Corey Shaw is a recognized North American talent acquisition leader whose career spans more than three decades across financial services, human resources, and workforce strategy. As Founder of North Star Talent, he brings a distinctive, business-centric approach to hiring, one that treats talent not as a transactional function but as a strategic lever for growth. His work bridges the worlds of banking, insurance, and non-profit leadership with a deep understanding of how people, processes, and technology must work together to drive sustainable organizational performance. At every step, Corey has focused on a simple but powerful idea: when hiring is designed with business outcomes in mind, it becomes one of the most reliable engines of value creation.
Corey’s professional journey began at the teller window in retail banking, where he first learned the realities of customer experience, frontline operations, and the importance of trust. Over time, he moved through roles in retail banking, employee banking, wealth management, commercial banking, and portfolio management, steadily building a strong financial and operational foundation. These early experiences gave him an intimate view of how organizations actually work—how products are sold, how risk is managed, and how culture shows up in everyday interactions with clients and colleagues. Long before he carried a talent title, Corey understood that the right people in the right roles, supported by the right structure, could fundamentally change the trajectory of a business.
It was this operational grounding that made his transition into human resources and talent acquisition so effective. At TD Bank, where he spent over two decades in progressively senior roles, Corey moved into HR leadership across Commercial Banking and retail operations, designing performance management frameworks, succession planning tools, and leadership metrics that gave executives clear visibility into their people decisions. He introduced models that combined engagement data, performance ratings, and managerial assessments, enabling leaders to make more informed choices about development, promotion, and bench strength. These tools helped shift talent conversations from subjective impressions to structured, data-informed dialogue.
As his remit grew, Corey took on enterprise-level mandates in TD’s HR Project Management Office and later in Talent Acquisition. He led the development of an enterprise HR project planning process that aligned discretionary spending with long-term strategy, and he championed initiatives that simplified the employee experience while reducing cost and organizational risk. In talent acquisition, he led the standardization of the operating model across the bank, implementing processes, technologies, and reporting frameworks that created a more consistent experience for candidates, recruiters, and hiring managers. He drove the integration of assessment tools, launched social media and networking practices, and oversaw programs that improved retention, boosted referrals, and closed representation gaps for underrepresented groups.
Corey’s success at TD Bank positioned him as a go-to leader for large-scale talent transformations. At CIBC, he stepped into the role of Senior Director, Talent Acquisition, leading teams that supported Retail, Digital, Marketing, Product, and President’s Choice Financial. There, he orchestrated a fast-paced hiring strategy to support a major business transformation, sourcing and placing dozens of key leaders in a compressed timeframe while maintaining quality and alignment with business expectations. His work unified recruitment strategy, leadership education, and sourcing innovation in a way that enabled growth without sacrificing standards.
At Canada Life, Corey became AVP of Talent Acquisition, leading a comprehensive transformation of the organization’s hiring approach. He created a strategic roadmap, operating framework, and multi-year milestones that elevated talent acquisition from a transactional function to a strategic partner in organizational change. Under his leadership, Canada Life significantly increased its annual hiring volumes, built a digital and executive recruitment practice, and introduced AI-driven tools, assessments, and CRM capabilities to strengthen sourcing and candidate engagement. His leadership was recognized externally when he was named a finalist for the 2021 HRO Today North American Talent Acquisition Leader of the Year, underscoring his influence in the broader HR community.
Corey’s mandate expanded again when he moved to Co-operators as AVP, Talent Acquisition, where he led a team focused on delivering exceptional diverse talent across the organization. There, he implemented enterprise processes on platforms such as Taleo and UKG, reducing vacancy rates and short-term turnover through better design and more disciplined execution. He also integrated advisor distribution channels and staff augmentation strategies to meet evolving workforce needs. His work centered on building a cohesive system where technology, process, and people were aligned, ensuring that the candidate and hiring manager experience remained consistent even under high demand.
In parallel to his corporate leadership, Corey stepped into the non-profit space as Director, Talent Acquisition at The Salvation Army, bringing his strategic rigor into a mission-driven environment. Supporting a national organization with diverse roles and regional needs, he helped modernize talent practices while respecting the culture, values, and service-oriented mission of the organization. This experience reinforced his belief that high-quality, human-centered hiring is essential in every sector—whether the organization is pursuing shareholder returns, member value, or social impact.
