Former Toronto Star staffer Michael Cooke will return as its new editor-in-chief next month, the daily paper announced on Wednesday.

The appointment reunites the British-born Cooke, currently editor of the Chicago Sun-Times, with Star publisher John Cruickshank.

The two worked together in Vancouver and Chicago.

"He is a proven newsroom leader with exceptional creative talents. His first job in Canada was at the Star and as long as I've known him he has dreamed of coming back," Cruickshank said in a statement.

"He's an intensely competitive journalist and is passionate about this newspaper's enduring values and principles."

Born and raised in England, the 56-year-old Cooke began his journalism career in London and Bristol before moving to Canada in the mid-1970s.

As well as working at the Star, where he rose to assistant national editor, Cooke has worked in a host of senior editorial positions for Canadian newspapers.

His resumé includes serving as co-managing editor of the Montreal Gazette, managing editor of the Edmonton Journal and editor-in-chief of the Vancouver Province. He was also part of the editorial team that launched the National Post.

In 2000, Cooke moved to Chicago, where he and Cruickshank jointly ran editorial operations at the Sun-Times. Cooke had a stint as editor of the New York Daily News, but returned to the Sun-Times Media Group as a vice-president in 2005. He was named editor-in-chief of all the company's area publications in 2006.

Cooke replaces Fred Kuntz, who resigned from the Star in December after about two years in the post.

With files from the Associated Press