Japan / April 11, 2023 – HRTech Startup ZooKeep announced that they have added three new key members to their diverse Go-To-Market (GTM) team, including Steven Walker, a senior product professional who owned Groupon’s design strategy during the unicorn’s meteoric early rise to tech market prominence, overseeing design and various elements of product strategy leading to the startup’s $30 billion IPO in 2011.
ZooKeep has set out to empower companies in Japan and ASEAN markets to effectively and efficiently hire the people they need, by providing both innovative technology and customizable consulting solutions. All of the company’s offerings are grounded in global best practices while also being localized to meet the needs and requirements of companies operating in the region. This unique approach calls for a diverse team that not only understands the ins-and-outs of global hiring, but can also deeply empathize with the realities on the ground in each region.
Aiming now for a quick expansion in Japan and ASEAN, after officially launching their Application Tracking System (ATS) in March, ZooKeep has added three key players to their GTM team further increasing the diversity of the startup led by CEO Casey Abel, a US-born entrepreneur with over a decade of recruitment experience in ASEAN and Japan.
Steven Walker, Head of Product Marketing
Steven Walker joined the team from the US in March as Global Head of Go-To-Market. The experienced product professional grew Groupon’s design and product teams from 1 to 40 members and drove the unicorn’s design strategy through a successful IPO. After that experience, he worked with a number of startups and venture capital funds to build products and services through his own consultancy Wouldwork.
Satomi Suzuki, Commercial Operations Lead
Satomi Suzuki left one of Japan’s largest corporate training companies, Link Academy (Link and Motivation Group), to drive Commercial Operations for ZooKeep in February. With many years of experience in Sales and Customer Support across several industries such as corporate training & development and staffing solutions, she is uniquely positioned to support the development of customized solutions that help Japanese customers in their struggle to secure qualified talent in Japan and globally. Her deep background in corporate curriculum development makes her a perfect fit for leading ZooKeep’s educational efforts aimed at modernizing and training the region’s Talent Acquisition professionals.
Joanie Ipili, Product Manager
Joanie Ipili is now Product Manager for ZooKeep’s Talent Acquisition Platform (ATS) after joining in March. After having led the development of multiple digital products in a variety of industries including medical and payments in ASEAN, she is joining the team to drive product management and support global go-to-market activities for ZooKeep’s talent platform.
On his feelings about adding these three members to ZooKeep, CEO Casey Abel said, “Further building out our core strength of diversity and cross-functional expertise, we are excited to be adding Steven, Satomi and Joanie to the team. I am convinced that they’ll be instrumental in achieving ZooKeep’s mission to drive fundamental change in growth management and recruiting operations in APAC and beyond. The unique mixture of SaaS expertise, global growth management and product development they bring will accelerate our platform’s development and go-to-market activities across the globe.”
About ZooKeep
ZooKeep was founded in November 2021 by a team of serial entrepreneurs with more than four decades of combined Talent Acquisition experience in Japan and Asia. Together with their diverse team of engineers, on-demand experts and project managers they have set out to simplify and modernize talent operations in the region – taking their clients’ hiring from meh to yeah.
The core of ZooKeep’s offering is their Talent Acquisition Platform which enables users to manage their talent acquisition process from start to finish, including candidate management, interviewing and talent marketing. The platform also provides access to on-demand experts to fill capability gaps as well as a variety of global SaaS partners for headcount management, scheduling automation, and employer of record solutions.
