Corey Muñoz, chief learning officer at KPMG, has always been a voracious learner.
“He’s an innovative chief learning officer, living his discipline with his insatiable curiosity and desire to learn,” says Bridgette Weitzel, senior executive advisor at Booz Allen Hamilton and Muñoz’s mentor.
Muñoz’s colleagues and peers describe him as curious and open-minded — a sponge looking to soak up knowledge anywhere he can.
He began his career in talent management at BAE Systems, focusing on high potential development and succession planning before moving to learning and development where he began learning about the latest in L&D technology and gained exposure to learning management systems.
Talent management and L&D were typically not very integrated 15 years ago, especially compared to today, Muñoz says. Now, as organizations combine the two, his past experience in talent management helps him in his L&D leadership role.
Muñoz’s first learning role
Muñoz began his first L&D role at BAE Systems in 2013 as the director of leadership and high potential development. At the time, Weitzel was the head of talent and learning at the organization and the leader of Muñoz’s department.
As he maneuvered his first roles in L&D, what intrigued Muñoz about the field was its ability to make an impact on individuals, teams and the organization as a whole. He appreciates the “light bulb moments” people have in L&D: “Everyone wants to make an impact and add value, but we in L&D have the opportunity on multiple levels in the organization to do so, which is very unique,” Muñoz says.
As an example, he says, he recalls a pipeline program he ran at a previous company years ago, and to this day, he still notices the new jobs and promotions that the program participants are receiving. These are people who are reaching their potential, Muñoz says, and he is proud to have played some part in their success.
“[Muñoz] is a talent-magnet of good people,” Weitzel said. “He has an eye for talent, and just as I invested in him, he invested in other people. And they have been successes. In that sense, he’s a force multiplier.”
Developing his leadership style
Muñoz says many people have inspired him over the years. One of his doctorate professors suggested that he pursue diversity research — a topic that was relatively new and under-researched at the time, but he says the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion would later carry into future roles in his career.
Muñoz describes Weitzel as the biggest sponsor of his career. They met in 2006 when he was a senior consultant of human resources at Fannie Mae, and he later joined her at BAE Systems in 2009.
“What she taught me, in its simplest form, is to believe in myself,” Muñoz says. “She would put me in roles that she knew I was ready for even before I knew I was ready for them.”
He also credits her with encouraging him to go for his first L&D role.
“He has an eye for talent, and just as I invested in him, he invested in other people. And they have been successes. In that sense, he’s a force multiplier.
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“I didn’t think at the time that I’d be interested in learning, but she knew that I had to round out my experiences and my skills,” he said.
“That sponsorship has gotten me to where I am today. [Weitzel] taught me that sometimes, as a sponsor or coach, you have to help people see what they don’t see. And that’s invaluable.”
It’s an art form to be able to do this for a mentee, he added. How Weitzel treats him is how he now treats people who work for him.
Muñoz says he appreciates Weitzel’s active style of mentoring, and that it’s meaningful to him that she has been there for him when he needed support — not just when they already had a meeting scheduled. This is one reason why, in his current role, Muñoz is a proponent of active or on-the-job mentoring.
As his mentor over the years, Weitzel has observed Muñoz as he’s built up many strong leadership skills.
“The mark of a good leader is that they leave a lasting legacy or impression at every role they’re in,” Weitzel says.“ When that happens, you’ve hit a true need and a true solution for the organization and the people in it.”
Muñoz accomplished this at Fannie Mae, she added. The organization wanted to rethink the type of leader to put in a certain position, and Muñoz established a framework and process to do so with the talent acquisition team. It took six months to put in place. To this day, the framework and process are still being used, Weitzel says. Meanwhile, at BAE Systems, Muñoz helped create a suite of experiential programs for high potential talent, she added, which was launched globally, and also still used today.
In 2014, she helped Muñoz get a learning role at TD Bank in Canada where he would eventually lead the organization’s L&D strategy as the vice president of enterprise learning. From there, he moved on to KPMG in 2017 to become the firm’s CLO.
Leader of learning at KPMG
Muñoz has been at KPMG for around four years, and his role has evolved a lot in that time. Initially, the L&D department was smaller and more decentralized. Now, in 2022, Muñoz is directly responsible for more than 200 people. He also maintains some talent management responsibilities, such as succession planning.
One of Muñoz’s most evident leadership qualities is his curiosity, says KPMG Deputy Chair and Chief Operating Officer Laura Newinski.
“He’s constantly absorbing all that there is to learn about what it is that we’re trying to accomplish as an organization like a sponge,” she says. “He isn’t somebody that just brings a slice of either the talent or learning aspect of complex problem solving in our firm. He really takes on the complexity of situations and learns so much about it from so many different angles that he can engage in the totality of it.”
He’s very thoughtful about change, she adds. There are two types of leaders, she says: Change drivers and innovators. While change drivers implement the change, innovators think about what the organization needs to change and what the future of the organization should look like. Both are important for the success of an organization, but with his innovator mindset, Muñoz has helped KPMG adopt a lifelong learning mentality at KPMG.
“He’s constantly absorbing all that there is to learn about what it is that we’re trying to accomplish as an organization like a sponge.
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KPMG’s L&D strategy: The KPMG Lakehouse
Muñoz’s leadership philosophy is embodied by the Lakehouse, KPMG’s learning facility in Lake Nona, Florida, which opened its doors January 2020. The facility was designed with the learner 100 percent in focus, Muñoz said.
