Austin Baker infuses innovation and creativity into human resource strategy. Austin was nominated by his peers to be the 2011 President of the Society for Human Resource Management in Memphis (SHRM), which is one of the largest SHRM Chapters in the US.

Austin Baker is the President of HRO Partners; a human resource consulting & outsourcing firm. Austin’s personal specialty is in leadership development and employee benefit strategies. Benefit Brokers and CPAs turn to HRO Partners to help their clients with benefit administration and enrollment, Health Care Reform and cost containment strategies. HRO is also a general agent for many insurance carriers that enables them to work with benefit brokers and companies for carrier funded enrollment services and is one of the largest US producers for Colonial Life Insurance.

HRO has also helped manage HR for the largest school merger in the history of the US and represents private sector, municipal and county government entities with more than 95,000 active employees and more than 30,000 retirees. Through HRO, Austin has launched The Giving Hour, which endeavors to unite and uplift the Memphis area by asking the question, “What can an hour of someone’s time spent mentoring mean to the community?”

Prior to forming HRO Partners, Austin founded; EServ, an employee benefit brokerage his first business along with his father Jim Baker; in 2001, while a sophomore at The University of Memphis. EServ won the “Small Business of the Year” in 2007 at the annual Small Business Chamber awards. In 2010 EServ was sold to another insurance brokerage as he shifted focus to more holistic services. Jim and Austin also own Owen Brennan’s “A New Orleans Style Restaurant” located in East Memphis. In 2010 Austin Baker was honored as “Entrepreneur of the Year” by the Fogelman College of Business & Economics at University of Memphis.

Austin Baker is an Eagle Scout and has dedicated his life to service through non-profit leadership and mentorship education. Austin Baker; serves in a number of non-profit service roles. Austin Baker has served as the Chairman of the Board for the Small Business Chamber. Currently Austin serves with the U of M Fogelman College of Business & Economics Alumni Chapter and is the co-founder of the Memphis Institute for Leadership Education Program (MILE) with Bob Taylor PhD, which has graduated more than 1,000 leaders. In 2013 MILE was renamed in his honor as the J. Austin Baker III MILE Program. Austin also serves on the boards of the Workforce Investment Network (WIN), Memphis Fast Forward: People First and is a past board member for Mayor Luttrell’s Young Professional Council. Austin is a 2009 Memphis Business Journal Top 40 Under 40 Award Recipient and Graduate of Leadership Memphis, Executive Program & Nexus mentorship programs.