his career in retained executive search in April, 1980 with a multi-office, national firm in Kansas City.  After ten years of consistently increased billings as a generalist, he started his own firm in April, 1990.  Banking, financial services, healthcare and insurance were the primary industries served from 1980 – 1990 as well as active as a generalist in other industries.

Michael Shirley Associates, Inc. in the 1990s earned national recognition in John Lucht’s classic book, Rites of Passage as well as Executive Recruiter News for Quality and Professionalism.  Michael’s engagements in the 1990s spanned 39 states and several international locations (e.g. U.K., New Zealand, Australia, Toronto, Quebec City, Montreal, Panama City).   He was often invited as a speaker to discuss current executive employment market conditions, the process of executive search, how to evaluate an executive search firm, when an executive search firm should be retained, advantages of retaining a smaller versus large multi-office firm with international locations, etc.  Speaking engagements were in Philadelphia, Tampa, St. Louis, Houston, Phoenix, Denver, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Wichita and other locations.

In the mid to late 1990s, the firm had 16 employees and was recognized to be a top 100 “Fastest Growing Companies in Kansas City” by Ingram’s Magazine.

Primary industries served in the 1990s included banking, financial services, healthcare, manufacturing and utility energy services.

In 2006, Dan Heiman joined the firm as a Partner and in 2008, Bob Vedder joined as a Partner.

More than 1600 retained searches have been successfully conducted in a broad variety of industries.  Clients have included: MetLife, American Express, Stanford Research Institute, Volvo, the Federal Reserve Bank – Kansas City, Mutual of Omaha, the University of Missouri, PG&E Energy Services, Koch Industries as well as a significant number of privately held companies primarily between Memphis to Houston and Denver to Ohio.