Michael D. Shmerling

Michael D. Shmerling is Executive Vice President and President, Background Screening Group, of Kroll, Inc.

According to his corporate biography, Shmerling, "a certified public accountant (inactive) and licensed Tennessee private investigator, is an accomplished entrepreneur who joined Kroll after establishing several successful businesses. He has been involved in the criminal justice system since 1989, when he co-founded his first company, Correction Management Affiliates, Inc. (CMA), a private correctional facility management company. The following year, he founded Transcor America, Inc., a nationwide prisoner transportation company. Both companies and their subsidiaries were sold to the Corrections Corporation of America in the mid-1990s.

"In 1995, he co-founded Background America Inc., a Nashville-based employee screening company. Over the next four years, the company expanded organically and through acquisition to become one of the largest background checking businesses in the United States. In 1999, when it was acquired by Kroll, Mr. Shmerling was named president of Kroll's Corporate Services Group, now the Background Screening Group. In May 2001, he was elevated to executive vice president and chief operating officer of Kroll Inc., a position he held until December 2002. In August 2001, he was elected to the company's board of directors.

"Mr. Shmerling has been accorded a variety of honors during his career, including:

• Nashville Business Journal - Future 50 Award (1992, 1995 and 1998)
• Nashville Chamber of Commerce - Small Business of the Year Award (1995)
• INC. Magazine - INC. 500 Award CEO (1995)
• INC. Magazine - INC. 500 Award Chairman (1996)
• Tennessee Society of CPAs - Outstanding CPA in Business & Industry Award (1999)

"A native of Nashville, he currently serves on the board of directors of Fisk University, the Tennessee Performing Arts Center, Capital Bank & Trust Company, and the University School of Nashville.

"Mr. Shmerling received a Bachelor of Accountancy degree from the University of Oklahoma in 1977 and began his career as a certified public accountant with the international accounting firm Ernst & Young."