Jake Hirsch-Allen joins Talent Board of Directors

To support the continued growth of our organization, we’re delighted to announce the appointment of Jake Hirsch-Allen to Talent’s Board of Directors.

“As Chair of the Board of [Talent] I am thrilled to have Jake join us to support and champion the growth of Ontario Tech University’s commercial subsidiary during this very important early phase of its story.” 

Dr Steven Murphy, President and Vice-Chancellor, Ontario Tech University.

Jake Hirsch-Allen builds public-private partnerships between North America’s governments, workforce development organizations, colleges and universities, and LinkedIn Talent Solutions. Through this work, Hirsch-Allen supports and is learning to be an ally to groups such as newcomers and refugees, Indigenous populations, the formerly incarcerated, and people with disabilities.

Hirsch-Allen advises several startups including HireGuide and Readocracy and co-founded Lighthouse Labs, Canada’s foremost software development bootcamp. He speaks regularly on the changing nature or future of work and learning and is passionate about skills-based hiring and learning.

Jake brings his experience to Talent’s Board with the goal of accelerating our partnership strategy and guiding our investments in workforce planning and development. “Jake’s deep understanding of and commitment to solving the problems Canadians face in remaining meaningfully employed through the creation of public-private partnerships will make him such an asset to our organization.” 

Rachel Sumner, CEO, Talent

“From skills-based-hiring to recruiting as a model for higher education, [Talent] combines many of the models higher education and employers need to embrace to improve the inclusiveness and productivity of our economy. There are few themes that run more strongly through my recent work than pivoting higher education to focus more on employers and employment and [Talent] presents the opportunity to apply this thinking via one of the most exciting commercial experiments in Canadian higher education” 

Jake Hirsch-Allen

Hirsch-Allen is a Director on the Boards of the Canadian Council for Youth Prosperity, Information and Communications Technology Council, and the Canadian Club of Toronto and co-founder of Hacking Health. A former intellectual property and international criminal lawyer, Hirsch-Allen was also Chair of the Technology Committee of the Global Education Platform, taught Global Health at McMaster University and clerked at the Supreme Court of Israel.

About Talent

Talent is a Canadian company on a mission to help people make actionable and meaningful workforce transformation decisions. Founded in 2020, Talent has evolved its offerings to focus on three lines of business: Skills Intelligence, Skills-Verified Courses, and Assessments. By 2026, Talent will be Canada’s leading skills intelligence organization, working with employers in regulated industries to transform their workforce.