Carla Lane

Carla Lane is President and CEO of LaneStaffing, the largest minority woman owned employment solution provider in the southwest.

Lane began working in the staffing industry while attending The University of Houston as an accounting student. In 1993, she became the first staff member of BestStaff Services, formally the largest minority owned staffing firm in the South. Lane was hired as senior vice president and Chief Operating Officer of DiverseStaff in 2003, where she was responsible for the company’s overall financial strategy and financial processes as well as branch operations in Houston. Lane purchased the brand name in 2007, and since that time she has transformed its business strategy, adding new higher-margin business lines and increasing community involvement. In 2008, Lane expanded the service offerings and rebranded the firm “LaneStaffing.” Lane’s overall business strategy is “take care of the people and the bottom line will grow.”

Under Lane’s leadership, LaneStaffing has expanded the footprint of the organization by 18 states and expanded its client base of Fortune 100 and 200 clients and has become a leader in government contracting.

In 2007, she received the Pinnacle award, by the Greater Houston Black Chamber of Commerce. Lane was named one of the Top 25 Women in Houston by Rolling Out Magazine in 2008 and awarded the 2008 Strategic Teaming Award by Houston Minority Business Council for her work with “teaming” with other minority owned organizations to provide quality solutions to her clients. She also was awarded the Emerging Ten Award by the Houston Minority Business Council in 2008. The firm was named one of the Top 500 African American owned companies in the U.S. and one of the Top 100 Women owned firms in Texas by DiversityBusiness.com in 2009, 2010 and 2011. She also was awarded the 2009 Distinguished Alumni Award by The University of Houston. Lane was listed as one of 40 distinguished Houston area business leaders under 40 (40 under 40) by Houston Business Journal in 2009. Lane was named one of the 2010 Minority Achievers by the YMCA and the 2010 Vanguard Award by Texas Business Alliance. In 2011, she was inducted into the Greater Houston Black Chamber’s Hall of Fame and was honored by TWEF in 2013.

In 2012, she became one of the first female members of Across the Track Pac, a political action committee comprised of the owners of Houston’s largest African American owned businesses. Lane is an advisory board member of the Greater Houston Black Chamber of Commerce and a board member of the Texas Black Expo.

She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., National Presidents Organization, the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, National Association of Female Executives, American Staffing Association, Texas Association of Staffing, and the National Human Resource Association.

Lane is married and the proud mother of a dynamic teenage daughter.