Zoya Ipek leads people strategy at IntouchCX, where she came up through talent acquisition and building HR Programs. This eventually led her to the people side of mergers and acquisitions.
Happy to help with
- I can help as a mentor across the span of people and operations, how to approach scale, org design, leadership challenges,
Worth knowing
She knows what happens to a team when a company is bought: how to keep the talent, merge two people functions based on the product road map, and coach the leaders through it. She has hired at scale for Shopify, BlackBerry, Deloitte and ATS Automation, and advises founders on building their teams strategically. Founders facing an acquisition, or building a team from scratch and want to automate or operationalize their business should write.
Story
Zoya built her career inside the Canadian companies that defined Waterloo and beyond, with stops at BlackBerry, ATS Automation and Shopify, where she helped these companies scale during rapid growth. Now at IntouchCX, another Canadian company, Zoya leads people strategy and development globally. Close to home, she mentors entrepreneurs at the Laurier Start Up Lab on talent, leadership coaching and how an acquisition actually works, and she took the stage at SocialHRCamp Kitchener-Waterloo in 2025 to talk about hybrid work, AI, side hustles and overemployment.
Canadian story
Born and raised in Kitchener Waterloo, I studied Human Resources Management and have had the good fortune of building my career with some of Canada’s leading growth companies, including BlackBerry, Shopify, and IntouchCX. Passionate about people, innovation, and entrepreneurship, I also enjoy supporting the next generation of founders and emerging businesses through mentorship and connections within the local startup community.
Highlights
- Talent acquisition and Mergers & Acquisitions at Shopify, earlier at BlackBerry, Deloitte, Sun Life and ATS Automation
- Mentor, Laurier Start Up Lab, since 2023
- Speaker, SocialHRCamp Kitchener-Waterloo 2025
- Human Resources Management at George Brown College
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