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Jay Love Stepping Aside At Bloomerang

Cloud-based donor management software company Bloomerang is undergoing a changing of the guard as founding CEO Jay Love has stepped down from the role. Co-founder, chief operating officer, and chief financial officer Ross Hendrickson assumed the role effective July 1. Love will stay on as chairman of the board and transition into a part-time chief relationship officer role.

As chief relationship officer, Love will be continuing a good deal of the work that he enjoyed during his career, which always tended to have a sales and marketing slant. Bloomerang has 350 active partnerships and Love hopes to both expand upon existing partnerships and increase Bloomerang’s partnership count to north of 500 in the coming years, he said.

The company transition has, to some extent, been in the works for 22 years, according to Love. On his 40th birthday, he wrote out a life plan that had him managing a strong-performing business in the nonprofit sector and then leaving it in the hands of others while transitioning to a part-time role. 

Having Hendrickson succeed him has also long been the plan, since the Indianapolis, Ind.- based company was founded in October 2012. Hendrickson and Love worked together at two other stops prior to co-founding Bloomerang, a total of 12 years, according to Love. Hendrickson has worn numerous different hats while at Bloomerang, including product manager on top of his COO and CFO titles. 

Love’s style has long been one of gut-instinct, while Hendrickson, who has a degree in economics and engineering science from Vanderbilt University, is more analytical. The analytical approach will do well in moving the company forward in an ever-volatile marketplace, Love opined.

Prior to co-founding Bloomerang, Hendrickson served as product manager at Bostech Corporation and later Avectra. A company spokesperson said that no other leadership changes are anticipated.

“Over the last five years, Jay has assembled and cultivated an amazing leadership team,” Hendrickson said in a statement. “I look forward to building on the strong foundation that he has laid.”

Love’s previous work experience includes serving as CEO of eTapestry, Social Solutions, and Master Software. He has also served on numerous boards including for The Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, Conner Prairie, and the Butler University Innovation Fund. He also was a founding member and board member of the TechPoint Foundation for Youth, founding chairman of NPower Indiana, and past chairman of the Association of Fundraising Professionals Ethics Committee. 

Love anticipates that, in his new role, he will be able to continue and expand upon his participation on various boards and charitable opportunities – having waited to expand his role at organizations such as Butler University until after stepping down. He also plans on spending his free time becoming more active in his grandchildren’s lives.

“I’ve watched too many people who waited and retired and all of a sudden their grandchildren were young adults or they were physically or health-wise couldn’t do things,” Love said. “I consider myself in the prime of my life so this is going to be a lot fun.”