Founder & CEO @ Lever Talent | Host of The Lever Show | Helping leaders develop talent strategies that leverage a tech-empowered future.

You’re capable of more than you could ever imagine.

I started my career impatient, driven, and a little naive. In my mid-20s, I was sprinting up the corporate ladder… and got fired.  

That moment forced me to get honest about what actually changes a team: clarity, standards, and the courage to hold them.

My belief is simple: as AI and automation take more transactions, the human work matters more. Technology multiplies what’s already there (judgment, trust, focus). Software doesn’t change a team. Cadence does.

In 2022, I followed that belief and started Lever Talent. I work with CHROs, CPOs, and HR or L&D leaders to align talent with the business so teams get better because of technology instead of being buried by it. We make it practical:

• Lead with Leverage: a manager cadence that makes expectations real (and conversations easier)
• MVV that sticks: values → rituals → behavior change
• AI, but usable: 30-60-90 change plans that turn pilots into ROI
• People-ops command center: fewer dashboards, better decisions

With technology, our leverage is limitless. Let’s build teams that prove it.

DM me to get in touch.

Drew Fortin

Talent Collective

Member

HIGHER Community

Talent Huntress LLC

Modern HR & Talent Acquisition Solutions - Fractional Leadership | Retained Advisory | Project-Based Consulting

Talent Huntress is a boutique HR and recruiting consultancy that helps early-stage and scaling companies build the infrastructure to attract, hire, and retain top talent.

Services include:
• Retainer + contingency executive search
• Recruiting process design & optimization
• ATS implementation & HR tech advisory
• Employer branding & candidate experience audits

Consultant

PTR Premier Truck Rental

Premier Truck Rental (PTR) is a privately held, national commercial fleet leasing company undergoing rapid growth.

- Drove key talent strategies as a foundational hire while scaling the company from 150 to 300. 
- Member of the people executive team while reporting to the CHRO. 
- Strategic talent partner to all corporate teams, including technical functions (Software Engineering, Product, Data Science & Analytics, IT & Security), as well as Marketing, Operations, Sales, and Finance.
- Secured high-impact leadership, including COO, CIO, CFO, and CSO.

Scope: Corporate TA, HR Tech Strategy & Implementation, and Talent Management

Results:
✨ Actively contributed to the evolution of the People org, playing a key role in initiatives such as company-wide leveling, ATS transitions, intro of compensation ranges & pay transparency practices, creation of structured interview plans, and advancing job and career mapping.
✨ Introduced quality-of-hire metrics that contributed to a major improvement in retention (33% → 25%).
✨ Maintained a 95% candidate close rate by aligning role value propositions with candidate motivators and ensuring a high-touch hiring experience.
✨ Reduced agency recruiting fees by $200K through strategic in-house hiring initiatives and recruiter enablement.
✨ Led employer brand turnaround through LinkedIn Recruiter Enterprise implementation and strategic market visibility efforts; improved Glassdoor rating from 3.3 to 4.5 and Indeed rating from 2.3 to 4.1.
✨ Owned discovery, demo coordination, and business case creation for selecting and implementing HRIS and performance management platforms.
✨ Sourced, hired, trained, and led a high-performing TA team, collectively filling 70+ roles annually across corporate, technical, and ops functions while reducing average time-to-fill by 25%.
✨ Developed Talent Acquisition Wiki (Notion) and trained leaders on SOPs and tools, improving collaboration, increasing participation, and reducing ramp time.

Director of Talent Acquisition & HR Technology

Continued Education:
- Predictive Index Practitioner
- Gladieux Consulting Executive Coaching Program
- Gladieux Leadership Training - Communicate with Courage: Taking Risks to Overcome the Four Hidden Challenges

Senior Recruitment Manager

Orum

Remote B2B SaaS AI-powered dialer hyper-growth startup. 

- Foundational People Ops hire as Head of TA, securing key leadership hires including VP of Compliance & Security, VP of Engineering, and Director of Demand Generation.
- Tripled the workforce to support national growth after Series A.
- Hired key leadership and technical talent while standardizing processes and coaching hiring managers.
- Led ATS migration from Workable to Lever, enhancing pipeline visibility and reporting.
- Introduced Woven assessments to improve technical hiring accuracy and consistency.
- Launched video intro interviews to streamline GTM screening and reduce time-to-hire.
- Produced first culture video by sourcing videographers and capturing retreat footage to elevate the employer brand.
- Led a team of TA professionals, driving performance through KPIs and a culture-first screening process incorporating technical assessments.

Scope: Corporate TA, Talent Management, Employer Branding

Results: 
✨ Maintained turnover below 10% by tracking quality-of-hire metrics and aligning hiring with long-term retention goals.
✨ Boosted sourcing response rates 26 percentage points (18% → 44%) through AI-driven outreach (Findem.ai) and values-aligned recruitment marketing.
✨ Built employer brand by implementing post-hire feedback loops to capture interview experience insights and drive positive company reviews.
✨ Achieved a 90% close rate by conducting in-depth initial interviews that clarified candidate motivators and aligned expectations early, reducing drop-off and misalignment.

