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Tech Bloc Hires Top Recruitment Officer To Lure Talent To San Antonio

Joey Palacios
/
Texas Public Radio
A crowd gathers for the launch of Tech Bloc in 2015.

Tech Bloc, an industry advocacy organization, announced San Antonio will have its first top technology recruitment officer.

Jeannine Wild will be the area's first chief technology and recruitment officer. Wild will leave her position as Rackspace’s executive recruiter, a position she held for more than three years.

“I’ve seen so much growth in the last five years, and I think it will only continue to get better," said Wild, who has worked as a recruiter for more than eight years. “There’s whole world, and I don’t know if everybody knows about it.”

Wild will coordinate the recruitment efforts for hundreds of small- and medium-sized San Antonio tech companies.

"It's very difficult to tap into talent,” said Lew Moorman,Tech Bloc board chair. “You can't afford to have a full-time recruiter. You can't really afford agency fees. You have these small companies who go use national boards and get remote talent."

The CTRO is also responsible for creating a database of talent in San Antonio’s technology industry. Wild said it would take around 12 months to compile the database. Without a database, Moreman said it has been difficult for leaders to pitch companies on relocating to the area.

“We had a very difficult time talking about our tech talent base,” Moreman said. “We’ll be able to give them an informative look at our talent.”

The position was posted in July with $300,000 from the Bexar County and the city.

“We think this is going to be a big help to the tech firms,” Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff said.

Organizers say the position funding should last two years. After that, it’s up to the industry to fund it.

“It’s either gonna have value or it’s not. We’ve got a lot of feedback from the community saying they want it,” Moreman said. “We as a team gonna do everything we can to create a revenue model that is sustainable.”

Wild's first day is May 7.

Paul Flahive can be reached at paul@tpr.org or follow on @paulflahive

 

Paul Flahive can be reached at Paul@tpr.org