Cory Shade is a results driven business leader at Apple Leisure Group, a leading best-in-class all-inclusive resort management, travel and leisure management group.  As the Chief Legal Officer of Apple Leisure, Ms. Shade, is a member of the executive committee responsible for leveraging and expanding six distinct businesses in new and existing global markets and identifying strategic investment and acquisition opportunities.  She leads the company’s worldwide legal function. Ms. Shade brings the experience of a proven and well-rounded senior executive with international and multicultural perspective to Apple Leisure Group.

Before joining Apple Leisure Group in August 2017, Ms. Shade served as EVP, General Counsel & Secretary of Perry Ellis International, Inc. (NASDAQ), where she led the company’s worldwide legal function since 2006.  She was a member of the senior executive team responsible for the rollout and implementation of key strategic and new market initiatives in ecommerce, digital and social media, and the entry and expansion into business markets in Asia, Latin America and Europe through direct investment, joint ventures and acquisitions. At Perry Ellis, she was also responsible for the oversight of the company’s privacy and cyber-security initiatives, business integrity programs, and global risk management.

Prior to Perry Ellis, Ms. Shade served as General Counsel & Secretary for BG Investments, where she was responsible for telecom related business initiatives in the Balkans and Latin America, and FirstCom Corporation (NASDAQ) where she led the company’s legal function in the U.S. and Latin America and advised the company through its merger with AT&T Latin America.  Ms. Shade also worked for several years as counsel with Kilpatrick Stockton (now known as Kilpatrick Townsend), where she served as General Counsel to existing and startup ventures, and assisted domestic and international companies with their global expansion efforts including via mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, and several years as associate counsel at Steel Hector & Davis (merged into Squire Patton Boggs) where she focused on project finance including energy projects, aircraft finance and M&A in the U.S. and Latin America.

Ms. Shade serves, or has served, on numerous boards of for-profit and not-for-profit organizations including, but not limited to the: Student Loan Marketing Association (also known as Sallie Mae); Oakland Park, FL – City Pension Board; and Northridge Hospital, a Tenet Healthcare facility. She served as an adjunct professor of ethics and corporate governance in the PhD program at Lynn University.

Ms. Shade earned her J.D. and M.B.A. from Washington University in St. Louis, and graduated from George Washington University with a B.A. in economics.  She is a member of the Florida State Bar and the Missouri State Bar.  She is a native English and Spanish speaker with an understanding of Portuguese.