Legal team size: ten

Christelle Gedeon is an accomplished public company executive, transformational legal leader, and strategist, with a rare combination of scientific, legal, and corporate governance expertise. She has built and led global teams in high-growth, highly regulated industries, advising Boards and C-suites on capital markets, business transformation, strategy, governance, and regulatory compliance.

She currently serves as Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary for Canopy Growth Corporation (NASDAQ/TSX), overseeing global legal, M&A, corporate development, regulatory, and IT compliance across more than 30 subsidiaries in North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. Under her leadership, the company restructured $700 million in debt, launched a novel U.S. entry structure, and delivered a $190 million EBITDA turnaround through strategic divestitures.

Previously, she was CLO at The Metals Company (NASDAQ), guiding the company through its de-SPAC transaction and helping establish its ESG governance platform. At Aphria Inc., she played a key role in completing the reverse merger with Tilray, creating a $7 billion entity with operations in over 20 countries, and successfully defended the company through a hostile takeover attempt and short-seller crisis.

Christelle holds a dual law degree from McGill University, a Ph.D. in Clinical Pharmacology from the University of Toronto, and is certified by Competent Boards with the GCB.D ESG governance designation. She is dual-barred in Ontario and Quebec, fluent in French and English, and brings extensive cross-border expertise in M&A, finance, strategy, and governance.

She continues to be a sought-after voice on corporate strategy, M&A, corporate governance, risk oversight, and ESG leadership.

What projects are you most proud to have worked on over the past 12 months?

Established and completed the creation of Canopy USA, a novel corporate structure enabling the company to advance its strategy in the US market ahead of federal cannabis legalisation, while maintaining its NASDAQ listing and compliance with applicable federal laws. This required extensive negotiations with the SEC, Nasdaq, and federal and state regulators to execute the creation of Canopy USA and to complete the acquisition of the assets within it. Canopy Growth remains the only company with a NASDAQ listing and a deconsolidated subsidiary operating in the US THC plant-touching business, combining brand and a multistate operator within a single operating model.

Have you had any experiences during your career as a lawyer that stand out as particularly unique or interesting?

In addition to having closed over 38 M&A transactions, including two of the largest in the cannabis sector (Nuuvera/Aphria and Aphria/Tilray), and raising over US$3 billion, the most significant experience to date has been the execution of the business transformation plan and Canadian profitability project at Canopy Growth. This project resulted in the divestiture of 15 operating facilities, affected 1,800 employees, and involved the winding up of five operating business lines, as well as negotiations to restructure the company’s principal debt obligations from $USD750 million to less than US$100 million. Collectively, these initiatives had a $USD191 million impact on Adjusted EBITDA, improving it from – $USD200 million to – $USD9 million in under 24 months.

This project also provided the opportunity to lead a special investigation to correct a significant accounting misstatement relating to the company’s Biosteel subsidiary, including the remediation of the financial restatement and the subsequent sale of that operating subsidiary.

How does your team contribute to the overall business strategy of the company?

Each of the teams reporting to me consists of professionals with strong operational acumen and regulatory expertise. They are key partners to each business leader and are held accountable for the success and timely execution of the business in achieving its revenue objectives. More importantly, this year, as part of a significant cost-saving initiative aimed at achieving positive adjusted EBITDA, my team alone was able to deliver over a quarter of the total company savings by managing substantial portfolios of litigation, employment, IP and general corporate commercial matters on a flat-fee basis.