Legal team size: Three

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

Over the past year, our legal team has supported several initiatives that collectively reshaped the trajectory of Doman Building Materials Group:

We structured and closed a highly complex, US$300mn cross-border purchase involving nearly two dozen newly formed subsidiaries. The deal expanded our U.S. footprint into strategic growth markets and required seamless coordination of Canadian and U.S. regulatory, financing, tax, environmental and employment considerations.

We negotiated and closed a dual-tranche CAD 365 million senior note financing for the company on an accelerated timeline amid volatile capital-market conditions. Also, we renegotiated a CA$580mn cross-border syndicated facility renewal critical to maintaining operational flexibility and pursuing our future M&A ambitions.

These transactions, combined with more than CA$1.4bn in financing work since 2021 and the earlier CA$494mn Hixson Lumber and CA$423mn CM Tucker acquisitions, have positioned the company for sustained North American growth and lifted annual revenues past CA$3bn.

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

There are many fascinating experiences I have had the privilege of being a part of over my career. Those that stand out the most result from working with business leaders and external advisors to accomplish a particularly challenging goal under extraordinarily difficult parameters. This could be timing to a closing, particularly difficult negotiations on an acquisition, or adapting to macro challenges.

Specifically, I was also honoured to be invited to join our senior team to ring the opening bell on the TSX for our IPO and for a subsequent milestone anniversary of our listing.

Obviously navigating the pandemic as an essential-industry GC was also a challenging and unique experience for me professionally. The real-time legal triage required to guide a critical infrastructure supplier with 2,000-plus employees through constantly evolving multi-jurisdictional directives and mandates and supply-chain disruption was incredibly demanding, but reinforced the value of calm, business-oriented counsel in times of uncertainty.

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

Our CEO is very driven and very passionate about our business, and so am I. Our team’s key contribution in my view is to help successfully execute and deliver on that vision. I report directly to the CEO and am a board member or officer of nearly all of our approximately 70 subsidiaries.

I participate in all board meetings and critical senior management meetings, ensuring legal perspectives can inform decisions at inception, and not merely at implementation. This spans not only acquisitions, capital markets and financings, but the day-to-day legal support of our leaders and thousands of our employees operating from coast to coast in both Canada and United States. Clear governance frameworks, tailored risk management evaluation, and disciplined litigation management have materially reduced legal spend and insulated the organisation from undue risk. In short, our team translates vision into value, operating as a strategic lever for the business.