Widely recognized across the U.S. and global employment industry as a visionary and entrepreneurial pioneer, Bill Whitford founded S2Verify in 2008. The ground-breaking firm was launched on a simple but transformational premise taken for granted today – but not back then – that process and task automation could completely transform traditional background screening. Since then, the privately held company has attracted 13,000 clients and processed 10 million checks for accounts that range from Fortune-ranked enterprises and small-to-medium sized businesses to government entities, nonprofits and religious organizations. In 2013, S2Verify was ranked #193 on the Inc. 500 list and #3 in Human Resources. At the heart of the company’s success is its technology – such as automated search and extraction algorithms that drive thousands of searches per day and decrease turn-around time from days to mere hours.
Before starting S2Verify, Whitford was a senior leader at industry giant ChoicePoint, which supports more than half the Fortune 500 list with background screening and drug testing services. As the President and Senior Vice President of the $200 million Screening and Authentication Division, he oversaw the performance of 1,500+ employees across five U.S. facilities, with responsibility for M+A, international expansion, and the management of processes and innovation across the division. During his tenure, he managed the consolidation of 13 disparate systems into one cohesive operating and delivery platform.
Earlier in his career, Whitford was the Chief Operating Office for Investigation Technologies (Rapsheets), one of the first private national criminal databases in the U.S. Whitford grew Rapsheets from $1 million in revenue to $15+ million in two years with 35% EBITDA. Rapsheets was successfully sold to ChoicePoint for 24 times trailing EBITDA and 8 times the current run rate.
Whitford was also a founding member of eScreen, which revolutionized the drug testing market by moving the point of screening to the occupation clinic. With thousands of clinics nationally, eScreen became the standard for fast, accurate drug testing for many of the Fortune 500. He holds three patents for the eScreen technology. eScreen was sold to Alere and then Abbot for several hundreds of million dollars.
Before eScreen, Whitford served as Vice President of Sales for Laboratory Corporation, responsible for all sales and service for the company’s Occupation division. He also served as Vice President of Sales and Service for MedExpress Laboratories and a key member of the team that deployed thousands of ExpressPads, the first digital chain of custody form and breath alcohol device.
Whitford has a BBA with a Major in Marketing and Minor in Business from Midwestern State University. He also owns a winery in Mendoza Argentina, Corina Wines, where he enjoys the simpler things in life.