The Workforce
of Tomorrow
with
CHRIS HYAMS
Former CEO of Indeed
About the event
September 30, 2025
The Holdsworth Center
Campus on Lake Austin
-
5:00 - 6:00PM - Reception
6:00 - 7:00PM - Program
Join The Holdsworth Center’s president, Dr. Lindsay Whorton, for a Place the Ladder conversation with Chris Hyams, former CEO of Indeed and a believer in the transformative power of education.
Before leading the world’s largest job site, Hyams began his career in adolescent addiction recovery and as a special education teacher.
He’ll share insights on how those experiences shaped his leadership and how we can better prepare young people for meaningful careers in a rapidly evolving world.
About Chris Hyams
Chris Hyams is the former CEO of Austin-based Indeed, the world’s leading job site. This fall he is teaching an honors class on responsible AI as a visiting lecturer at Huston-Tillotson University, an Historically Black University and Austin’s oldest institution of higher learning. He sits on the boards of Huston-Tillotson and DivInc, a technology accelerator whose mission is to generate social and economic equity through entrepreneurship.
Chris is an advocate for responsible AI, justice and equity, the transformative power of education and hiring for skills over pedigree.
“My path began far from tech—a liberal arts degree, work in adolescent addiction recovery, teaching high school special education. My career in tech has been driven by the values instilled from these experiences. As technology reshapes our world, these values feel more urgent—and at risk—than ever. That’s what I want to help change.”
Before joining Indeed, Chris was the founder and CEO of B-Side, a technology platform for independent film discovery and distribution. He also served as vice president of engineering at Trilogy Software.
His career began in adolescent addiction recovery and as a special education teacher in Vermont public schools. He later worked as a musician in Los Angeles before returning to school to study computer science.
Hyams holds an architecture degree from Princeton University and a master’s in computer science from Rice University. He lives in Austin.
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