How Aionia Was Built
Aionia wasn’t born in a boardroom. It was shaped in the trenches—after years recruiting for companies like Meta, Google, ByteDance, Dropbox, Block, Netflix, United, and more. We kept seeing the same problem: too much noise, too little clarity. Recruiters promising speed, but delivering chaos. Too many resumes. Not enough fit. So we built something better.
Aionia is a boutique, founder-led recruiting firm designed for teams that move fast and hire smart. No resume spray. No handoffs. Just thoughtful calibration, sharp sourcing, and 3 aligned candidates in your inbox—often within the week.
Our model is shaped by real-world hiring challenges across LATAM, Europe, and North America. We’ve worked directly with engineering leaders, founders, and product teams—helping early-stage startups scale with precision and velocity.
When we say “signal over spray,” we mean it.
Human-Curated Talent
Every candidate is handpicked—no resume blasts, no filler.
AI-Accelerated Search
We blend automation with human instinct to find sharp, aligned talent fast.
Global Network
We’ve built trusted talent pipelines in the US, Canada, UK + Europe, Philippines, and LATAM.
First Candidates In 5–7 Days
Most clients receive 3 curated candidates within a week of kickoff.
Founder-Led. No Junior Hand-Offs.
You’re working directly with the expert—no outsourcing, no BS.
How Aionia Was Built
Aionia wasn’t born in a boardroom. It was shaped in the trenches—after years recruiting for companies like Meta, Google, ByteDance, Dropbox, Block, Netflix, United, and more. We kept seeing the same problem: too much noise, too little clarity. Recruiters promising speed, but delivering chaos. Too many resumes. Not enough fit. So we built something better.
Aionia is a boutique, founder-led recruiting firm designed for teams that move fast and hire smart. No resume spray. No handoffs. Just thoughtful calibration, sharp sourcing, and 3 aligned candidates in your inbox—often within the week.
Our model is shaped by real-world hiring challenges across LATAM, Europe, and North America. We’ve worked directly with engineering leaders, founders, and product teams—helping early-stage startups scale with precision and velocity.
When we say “signal over spray,” we mean it.
Human-Curated Talent
Every candidate is handpicked—no resume blasts, no filler.
AI-Accelerated Search
We blend automation with human instinct to find sharp, aligned talent fast.
Global Network
We’ve built trusted talent pipelines in the US, Canada, UK + Europe, Philippines, and LATAM.
First Candidates In 5–7 Days
Most clients receive 3 curated candidates within a week of kickoff.
Founder-Led. No Junior Hand-Offs.
You’re working directly with the expert—no outsourcing, no BS.
Meet the Team
Jeffrey Potter
Partner | Aionia
Jeff is a private investor and strategic partner to the firm, with experience in capital structuring, portfolio support, and long-term investment across technology-enabled businesses.
He is involved in select initiatives and provides strategic guidance aligned with the firm’s long-term vision.
JP Forager
Partner | Aionia
JP works alongside the firm as a long-term investment and strategic partner, with experience spanning regulated and emerging industries, including biotechnology and agricultural operations.
His background includes involvement in capital planning, operational coordination, and sustained investment in complex growth environments. He participates in select initiatives and offers strategic perspective aligned with the firm’s long-term direction.
Celeste Diaz
Principal | Senior Global IT Recruitment
Celeste Diaz brings a rare blend of financial rigor, systems thinking, and global recruiting expertise to her work with founders and leadership teams at Aionia.
A graduate of Columbia University with a degree in Economics, Celeste began her career in finance, spending three years at Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch. While the path was conventional, it sharpened her analytical discipline, commercial judgment, and ability to operate in high-pressure environments—skills that continue to inform her approach to hiring and organizational design.
Seeking a more integrated creative and technical lens, Celeste relocated to London to study Visual Communication and Design at the University of the Arts London, where she explored systems, structure, and the intersection of analytical and creative thinking. Back in New York, she deepened her technical foundation through studies in Networks and Systems Security at the Grove School of Engineering, bridging design sensibility with applied technology.
This interdisciplinary background led her into global technical recruiting, where she has placed top-tier talent for companies including Google, Meta, ByteDance, Dropbox, and Block, and supported projects with organizations such as United, Netflix, and The Gates Foundation. Her work spans the U.S., Canada, LATAM, APAC, and Europe, helping teams scale across borders with speed and precision.
Celeste has recruited for some of the most critical, hard-to-fill roles in technology—Backend and Frontend Engineers, DevOps and Infrastructure Engineers, Cybersecurity Analysts, Network and Optical Engineers—while also building full-spectrum product teams including Technical PMs, Designers, Data Analysts, QA Engineers, and Technical Writers.
At Aionia, Celeste applies this depth of experience to building a firm grounded not in convention, but in clarity—helping companies correct where hiring breaks down and make fast, durable decisions that align skill, execution, and human fit.
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Yvonne Benitez
Principal | Senior Global FinTech Recruitment
Yvonne Benitez brings a rare combination of diplomatic training, global workforce strategy, and FinTech recruiting expertise to her work with executive teams and founders across international markets.
Born in Florida and raised across Asia, Yvonne developed an early fluency in cross-cultural dynamics and global systems. She is a graduate of Ateneo de Manila University, where she earned a degree in International Relations and distinguished herself through early exposure to diplomacy and multilateral institutions. While still a student, she interned with the U.S. Embassy in Manila and the United Nations, gaining firsthand experience in international policy, governance, and global coordination.
Following graduation in 2006, Yvonne joined the United Nations in a professional capacity, where she spent several years working across development, labor policy, and international staffing initiatives. Her roles focused on workforce deployment, talent mobility, and the recruitment of highly specialized professionals across regions—providing her with deep insight into how global institutions identify, assess, and place critical talent under complex regulatory and political constraints.
As her career progressed, Yvonne moved into senior talent and workforce strategy roles spanning public-private partnerships and development-finance–adjacent organizations, where she worked closely with emerging technology, digital finance, and financial inclusion initiatives. This work positioned her at the intersection of regulation, technology, and human capital—an increasingly critical nexus as FinTech scaled globally.
Transitioning into the U.S. private sector, Yvonne became a trusted advisor to FinTech and financial services leaders, building and leading global recruiting strategies across the U.S., LATAM, EMEA, and APAC. She has specialized in scaling teams within payments, digital banking, compliance, RegTech, and financial infrastructure—supporting companies navigating both rapid growth and regulatory complexity.
Today, as Principal of Global FinTech Recruitment, Yvonne is known for her precision, discretion, and systems-level understanding of hiring. Her approach is grounded in clarity rather than volume—helping leadership teams make durable hiring decisions that align technical excellence, regulatory awareness, and long-term organizational fit.
See our impact through LinkedIn recommendations →