Senior Director of HR for Canada and Brazil Kim Currah emphasizes communication, learning on the job
As Senior Director, Human Resources for medical and dental supply company Henry Schein’s Global Distribution Group in Canada and Brazil, Kim Currah leads people strategy for more than 3,200 employees between those two countries.
And her journey to this role is grounded in learning, empathy, and a willingness to “put up your hand” before you feel completely ready, she says.
Currah’s HR journey began at Sheridan College’s HR management program and an internship with Canadian Tire Financial Services. She says that placement grew into nearly a decade with Canadian Tire and laid the foundation for a 26-year HR career across talent acquisition, compensation and benefits, and employee relations.
A pivotal relationship with the HR leader at Canadian Tire who hired her helped turn that early experience into a defined career path. Her former manager later joined Henry Schein and, when an opportunity arose there in 2010, she reached out and Currah joined as manager, compensation, benefits and HRIS.
“When I thought about my experiences at Canadian Tire, the area that I enjoyed the most was compensation and benefits,” says Currah. “So it felt like the right time and a good fit for me – and a few years later, I took on an expanded role where I became the manager, staffing and rewards, then Director, Human Resources, and then in 2019 I became the senior director of human resources – at that time I also became a member of the Canadian executive team.”
Today, Currah serves as Senior Director of HR for the Global Distribution Group in Canada and Brazil and co-leads corporate social responsibility initiatives in Canada – a dual role that keeps her close to both strategy and community, she says.
Wellness and talent planning as strategic levers
Currah points to two areas of success that she believes have reshaped Henry Schein’s Canadian people strategy: organizational wellness and talent planning.
On wellness, the turning point came when the organization “took a stance on the importance of the wellbeing of our employees” and built it into the company strategy, according to Currah. “[The manager of employee relations and wellness] had some really great ideas, like having a wellness committee across the organization and wellness champions at each location to make sure ideas were followed through at the local level,” she says.
That structure, backed by senior leadership, helped move wellness to a core part of the employee value proposition and reinforced Henry Schein’s emphasis on organizational health, according to Currah.
The second milestone has been building a disciplined approach to talent planning in Canada using Henry Schein’s global talent framework.
“I partner with all of our leadership team to identify our ready-now, ready-for-later, and ready-for-future employees for various management positions within our organization or roles that are key to our business success,” she says. “And we've really come a long way over the last couple of years – the leadership team knows the process, they understand it, and they see the value in planning for our future and ensuring that we're working with the individuals on developing their skills so that if an opportunity does come available, they are prepared to move into that role.”
According to Currah, she and her team have been able to demonstrate to senior leadership that many positions have been filled internally because of this talent planning work.
Navigating global HR
Currah’s role has expanded this past year to include HR leadership for Brazil, adding new complexity to her portfolio. The shift brought a steep learning curve around legislation, culture and communication – starting with language.
“I don’t speak Portuguese, so I asked myself, ‘How am I going to do this?’” she says. She drew on experience supporting Henry Schein’s operations in Quebec, where English and French already required careful, inclusive communication – but translation tools are no substitute for local expertise, she says.
Brazil’s complex labour laws and regulatory environment make local partnership essential, says Currah. “I have a great deal of trust in the local leadership team and the broader HR team,” she says. “For me, it’s about consulting with them as needed and empowering them to continue to do the things they’re doing because they’re managing it very well.”
The global scope of Currah’s role has reinforced a key element about HR leadership in multinational organizations: central teams set frameworks and expectations, but sustainable solutions are cocreated with local leaders who understand their markets.
“The people of Brazil tend to really value relationships and trust-building before getting to business discussions, and that’s how I've always operated as a leader,” she says. “But doing that virtually or through MS Teams, I found it was difficult, so recently I had the opportunity to visit a couple of the offices in Brazil, and that really made the difference in building the connection with so many team members – we hosted team meetings, we toured the facilities, got to understand what's going well, what are some of their challenges, and spent a lot of time getting to know the team.”
Keeping connected with local leadership and being the bridge to business leadership also helps alignment with the organization’s overall global business goals, says Currah.
“Building HR strategies for the regions that I'm overseeing, I take the same approach as I do aligning our goals and objectives within HR,” she says. “I need to ensure that the objectives and goals that I'm creating for my team are also aligned with the global HR strategies, so by working closely [with the executive team] to understand the global business strategies, I can tailor our goals for each of the markets that I'm supporting and ensure that we can help our business continue to advance and grow.”
Currah also says that, as a member of the executive team, she often has the responsibility of ensuring communication with her team and employees is considered. “Sometimes we're moving quickly and we're making decisions that often have an impact on the team, so I tend to be the one to say, ‘How are we rolling out this change? How are we going to communicate it to ensure that the change is successful?’” she says. “It's taking into consideration all of our key stakeholders and figuring out who needs to be informed and when, so that we're doing it at the right time and in the right way.”
Putting up your hand for opportunity
Currah credits her HR leader back at Canadian Tire who she later joined at Henry Schein, who encouraged her to embrace growth opportunities even when she didn’t feel like an expert. “When I was transitioning into her role, I shared with her that I was concerned there were certain gaps that I had,” Currah recalls. “She said to me, ‘You’re capable, you have the potential to learn those areas as well – don’t feel like you need to be the expert in every single area of HR, make sure you build a team around you that can help support all of the different areas of HR, and you'll be successful.’”
She says she took that to heart and is still learning to this day: “It's okay that I don't know everything, and that's the process – we continue to learn.”
This philosophy led to her current responsibility for two countries within the global organization, says Currah. “At the beginning of last year, [the president for Henry Schein Canada] took on an expanded role to oversee Brazil, and I put up my hand and said I'd be interested in becoming his HR business partner for Brazil if there was an opportunity,” she says. “It took a little bit of time and we needed to make some changes internally to make that happen, but in July 2025 I officially took on that expanded role.”
Over 15 years at Henry Schein, Currah has advanced through several roles without needing to leave the organization. “Sometimes people feel they need to leave a company to advance their career, and for some that may be the case,” she says. “But for me, I’ve been able to pursue my dreams and aspirations staying in the organization.”
Her core message to emerging HR leaders goes back to her mentor’s advice about not dismissing opportunities because you still have things to learn. “Even though you may not feel that you have all of the skills required for the job, it’s okay to still put up your hand and pursue the opportunity,” she says. “You can learn while you’re going through the process and taking on additional responsibilities – don’t be afraid to pursue your dreams, because you never know, it might work out.”
