Donnie Dewey

Donnie Dewey

Head of Recruiting, Randstad Digital Americas

Like many recruiting leaders, Donnie Dewey never originally planned on building a career in recruiting.

His journey into the industry started unexpectedly in 2003 after selling insurance to an internal staffing employee at Kforce. What began as a simple conversation quickly turned into an invitation to interview for a role supporting online candidate applications.

That opportunity ultimately launched a career that has now spanned more than two decades in staffing, recruiting, and talent leadership.

“I was hired into that in June of 2003, and it kind of launched my career in staffing and recruiting,” Donnie shared.

Over the years, Donnie has built a reputation as a relationship-driven leader with a deep passion for talent strategy, recruiting innovation, and organizational transformation.

What has remained constant throughout his career is his belief that recruiting is fundamentally about people, relationships, and creating meaningful experiences for both clients and candidates.

The Leaders Who Shaped His Career

Looking back on his journey, Donnie credits several leaders with profoundly shaping how he approaches recruiting and leadership today.

One of the biggest influences has been Greg Pagliari, the CEO of Randstad Digital.

Donnie has worked alongside Greg since 2005, and over the course of more than twenty years, he has watched him reshape organizations while simultaneously investing deeply in the development of the people around him.

“It’s hard to find something that I couldn’t thank him for along the way,” Donnie explained.

From leadership development to organizational strategy, Donnie credits Greg as one of the most impactful mentors of his career.

Another major influence was Mike Etor, who created a leadership development program specifically designed to recruit military veterans into the staffing industry.

As a Marine himself, Mike believed leadership traits could be developed into recruiting excellence.

“The goal was if they could get the leadership in the door, they could teach the industry,” Donnie shared.

That philosophy created opportunities for many professionals entering the recruiting world and helped shape Donnie’s early foundation in staffing.

Donnie also credits Dan Turner as one of the leaders who taught him the fundamentals of recruiting.

Dan helped Donnie understand not only the mechanics of recruiting, but also the importance of relationships, trust, and human connection in the hiring process.

“He taught me the core mechanics and fundamentals of recruiting, but also the importance of relationships and connections,” Donnie explained.

Those lessons continue to influence how Donnie approaches leadership and talent strategy today.

Reimagining Recruiting Through AI

As someone deeply involved in AI transformation within recruiting, Donnie believes the industry is still only beginning to understand the true potential of AI.

In fact, he recently authored a ten-page white paper focused entirely on how AI is reshaping talent acquisition.

Rather than viewing AI simply as a collection of automation tools, Donnie sees it as the foundation for entirely new talent ecosystems.

“There’s a lot of conversation around AI and what it can do for tasks,” he explained. “But we’re really looking at it very differently.”

At Randstad Digital, Donnie and his team are focused on building what he describes as an “always-on ecosystem” — a globally connected talent environment powered by AI, automation, and intelligent orchestration.

The goal is not simply to automate recruiter workflows, but to fundamentally rethink how talent and opportunities find each other.

“We’re really trying to build systems that make jobs and talent finding each other a lot easier than it used to be,” he said.

Donnie believes one of the biggest opportunities in AI lies in uncovering hidden talent signals that traditional recruiting models often miss.

Instead of focusing solely on KPIs, velocity, or manual sourcing activity, he believes organizations should use AI to better understand engagement patterns, candidate intent, and long-term talent relationships.

For him, the future is not about filling individual jobs faster.

It is about building intelligent systems that continuously connect the right people to the right opportunities.

The Future of Talent Acquisition

One of the strongest themes throughout Donnie’s perspective on AI is the importance of candidate experience.

He believes many recruiting processes today have become overly transactional, leaving candidates frustrated, ignored, or lost in overwhelming application systems.

“We probably interact with 25,000 to 30,000 people a week,” Donnie explained. “But what happens to the other 28,000?”

That question continues to drive how he thinks about AI implementation and recruiting transformation.

Rather than forcing candidates to endlessly search and apply for jobs, Donnie envisions a future where AI-powered systems proactively deliver highly relevant opportunities directly to talent based on their experience, interests, and qualifications.

“If we can create the perfect environment, people won’t have to apply to hundreds of jobs and never hear back,” he explained.

He believes the companies that truly succeed with AI will not simply bolt new tools onto outdated recruiting models.

Instead, they will rethink the entire talent ecosystem from the ground up.

“For those that figure out the orchestration layer early and correctly, they’re going to jump way out in front,” Donnie said.

His Advice for Talent Leaders in 2026

As AI continues transforming recruiting, Donnie encourages talent leaders to think far beyond automation.

For him, the future belongs to organizations willing to completely reimagine how talent engagement works at scale.

He believes many companies are still applying “old thinking” to AI rather than embracing the larger opportunity to redesign recruiting experiences entirely.

At the center of that transformation is precision.

While speed, efficiency, and scale still matter, Donnie believes the next era of recruiting will be defined by how intelligently organizations connect talent to opportunity.

“We’ve talked a lot about speed and velocity and quality,” he explained. “But it’s the precision around those things that we’re really focused on.”

For Donnie, the future of recruiting is not about replacing recruiters.

It is about empowering recruiters, improving candidate experiences, and building smarter systems that allow human connection to happen more effectively than ever before.

That combination of strategic thinking, relationship-driven leadership, and forward-looking AI vision is exactly what makes Donnie Dewey a deserving member of the Talent 100.