Founder & CEO
On the Road Companies

After a successful career in finance and development, Michelle founded a portfolio of ventures getting people and communities on the road to success by bringing down costs across the transportation value chain to build prosperity. It began in 2011 with Champion Impact Capital, which makes investments in social enterprises. She created On the Road Sustainability Funds and attracted investors who understood that better cars lead to better jobs and better lives and were willing to take a small return on their investments to provide a social, financial, and environmental return to others.  

In 2013, she founded On the Road Lending, to help people find cars that worked for them and to teach them how to make good financial decisions. Through On the Road Sustainability Funds’ OTR Fund I, LLC, a Community Development Financial Institution, individuals get low-cost loans on reliable cars based on who they are as people—not their credit scores. This life-changing auto lending process is creating prosperity one car loan at a time!  

In 2020, Michelle launched On the Road Motors, a Texas motor vehicle dealer, to source cars for On the Road Lending clients directly at auction, providing a low-cost option for working families. Also in 2020, she founded On the Road Garage, a unique tech-focused collision repair business. The first garage opened in Irving and the second in West Dallas. Together On the Road Garage and On the Road Lending are rebuilding more than cars with a Department of Labor-registered paid apprenticeship program that trains people on collision repair, advanced driver assistance systems, and other smart car technology, providing needed employment opportunities.  

Prior to founding Champion and the On the Road Companies, Michelle served as CEO of The Real Estate Council, which launched and provided seed capital for Klyde Warren Park and the Dallas Urban Land Bank. Michelle’s career spans 30 years in finance and commercial real estate. She is highly skilled at structuring complex partnerships and has experience in venture capital, REITs, NYSE-traded companies, opportunity funds, and private equity investment.  

Michelle is a graduate of the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD), where she received a BS in Business Administration. She has pursued graduate studies in economics and public policy at both UTD and Southern Methodist University.  

PUBLICATIONS  

“Freedom of Motion: Working Families and the Transportation Revolution,” by Michelle Corson, published 2017  

MEDIA  

The Dallas Morning News, July 30, 2020 “On the Road Garage gears up for auto repair,” The Dallas Morning News, January 23, 2020 “On the Road Lending plans national expansion with $10 million in funding.