The Compass North Story
Compass North is a partnership – one that started many years before the company itself. In 2004, we started working together: Tony as President of Fleming College; Sonia as VP, initially for Human Resources. Our experience at Fleming – a college with a great history and even more potential – provided opportunities for transformation. This experience made us less oriented to being observers of change and much more interested in figuring out and implementing change strategies.
We must admit that we brought different backgrounds. Tony’s background was founded in teaching and college education; Sonia’s in private enterprise (marketing and human resources). But we found much in common as we developed a “public enterprise” – an organization with a solid public service commitment but with some of the thinking and agility of private enterprise.
We also found a lot in common in our thinking about people in organizations. We value people. We believe that the talents and engagement of employees are keys to organizational success.
In our leadership roles we increasingly focused on strategy and redesign – sometimes parallel to what was happening at competing organizations; sometimes forging another path. We have brought this background to Compass North which we created in 2018 following completion of our leadership roles. We enjoy helping our clients develop bold and strategic solutions.
We realized that what needs to be done exceeds our capabilities. So we proposed a partnership with an exceptional organization. We are delighted to partner with Mandrake Executive Recruitment. With both a national and international profile, Mandrake holds a fundamental belief that only the best can make a real difference and specializes in finding exceptional people who are the right fit for each organization. Two partners, Daphne Bykerk and Louise Daigneault are excited to work with us to bring a new customized approach to hiring in the college sector.
We also needed complementary expertise in quite a different area. So Catia Skinner has become our associate. Catia is a creative marketing professional with international experience. She focuses on continuous, improved business performance through design thinking, strategic planning and brand identity. We appreciate Catia’s professional capabilities plus the exceptional talents in her company, Mega Experience.
Our story is founded on values. We explore with curiosity and courage so that client issues are fully understood, ideas debated and meaningful solutions presented. We focus on clients while adding value, allowing us to build relationships and use our skills and experience to bring new ideas to our joint work. We work with integrity and ingenuity, choosing the right and best solution, not the expedient one.
Our website outlines five ways in which we can work with a variety of organizations facing a common need: to navigate through change to new destinations. If this interests you, we would be excited to talk with you about your plans for a new destination and how to get there.
Tony Tilly and Sonia Crook,
Partners, Compass North Consulting
Photo Credit: @FlemingCollege
