Cheezhead

Jobvite has announced the appointment of Dan Finnigan as President and Chief Executive Officer. Finnigan will lead the company in his new role, working closely alongside company founder and former CEO, Jesper Schultz, who will take the role of Chief Product Officer.

Jobvite is an online recruitment platform that engages the whole company in hiring. Jobvite raised $7.2 million in Series A funding in December 2007 and
has clients including TiVo, Infinera and Advent Software.

Finnigan previously served as Senior Vice President of Yahoo and General Manager of HotJobs (wiki - search). He was instrumental in coordinating their newspaper partnerships, culminating in over 700 print publications.

“I am excited to join a team that is producing impressive growth with a one-of-a-kind product that market-leading companies are rapidly adopting,” said Finnigan. “I am struck by how Jobvite’s innovation is based on their insight that successful talent acquisition involves all employees.

“I am also impressed by how Jobvite integrated candidate sourcing, team collaboration and social networking into a seamless application – one that is nearly effortless for the organization to launch and use. Jesper and I share a belief that talent acquisition has high value for world-class companies. The recruitment market is being transformed by online targeting and social networking, and we intend to lead that transformation as we serve our customers’ needs.”

Before joining Yahoo!, Finnigan led the creation of Knight Ridder Digital, serving as President and CEO. At Knight Ridder, Finnigan spearheaded its acquisition of CareerBuilder (wiki - search) in 2000. Prior to that, Finnigan co-founded and served as CEO for SBC Interactive, launching SMARTpages.com, now known as Yellowpages.com, the leading online business directory for consumers. Finnigan comes to Jobvite directly from Benchmark Capital, where he served as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence.

This is a big win for Jobvite. I first interviewed Finnigan in 2006 when he was still at HotJobs. He left about a year later. The guy is sharp and his presence alone will put Jobvite on the map for many of us who have been largely ignoring them as part of the eternal noise of the employment space.