Product Owner

Employment Hero names new APAC MD. The Australian HR tech start-up welcomed a new managing director to spearhead its operations across Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia. 25 March 2026 - By Carlos Tse - 8 minutes read Employment Hero has promoted James Keene (pictured) to managing director of the company's APAC operations to drive execution across Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia. Keene joined start-up Employment Hero in April 2015 as business development manager, and since then has climbed the ranks, moving into five further positions before he departed from his role as general manager of revenue for ANZ in February this year. In his previous role as general manager of revenue for ANZ, Keene helped to accelerate growth and strengthen the foundations required to scale the business's operations. Before joining Employment Hero over a decade ago, Keene served at the professional recruitment consultancy firm Michael Page International, leaving his final role as Team Lead in March 2015. Employment Hero said that Keene's appointment emphasises the company's investment in its home country and its most established market, Australia, as well as its expansion across New Zealand and Southeast Asia. With over a decade of experience leading commercial teams, Keene's role will entail executing strategy across go-to-market, customer experience, product adoption, and team performance. "James is a trusted leader who understands what it takes to scale responsibly while staying anchored to our mission. He will help ensure APAC continues to lead from the front," founder and chief executive, Ben Thompson, said. "Keene has been both a commercial and cultural leader across the region, driving an environment where innovation and customer impact are the sharp focus." Want to see more stories from trusted news sources? Make Accountants Daily a preferred news source on Google. Carlos Tse. Carlos Tse is a graduate journalist writing for Accountants Daily, HR Leader, Lawyers Weekly.

At A$300M ARR, ai-powered Employment Hero enters next phase as SEEK Growth Fund launches stake sale. Last Updated Feb 17, 2026 SYDNEY, Australia - February 17, 2026 Employment Hero, a global AI-powered employment operating system, and SEEK Investments, manager of the SEEK Growth Fund, today announced that the Fund has launched a process to divest its stake in the business. Employment Hero recently surpassed A$300 million in annual recurring revenue and continues to sustain growth above 30% while expanding margins across Australia, Canada, the UK and other international markets. The platform now supports more than 350,000 businesses globally and facilitates over $120 billion in annual payments. As artificial intelligence reshapes enterprise software, Employment Hero is embedding agentic AI directly into complex, regulated employment workflows. This marks a shift from workflow support to autonomous execution at scale. Ben Thompson, CEO and Co-Founder of Employment Hero, said: "Employment Hero is entering its next chapter from a position of strength, supported by sustained international demand, as we continue disciplined global expansion and build the AI infrastructure that powers employment. We are proud to have delivered exceptional returns for SEEK Investments over the past eight years and value their partnership and support. As we move forward, our focus remains clear: scaling globally, creating long-term shareholder value, and advancing our mission to make employment more valuable and easier for everyone." SEEK Investments has supported Employment Hero since 2017, participating in multiple funding rounds. Andrew Bassat, Executive Chairman and CEO of SEEK Investments, said: "Employment Hero has been a standout investment for the SEEK Growth Fund. We remain confident in Employment Hero's strategy and long-term outlook; however, now is the appropriate time for the Fund to commence a sale process." Media contact Marina Holmes Global Head of Communications, Employment Hero [email protected] About Employment Hero Employment Hero is the global authority on employment, offering a world-leading Employment Operating System (eOS) that simplifies and optimises every stage of the employment process. Its award-winning platform combines HR, payroll, recruitment, and employee engagement tools with the groundbreaking employment superapp, EH Work, which integrates career management and financial wellbeing. Serving over 350,000 businesses and managing more than 2.5 million employees worldwide, Employment Hero reduces administrative burdens by up to 80%, enabling organisations to focus on their goals and create more productive, engaged teams. By revolutionising the employment marketplace, Employment Hero is making employment easier, more valuable, and rewarding for everyone. About SEEK Investments SEEK Investments is the manager of the SEEK Growth Fund a long-term investor and business builder currently focused on Human Capital Management. The Fund includes a portfolio of high-growth HCM businesses across work and learning. SEEK Investments builds upon its team's 100+ years of experience in investing and operating high growth technology businesses. The Fund has assets under management of over A$2 billion.

SEEK's venture arm has launched a process to sell its stake in HR software platform Employment Hero, months after resolving a Federal Court dispute over platform access. The companies described the move as a natural stage in the investment lifecycle. SEEK has backed Employment Hero since 2017 and participated in multiple funding rounds. The platform has surpassed $300 million in annual recurring revenue and supports over 350,000 businesses globally. SEEK sold a $95 million portion of its stake to KKR last year and is now divesting its remaining holding. The sale follows a legal dispute after SEEK moved to terminate Employment Hero's job posting API access. The matter was discontinued in January after Employment Hero accepted SEEK's decision was not anti-competitive, and the integration was reinstated.