JON E. BARFIELD:
 
WILLIAM STOUGH




 
 
 
 
 
Chairman and President of The Bartech Group in Livonia. Barfield was appointed president and CEO of the firm in 1981 and was named chairman in 1995. The Bartech Group bills and manages for its customers $1 billion in annual revenue. The company employs and manages more than 10,000 workers and is among the largest independent human capital and professional staffing services firms in the United States. The Bartech Group has received numerous awards for quality performance from Ford Motor Co., Chrysler, Eaton, and FPL Group. Bartech was named company of the year by Black Enterprise Magazine in 1985, and was named global supplier of the year by General Motors and Eaton in 2006 and 2007. In 2008 Barfield received the Leadership Award from the National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC). The highest honor given annually by the NMSDC to an individual business owner, it recognizes superior achievement in business in the true spirit of excellence in entrepreneurism. The NMSDC also recognized Bartech with its highest supplier award in 2008. Earlier in his career, Barfield practiced corporate and securities law at Sidley Austin LLP in Chicago. He serves on the board of directors of National City Corp., BMC Software, and CMS Energy. He was a director of Dow Jones & Co. before it was acquired by News Corp. in 2007. Barfield volunteers as a director of several nonprofit institutions and in 2008 was appointed to the Invest Michigan! Business Leadership Council by Gov. Jennifer Granholm. He is a charter trustee emeritus of Princeton University, a trustee of The Henry Ford and the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, and a director of Detroit Renaissance, New Detroit, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, where he chairs the finance committee of the $23 billion nonprofit corporation. He is a former director of Reading Is Fundamental, Kettering University, the Children’s Center, and the Community Foundation for Southeastern Michigan. He is also former president of the National Technical Services Association, historically one of the human capital and staffing service industry’s leading trade associations. Barfield graduated with honors from Princeton University in 1974 and received a Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School in 1977.


WHERE BORN: "Ypsilanti."

MOST INFLUENTIAL PERSONS: "I attended Princeton and Jameson Doig was a professor of politics and my senior thesis advisor. He taught me about the importance of public service and devoting a portion of your life to it."

LAST BOOK READ: "I’m still getting through Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand."

WORDS THAT DESCRIBE ME: "Strategic thinker, serious, thoughtful."

WHERE MY FIELD/INDUSTRY IS HEADED: "Our industry’s goal is to help our customers be more competitive in an increasingly competitive global marketplace. In the area of human capital, our industry is headed toward more competitive ways to source talent and more effective ways to deliver talent solutions to those customers."

FAVORITE TECHNOLOGICAL GADGET: "Probably my BlackBerry."

FAVORITE PLACE: "Nassau, Bahamas."

FAVORITE HOBBIES: "Golf and travel."

FAVORITE FOOD: "Seafood."

MY HIDDEN TALENT: "I enjoy being a behind-the-scenes advisor to people who are making important decisions."

HOW I WANT TO BE REMEMBERED: "As someone who sought to leverage the limited talent he has in a way that would best benefit those less fortunate and as someone who had the kind of corporate consciousness that enabled him to be a good corporate citizen while generating a profit for shareholders."

Grant Thornton Website At the annual awards reception in April 2014, one Leader & Innovator from the previous 12 months will be selected as the Grant Thornton Leader & Innovator of the Year.