Redirect Health

A Phoenix-based healthcare company offering virtual healthcare and self-funded health plans.

- Foundational talent leader; absorbed HR responsibilities during COVID to reduce vendor costs and increase engagement.
- Hired 120+ employees in 2020, including VP-level leadership across Marketing, Sales, and Clinical Services.
- Built a People Ops team and launched scalable onboarding for remote clinical and corporate roles.
Introduced hybrid work policies and remote onboarding during the pandemic response.
- Implemented ATS and HRIS (iSolved), integrated Culture Index into hiring to enhance team fit and diversity.

Scope: HR, Talent Acquisition, Workforce Management

Results: 
✨ Reduced costs by $200K/year by internalizing HR, TA, and onboarding functions.
✨ Advised department leaders on org design, performance, and inclusive hiring strategies.

Head of HR & Recruiting 

Sky Recruiting, Inc.

National executive search firm specializing in the industrial and electrical distribution industry.

- Led full-cycle executive search for national clients in the industrial and electrical distribution sectors.
- Delivered tailored recruiting strategies through a high-touch, communication-first approach to candidate and client engagement.
- Partnered directly with executive decision-makers to define role requirements and hiring success profiles.

Scope: Full Cycle Executive Recruitment, Business Development

Results: 
✨ Fastest initial leadership placement in the company's 20-year history.
✨ Drove high client satisfaction and repeat business through speed, alignment, and quality of hire.

Executive Recruiter

PATHWAYS

A Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) firm aligns organizational identity with talent strategies. 

- Consulted with enterprise healthcare and human services organizations nationwide to rebuild and modernize in-house recruiting functions, both virtual and onsite.
- Led national RPO strategy and client delivery while managing recruitment operations across high-volume roles.
- Built and led a 6-person recruiting team, overseeing full-cycle hiring strategy, sourcing campaigns, and hiring manager enablement.

Scope: Talent Management, Account Management, Leadership, Client Consulting

Results:
✨ Scaled recruitment operations for multi-state clients, significantly reducing agency spend and improving time-to-fill.
✨ Strengthened client partnerships by designing custom hiring playbooks and embedding sustainable internal processes.
✨ Consistently exceeded hiring targets in high-demand, hard-to-fill markets.

Director Of Recruiting

Recruiting Team Lead

Healthcare Recruiter

Banner Health

Banner Health is one of the largest nonprofit health systems in the U.S., providing care across hospitals, clinics, and academic settings in six states.

- Provided high-level administrative support to the CFO, CHRO, CMO, and VP of Operations, ensuring seamless daily operations across clinical and corporate functions.
- Supported strategic planning efforts and executive communications for major initiatives in operations, finance, and workforce development.
- Organized large-scale provider meetings and leadership summits, coordinating logistics, materials, and communications for 100+ attendees across departments and clinical sites.

Executive Assistant

Zwillinger Greek & Knecht PC

Zwillinger Greek & Knecht is a Phoenix-based law firm specializing in construction defect litigation, corporate law, and wrongful death.

-Prepared, proofread, and filed legal documents for litigation and compliance matters, ensuring accuracy and adherence to court deadlines.
- Managed attorney calendars, scheduled hearings and depositions, and served as a liaison between clients, courts, and opposing counsel.

Legal Assistant

I bring a decade of wisdom and the trifecta of recruiting experience—RPO, executive search agency, and in-house corporate leadership—into every engagement. I help startups and scaling companies build smart, scalable talent strategies rooted in structured hiring, the best HR tech, and candidate experience best practices.

Whether you need an ATS implemented, a recruiting process rebuilt, or a fractional partner to build from scratch and lead hiring during a high-growth phase, I combine speed, strategy, and storytelling to get it done right.

I spearheaded system mapping and re-design, and single-handedly built and launched Applicant Tracking Systems. I maintain strong, long-standing relationships with leading HR technology vendors including Ashby, Greenhouse, HiBob, LinkedIn Recruiter, Teamtailor, Metaview, and more. These partnerships give your company a strategic edge when evaluating and implementing people tech solutions.

What sets me apart? I’m an energetic, strategic, and determined builder.

My last 6 years were spent as a founding HR/TA leader; I built recruiting and HR functions from the ground up, managed tight budgets, supported C-suite hiring (COO, CFO, CRO, CIO), rewrote hundreds of job descriptions, SOPs, interview frameworks, built in automation and introduced AI tools that sped up productivity. 

I coached both early-career professionals and executives on how to stand out in competitive markets with resume services and LinkedIn overhauls. I know what companies look for—and how to position your story to build your brand and get results.

Now, through Talent Huntress, I provide fractional and project-based consulting to startups, small businesses, and scaling companies. I streamline hiring, elevate the people ops function, and build lasting momentum.

If you're growing fast but your hiring systems haven’t caught up—or you're launching a team from scratch—I’m the partner who gets it built, branded, and buttoned up.

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The Battle

Drew Fortin

Neko Sombrio ⚡️

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