The culmination of these experiences led to the creation of North Star Talent, Corey’s advisory firm dedicated to helping organizations design integrated hiring systems that connect directly to business priorities. Featured in International Business Times for his perspectives on the future of hiring, Corey advocates for systems where sourcing, assessment, tracking, and onboarding operate as a unified design rather than disconnected tools. He emphasizes the importance of measurement, encouraging leaders to track outcomes such as time-to-productivity, early retention, engagement, internal mobility, and the impact of diverse representation on market reach. His work helps organizations move beyond activity metrics toward meaningful indicators of long-term value.
Corey’s methodology is grounded in process architecture and workforce design. He encourages clients to view external hires, internal moves, and contingent workforce arrangements as part of a single, integrated picture of organizational change. By implementing standardized job frameworks, structured assessments, and shared decision models, he helps leadership teams create consistent, transparent, and fair hiring processes. These structures not only improve the candidate experience but also ensure that role expectations, onboarding practices, and early performance support are tightly aligned, enabling new hires to contribute more quickly and confidently.
Outside of his corporate and advisory roles, Corey’s values are reflected in his longstanding commitment to community involvement and mentorship. Over the years, he has contributed to organizations such as Junior Achievement, JDRF, Habitat for Humanity, Big Brothers, and Girls Inc., often gravitating toward initiatives that support youth, education, and economic opportunity. He is also an avid reader, skier, and tennis enthusiast, and he often credits his wife and two daughters as central sources of motivation and perspective. His personal life reinforces the same principles he brings into boardrooms and executive sessions: invest in people, build trust, and create environments where others can grow.
Academically, Corey holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts in History with a minor in Political Science from Wilfrid Laurier University, complemented by financial industry credentials such as the Personal Financial Planner designation and completion of the Canadian Securities Course. He also holds a Lean Six Sigma Blue Belt, bringing a disciplined, process-focused lens to operations and improvement work. This combination of humanities, finance, and process excellence allows him to see both the human and systemic dimensions of organizational challenges, making his advice particularly valuable at the board and executive level.
Today, Corey is focused on expanding the reach of North Star Talent and serving in board and advisory capacities where talent strategy is central to organizational success. He is especially drawn to growth-stage companies and organizations undergoing transformation that recognize the strategic importance of hiring and workforce design. For Corey, serving on a board is not about oversight alone; it is about helping leaders translate day-to-day hiring activity into sustained organizational value, building systems that people trust, and ensuring that every talent decision supports a clearer, stronger future for the business.
Character:
His character is rooted in service, accountability, and a genuine belief in the potential of people. He has consistently chosen roles where he can build others up, whether through mentoring HR practitioners, advocating for fair and inclusive hiring practices, or participating in community organizations. His reputation as a trusted partner comes from his willingness to listen deeply, tell the truth clearly, and stand behind his commitments even when the work is complex or uncomfortable.
Knowledge:
Corey’s knowledge spans financial services, HR strategy, talent acquisition, process design, and HR technology, giving him a comprehensive perspective on how organizations function. He draws on decades of experience across major institutions, combining hands-on operational insight with advanced people and technology practices. His ability to synthesize data, trends, and on-the-ground realities allows him to guide boards and executives with clarity and confidence.
Strategic:
Strategically, Corey is adept at connecting hiring decisions to business outcomes, transforming fragmented efforts into cohesive systems. He builds long-term roadmaps that are pragmatic yet ambitious, ensuring that people, processes, and platforms all align with the organization’s growth agenda. His work consistently demonstrates that talent strategy is not a support function but a core driver of competitive advantage.
Communication:
Corey is a clear, thoughtful communicator who is equally comfortable in executive strategy sessions, cross-functional workshops, and one-on-one mentorship conversations. He translates complex concepts about technology, process architecture, and workforce analytics into language that leaders and teams can easily act on. His communication style is grounded, respectful, and focused on building shared understanding so that decisions are made with both insight and alignment.
