BROOKFIELD, Wis. (June 15, 2026) — Brookfield-based QPS Employment Group, a staffing and recruiting firm, announced several key leadership promotions and additions. The employee-owned company continues to advance its specialization strategy and strengthen its position across Light Industrial, Skilled Trades and its professional division, Accelerate Professional Talent Solutions (Accelerate).
The company promoted Lisa Cooney to president of QPS Light Industrial division and Jeri Meyers to president of Skilled and Accelerate. Together with Michael Cole, president of Next Level Technician, the division leaders will be responsible for both sales and delivery within their respective business segments, creating greater accountability, alignment and focus.
QPS also promoted Kelly Ramirez to senior vice president of Shared Services and Business Segment Finance, where she will continue leading efforts to build scalable infrastructure and provide strategic partnership across the organization.
In addition, QPS welcomed two experienced staffing industry leaders. Tisha Blunt joins the company as regional vice president of sales for Light Industrial, while Lindsey Lewis joins as regional vice president of sales for Skilled.
“These changes reflect our commitment to building specialized, high-performing business lines that are positioned to win in today’s staffing market,” said Ryan Festerling, CEO of QPS Employment Group. “By creating greater focus and ownership within each segment, we’re accelerating decision-making, strengthening execution and creating the structure needed for long-term growth.”
Keith Jochims, CFO of QPS Employment Group, added, “The leaders recognized today have earned these opportunities through consistent performance, strong leadership and an unwavering commitment to our customers and candidates. Combined with the addition of exceptional talent like Tisha and Lindsey, we’re building a leadership team capable of driving the next phase of growth for QPS.”
The announcements support QPS’ ongoing strategy of investing in specialized business segments while maintaining operational consistency and delivering exceptional service to clients across the Midwest and beyond. Part of this strategy involves creating a development program for select QPS recruiters and sales executives that builds deep expertise in high‑demand skilled-trades talent markets.
Through structured exposure, field practice, and applied learning, participants in QPS’ Skilled Workforce Specialist Program build the specialized knowledge and consultative capabilities required to deliver differentiated value to candidates and clients. This internal certification shows disciplined mastery in a complex, competitive workforce.
“Our customers expect us to have expertise in their unique needs, and we are making continued investments in our people to deliver on that promise,” Festerling stated. “We fill thousands of positions each year and we believe that this specialized approach will serve our candidates and customers better than ever.”
Participants complete 80 hours of assignments over the course of six weeks and as a result of the successful completion of this program, participants will:
- Build fluency in the tasks, tools, systems, and competencies associated with the role
- Develop functional understanding of the candidate/talent marketplace
- Understand macro level industry and labor trends shaping supply and demand for relevant skills
- Interpret the staffing competitive landscape within this segment and articulate a compelling specialization value proposition
About QPS Employment Group
QPS Employment Group is a leading staffing and recruiting firm providing light industrial, skilled trades, professional, office and executive search solutions to businesses across the United States. We are proudly 100 percent employee owned.
