UNIONDALE, NY / ACCESS Newswire / May 6, 2025 / Marquis Who's Who Honors Michelle Hargis Wolfe, JD, MBA, GBS-P, EHRC for her expertise in human resources, law and process optimization. Ms. Wolfe is General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for Wolfe Property Solutions LLC. She previously served as the associate vice chancellor and the first chief people officer at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. Prior to that, Ms. Wolfe served in numerous leadership roles with the largest retailer in the world and with law firms in Arizona, Colorado, and Arkansas.
About Michelle Hargis Wolfe
Ms. Wolfe's family has deep roots in the state of Arkansas. Both of her parents attended the University of Arkansas, and her father received his law degree there, as well. Later, the family moved to Little Rock, where she was raised and proudly graduated high school from Little Rock Central, the birthplace of equal opportunity. She would ultimately attend the University of Arkansas for her undergraduate studies and eventually become an attorney like her father.
Ms. Wolfe completed coursework in political science and communications at the University of Southern California. She also earned a bachelor's degree in political science and communications from the University of Arkansas, a dual Master of Business Administration and a Juris Doctor from the Daniels College of Business and Sturm College of Law, respectively, at the University of Denver. She holds numerous certifications, including as an advanced executive HR professional from the University of Michigan, and with certifications as a global business services professional and in behavioral threat assessment and management.
In the 1990s, Ms. Wolfe served as an attorney with law firms in Colorado, Arizona and Arkansas, still maintaining her law licenses in good standing. Her specialization is in labor and employment litigation.
A Career Advocating for Others
Arkansas is the home of the Fortune 1 Walmart organization, and Ms. Wolfe transitioned to a new career path from private practice law firms to in-house counsel with the company. Initially, she was the assistant general counsel in the legal department, managing wage and hour class actions. She was quickly promoted to lead a team responsible for managing equal employment opportunity and other administrative claims. With a 20-year career with the retailer, Ms. Wolfe progressed into different leadership roles within the company in global human resources, enterprise vendor master data management and contract and supplier management for realty. Her specialization grew to establishing new functions and optimizing processes, such as for Walmart's first global industrial engineering, international logistics and shared services functions, while she also managed large budgets and global teams. She has built a professional reputation as the right person to build, grow and transform teams and operations in the right way.
As a leader at Walmart, Ms. Wolfe used her passion for people to build high-performing teams. While some leaders place technology first, she prides herself on putting people first in her decision-making. "Processes and technology are essential to operational success, but secondary to people," she has said. By prioritizing and investing in her teams, she helps others achieve their full potential.
"You don't do anything by yourself. It's all about the people. You put people first if you want to build people up and solve complex problems," Ms. Wolfe says.
Because of Ms. Wolfe's reputation for high performance, she was approached by the University of Arkansas. The university was looking to fill the role of its first chief people officer, and Ms. Wolfe was selected. As an alumna of the university, she was intrigued by the position and solving the challenges it would bring. In the role, she helped create a human resources team that was focused on HR service delivery, proactive recruiting, and enhanced talent development. She was also a key leader in developing the first job and compensation structure for an institution of higher education in Arkansas.
Another challenge Ms. Wolfe solved was in response to the chancellor's disbanding of the formal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) team. Ms. Wolfe believes, and the chancellor agreed, that diversity of thought and inclusion of every voice is essential to making the best decisions, and she was successful in integrating DEI into all aspects of proactive recruitment, talent development, and engagement and retention strategies. Upon interviewing DEI team members and noting their interests and skill sets, she successfully integrated their purposeful work into open roles on her HR team.
With respect to her process optimization expertise, Ms. Wolfe also led the start-up of Walmart's shared services centers, standing up eight centers in five countries and leading the HR support for each center. "Process optimization is about making it easier for people to do the work they are most passionate about - the work that fulfills their purpose - and eliminating tasks that detract from that person's feeling of purpose. I have been able to do that through optimizing processes and ‘gluing them down' with automation and enabling technology," Ms. Wolfe says.
For her accomplishments, Ms. Wolfe has been named a Marquis Who's Who Top Lawyer and Top Executive.
About Marquis Who's Who®:
Since 1899, when A. N. Marquis printed the First Edition of Who's Who in America®, Marquis Who's Who® has chronicled the lives of the most accomplished individuals and innovators from every significant field, including politics, business, medicine, law, education, art, religion and entertainment. Who's Who in America® remains an essential biographical source for thousands of researchers, journalists, librarians and executive search firms worldwide. The suite of Marquis® publications can be viewed at the official Marquis Who's Who® website, www.marquiswhoswho.com.
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SOURCE: Marquis Who's Who
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