Bullhorn, a provider of software to recruiting firms, has appointed Jason Heilman as leader of the company’s artificial intelligence business unit as senior vice president, product – automation and AI.
Mr. Heilman was founder and CEO of Herefish, a staffing business process automation provider that was acquired by Bullhorn in January. Herefish, a former Bullhorn Marketplace partner, has become one of the fastest-growing candidate experience automation solutions in Bullhorn’s ecosystem.
“Jason Heilman joined Bullhorn after building a business that fundamentally rethought what a great candidate experience could look like – that’s his sweet spot,” said Matt Fischer, Bullhorn’s president and CTO. “We realize that in order for AI to be actually successful and adopted on a large scale, our customers need for it to be built on a foundation of automation and data hygiene. We brought Herefish into the Bullhorn family in January and it has proven incredibly popular, radically accelerating businesses’ ability to transform digitally, and now we’re ready to help our customers tackle the next step in their transformation journey.”
Bullhorn has long viewed automation and artificial intelligence as a necessary precursor to high-quality and scalable candidate experience. Given Mr. Heilman’s expertise building Herefish into a provider of staffing business process automation and an authority on candidate experience management, “he is especially well-suited to help Bullhorn’s customers turn the often abstract notion of artificial intelligence into a reality for staffing firms as they proceed on their digital transformation journey, leveraging machine learning as a means of solving the problem of how to adopt an experience-centered staffing model for their businesses,” the company said.
“We asked our recruiters about the aspects of their jobs they liked doing the least and they all had the same response – reaching out to candidates to schedule interviews, following up with emails and texts – all the basics that we need to do quickly every day to do our jobs well and that are necessary to earn the trust of our candidates,” said Brian Cunningham, managing director of Allen Recruitment Consulting. “We purchased Herefish and now we have automated literally all of the mundane tasks freeing our recruiters to focus on what matters – having more time to talk to candidates who are interested in our jobs and are available to talk to us.”
“The solution that Jason and team built is such a great example of the power of technology to augment and amplify human productivity. It is the same promise that AI offers on a larger scale,” he said. “I can’t wait to see how Jason works his magic to transform the customer and candidate experience in staffing intelligently using the power of AI.”
Mr. Heilman said his company wants to help firms drive an outstanding experience for their candidates and customers. “With the increased focus on a distributed workforce and technology as a means of enhancing productivity, now is an important time to introduce artificial intelligence to the staffing market,” he said. “When delivered together, automation and AI will provide the tools needed for firms to quickly react to both short-term adjustments and long-term shifts in the market. We’ve got our eyes on solving many longstanding problems the staffing industry faces that will ensure our customers will be the market leaders of the future.”
Bullhorn is a global leader in CRM and operations software for the recruitment industry. More than 10,000 recruiting companies rely on Bullhorn’s cloud-based platform to drive sales, build relationships and power their recruitment processes from end to end. Headquartered in Boston, with offices around the world, Bullhorn is founder-led and employs more than 1,000 people globally.
PE Firm Takes Majority Stake
Stone Point Capital, a private equity firm based in Greenwich, Conn., recently took a majority stake in Bullhorn. The hope is the investment will speed up the staffing and recruiting industry’s embrace of digital transformation. Terms of the transaction were not announced. Stone Point Capital will have a representative on the company’s board. Insight Partners and Genstar will remain investors in the Bullhorn business.
“We are very excited to be working with the team at Stone Point as we enter the next phase of Bullhorn’s growth,” said Art Papas, founder and CEO of Bullhorn. “We have a tremendous opportunity to help the global staffing industry execute on their digital transformation strategies, and Stone Point’s experience and industry expertise will be invaluable as we grow the company to the next level. We’re also happy that Insight and Genstar will remain investors, as they have been integral to helping us more than double our revenue over the last three years.”
Chuck Davis, CEO at Stone Point Capital, said: “We are excited about the long-term opportunity to work with Bullhorn. We are in the early stages of the industry’s adoption of digital transformation initiatives, and we couldn’t be more excited about partnering with an experienced team that knows the industry, their customers, and how to build a business with a deep focus on customer experience.”
