Michelle Yeager-Thornton is Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of The Champion Companies. She founded The Champion Cares Foundation in 2014 as a way to harness Champion’s wide audience of apartment residents, business partners and team members to make a difference in the community. 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, and Boys & Girls Clubs of Columbus. Under Michelle’s leadership, The Champion Cares Foundation has exponentially grown its impact on Central Ohio, surpassing $3 million donated in 2022.
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 sits on the Board of Trustees for YWCA Columbus.