During the design process, Muñoz played a crucial role in challenging the rest of the team to consider how different elements of L&D could show up for learners in this space, Newinski says. The elements Muñoz would stress include social learning, collaborative learning and recognizing professional growth opportunities. He also wanted to have DEI come alive in this space, which would be an inclusive space both in people’s overall experiences and in what learning content they consume.
As they approached opening day at the Lakehouse, Newinski says, one thing they did for diversity was encourage business resource groups centered around underrepresented groups like Hispanic, Latino, disabled and LGBTQ+ employees. Muñoz was a big part in making this a vital part of the Lakehouse experience, Newinski says.
“Lakehouse turned into everything we could have hoped for,” she adds. Their vision came alive both visually and symbolically, and she describes it as “the embodiment of our culture in a physical space”— much thanks to Muñoz’s L&D leadership.
Muñoz’s learning philosophy
Muñoz believes a successful L&D strategy focuses on the overall experience of the learner rather than any individual course or offering. Learners should have an experience in which they feel supported and comfortable giving feedback.
For example, Muñoz says he once had an L&D team create a new digital learning curriculum, but learners could not appreciate the overall experience because they had to take it in a small, impersonal corner of the breakroom. This feedback was vital for the L&D department, which could then rethink the experience to something more effective for the learners.
Muñoz asks himself what his role was in any project that does not work out, Weitzel says. It’s unique to find a leader who looks toward themselves when something doesn’t go according to plan, she adds, but Muñoz uses these moments as a learning experience to become a stronger leader.
“He’s not afraid to be vulnerable,” she says. “He holds himself accountable, he leans in, he learns and he moves on. The accountable leader is desperately needed. We need more people who are starting with themselves [and asking] ‘What did I do to contribute to this problem?”
Newinski praises Muñoz’s curiosity and his ability to study important topics from many different angles. She says he’s a leader who wants to holistically understand complex topics and have meaningful conversations about them. For example, he helped the organization figure out a framework to address unconscious bias in succession planning.
“What [Muñoz has] been able to do is not just give us that framework of, ‘Be aware of [unconscious bias]’ but actually work on examining candidates, thinking about gaps in teams and looking at talent within the organization,” Newinski says. “He’s been able to work through unconscious bias actively in the dialogue he’s had with us. What [Muñoz} did was actually bring it to life in the actual activity of succession plan discussions, and he did it without even labeling it unconscious bias along the way.”
Blending elements of human and tech in L&D
Muñoz is most passionate about the opportunities that technology provides L&D — although 20 years ago, he wouldn’t have said the same, he added. L&D has evolved over the past few decades. While an in-person experience remains valuable in L&D, utilizing technology and innovations creates a more well-rounded experience for learners.
Weitzel noticed Muñoz’s competency with both people and technology when they worked together at both BAE Systems and Fannie Mae. She describes Muñoz’s leadership style as a “nice blend of EQ and IQ.”
”He’s wickedly smart,” she says. “It doesn’t take a lot to see that he’s a Ph.D. and an IO psychologist. As we move toward a more technology-oriented society, we need those T-shaped leaders, who know the business and are deep in their technical discipline.” A T-shaped leader, she explains, is someone who is competent at both the technical and human aspects of the job.
“He holds himself accountable, he leans in, he learns and he moves on…We need more people who are starting with themselves [and asking] ‘What did I do to contribute to this problem?
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Muñoz is very data-driven and analytic, she added. When he began at BAE Systems, analytics and data were not used in succession planning, and he helped change the process. Implementing a change in the way succession planning was done was hard, but Muñoz helped whittle down a dozen leadership skills and traits that could be measured.
Even with advances in technology, companies are first and foremost human organizations that rely on getting things done with and through people. “[Muñoz] role models that in many ways,” Weitzel says. He’s authentic. He’s accountable. He leans in and he moves on. He‘s data driven, [and] he’s not leading by gut as much as he’s checking his gut with data.I think we need more of that authenticity in our leadership. To attract and retain people, we need more leaders like Corey.”
Looking toward the future
The COVID-19 pandemic taught Muñoz that the opportunity for learning in L&D professionals is so much bigger than anyone previously thought.
“Our ability to realize that and capture that opportunity is going to be key now, and as we move forward,” he says. “Yes, we are charged with the growth and development of professionals, [but] we also can make a huge impact on people’s experiences in the organization, their sense of belonging, their sense of well-being, their support and whether they have leaders or managers who can help them navigate everything that’s going on.”
Looking toward the future of L&D, Muñoz said that connecting with larger networks of CLOs will help him determine how L&D fits into the future of work at KPMG.and others look to the future and decide how L&D will help. In an environment where there is disruption happening at such a large magnitude, here are many people in similar roles noticing and experiencing the same thing.
When Muñoz thinks of learning priorities for the future, a few key priorities come to mind:. “We’ll need multidimensional, multi-pronged efforts to support our professionals now more than ever,” he said. “That means we’re continuing to invest in in-person learning experiences and also leading-edge learning technologies. [We’re also] setting up more coaching and experiential learning, understanding how people can mentor and be an apprentice in a virtual environment.”
Muñoz and his team are now building courses that they wouldn’t have thought of two years ago. They want people to be able to maintain a strong sense of well-being and know how to have challenging conversations and build communities with others in the organization. Muñoz and his team want to encourage flexibility with a purpose through L&D.
“To say that we have pivoted, adjusted [and] been agile would be an understatement,” Muñoz says.
