Seasoned, a hospitality-centric community to connect professionals with jobs and career-development resources, as well as employers with qualified candidates, announced the appointment of restaurant-technology veteran, Ware Sykes, as Chief Executive Officer on Wednesday. In January 2017, Seasoned was spun out from HotSchedules, a TPG Growth-funded company, and the leading provider of back-office technologies that serves 167,000 restaurants and 2.8 million restaurant professionals.
“We are delighted to welcome Ware as our first CEO, a role that will be instrumental in driving the company’s leadership and vision,” says Bill McGlashan, TPG Growth Founder and Managing Partner, Co-Founder and CEO of The Rise Fund, and a Board Member for Seasoned. “Ware shares our passion for Seasoned’s mission and the positive impact we can create for employees and employers across the hospitality industry as well as other industries. We are confident that he will help take the company to the next level.”
Previously, Sykes was CEO of Nowait, the first mobile network for casual-dining restaurants that pioneered the ability for consumers to “get in line” remotely, which was acquired by Yelp in 2017. After the acquisition, he was Vice President of Yelp’s restaurant strategy. Earlier in his career, Sykes was an executive at TheLadders, an online job-search service for corporate professionals.
“For too long, technology has ignored the 69 million hourly professionals in the U.S., and we are going to change that, starting with the 14 million people devoting their careers to the foodservices industry,” adds Sykes. “I’m excited to deepen the meaningful impact that Madhav and team have already made, while giving back to this hard-working community that provides memorable dining experiences for hundreds of millions of Americans across the country. Leveraging our relationship with HotSchedules, we have an unfair advantage to deliver the greatest impact as quickly as possible.”
Launched in 2017, Seasoned has built a collection of tools and resources designed to nurture both sides of the marketplace, connecting the entire restaurant community with better jobs, talent, and professional-development opportunities.
