October 26, 2026: Today we announced that co-founder John Tippett has been named President of SeekOut, effective immediately. John, most recently our Chief Client Officer, will lead day-to-day operations and partner with co-founder and CEO Aravind Bala on the company’s direction.
John co-founded SeekOut in 2017 and has spent nine years closest to our customers, helping enterprise talent teams put the platform to work. Before SeekOut, he spent 18 years at Microsoft. He holds a BS in electrical engineering from Stanford University.
Enterprises have already chosen their AI, connected it to their systems, and trained their people on it. Recruiting belongs inside it, not in one more app. That is the shift SeekOut is built for, and John is the right leader to take us through it. He has been at our customers’ side since the first day, and he knows what recruiting teams need from AI.
Aravind Bala, co-founder and CEO, SeekOut
Why now
The appointment comes at a pivotal moment for talent acquisition. Teams have never had more AI tools, yet many feel busier than ever. Most recruiting AI makes one step faster and hands the rest of the work back to the recruiter, who carries context between the applicant tracking system, email, Slack, and the calendar by hand.
Our answer is to put recruiting where that work already happens: inside the AI the company has approved, under the permissions IT has already set, with AI that takes on more of the job as it proves itself.
Built for the shift, in three ways
SeekOut meets recruiting teams where they are and takes them where they want to go:
- SeekOut’s recruiting tools deliver a stronger pipeline, faster: Sourcing across more than 1 billion profiles and the company’s own ATS, Applicant Evaluation that scores every applicant with the reasoning shown, AI Screening, and Candidate Integrity checks that flag signs of fraud.
- SeekOut MCP brings the same intelligence inside Microsoft 365 Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Amazon Quick.
- SeekOut’s agentic solution, now in early access, takes on the legwork around every search, from reading the role and the hiring manager’s feedback to building the sourcing plan and drafting outreach in the recruiter’s voice. It earns responsibility the way a great new hire does: it suggests first, then acts with approval, then runs on a schedule, and the team sets that level for each workflow.
Across all three, recruiters set the bar and make every call, with the reasoning shown.
Every AI tool in recruiting makes one step faster. Our customers are asking for something different: AI that takes the whole job around the job off their recruiters’ plates, inside the AI their company has already approved. The test is the one you would apply to any new hire: the right access, the right place to work, the ability to take feedback, and autonomy it earns over time. That is the standard SeekOut is building to, with recruiters setting the bar and making the calls, and I am honored to lead this team into the next chapter.
John Tippett, President, SeekOut
See it live at Gartner HR Symposium/Xpo
John will present SeekOut’s approach this week at Gartner HR Symposium/Xpo in Orlando, where SeekOut is exhibiting at Booth 415:
- Your AI Agent Just Gave You More Work. Solution Provider Session, Monday, October 26, 3:30–4:00 p.m. EDT, Southern Hemisphere 1.
- The Job Around the Job: What TA Leaders Delegate to AI, and What They Never Will. Theater Session TH24, Tuesday, October 27, 10:00–10:20 a.m. EDT, Stage 3.
