Career Biography

As senior vice president, associate general counsel, Chris oversees several elements of Stantec’s corporate legal work including, without limitation, corporate governance, securities law, financings, both debt and equity, intellectual property, sustainability (ESG) reporting, cybersecurity, continuous disclosure, and mergers and acquisitions. With 15 years of experience at Stantec, Chris has participated in acquisitions of architecture, engineering, and professional consulting businesses with an aggregate enterprise value in excess of US$3 bn. , the most notable of which include Stantec’s acquisition of: MWH Global in 2016, a company which, at the time had 6,800 employees, the global engineering assets of Cardno Limited which, at the time, had nearly 3,000 employees, and Page in 2025, a company which, at the time had approximately 1,400 employees. Prior to his career at Stantec, Chris was a corporate securities lawyer at McCarthy Tétrault, one of Canada’s leading corporate law firms, ranked Band 1 in Corporate/Commercial: The Elite by Chambers and Partners.

What are the most significant matters, transactions, or legal initiatives you and your team have been involved in over the past 12–18 months?

Stantec acquired Page, becoming the second largest architecture firm in the United States. The transaction added approximately 1,400 design professionals to the combined company. Furthermore, Stantec announced a successful CEO transition, a project that involved legal participation in executive succession planning and corporate governance related matters.

Stantec is also a serial acquirer in the architecture/engineering/design industry, having completed over 150 acquisitions in the past 20 years. I have been part of many of these transactions and have personally participated in transactions with an aggregate enterprise value of over US$3 bn.

How do you approach managing legal risk and supporting business continuity during periods of uncertainty or disruption, particularly in highly regulated or cross-border environments?

Through Stantec’s comprehensive Enterprise Risk Management framework, we evaluate risk in context, not in isolation, particularly during uncertain times. Risks are first identified, ranked, and then evaluated through a risk mitigation lens, ensuring that acceptable, manageable, and unacceptable risks are considered in an informed way.

What approaches have you taken to modernising or digitally transforming your legal function, particularly in relation to Canadian privacy laws, cybersecurity requirements, and data governance expectations?

Stantec is a heavy user of CoPilot, and our legal team is empowered to upskill on AI technologies. At the same time, we have been deliberate and thoughtful when it comes to the deployment of AI technologies and have developed a governance framework (including policies, programs and procedures governing the acceptable use of AI) to ensure it is adopted responsibly and with due regard for privacy, data ownership and security principles.

Have there been any moments in your career as an in-house lawyer that you consider particularly defining, unusual, or formative in shaping how you approach your role today?

I have always leaned into challenges and seen them as opportunities (career accelerators!). I was lucky to be invited into the boardroom early in my career and see mentors in action.

How has your organisation’s risk profile evolved in response to geopolitical uncertainty, trade dynamics, particularly Canada–US relations, or regulatory change, and how has the legal function adapted?

Stantec operates in a truly global environment. We have over 400 office locations worldwide, and approximately 75% of our revenue is generated outside of Canada. We keep a close eye on cross border developments including, for example, setting up a task force to review and evaluate Executive Orders as they are issued by the Trump Administration. We remain agile in response to changing regulations and geopolitical tensions, ensuring that our risk is managed through a pragmatic lens.

What legal, regulatory, or business trends are currently most significant in the Canadian market, and how are you preparing your organisation to respond to them?

The use of AI and the ways in which that technology is changing the way business is done is a top priority. Shifting laws and regulations pertaining to sustainability reporting also remains at the forefront. We have dedicated legal resources to evaluate evolving regulations and report quarterly to our board of directors.

How do you see the role of Canadian in-house counsel evolving in relation to ESG priorities, including Indigenous reconciliation, sustainability reporting, and stakeholder governance expectations?

It is becoming increasingly important for in-house counsel to understand ESG-related topics of interest. Sustainability-related governance remains an important consideration and, particularly among Stantec’s European investors, is becoming an increasing expectation of shareholders. Stantec is at the forefront of ESG/sustainability, having published an annual sustainability report for 19 years and earning many accolades, including being ranked by TIME magazine as one of the world’s most sustainable companies.

What impact, if any, has AI had on your legal function to date, and how are you approaching its use in a way that aligns with Canadian regulatory, privacy, and ethical considerations?

AI is having a rapidly increasing impact on the way I deliver services and function as an in-house lawyer. I see AI as an efficiency enabler. I have set an expectation among my team members that they upskill on AI use, making it a key annual business goal, as I firmly believe the ‘lawyer of tomorrow’ will need to be one that is skilled using AI to maintain speed and access to information. Stantec has a suite of corporate policies that complement our Code of Business Conduct, ensuring AI use is adopted ethically, responsibly and in accordance with applicable law.

Are there any causes, sectors, or community initiatives in Canada that you are personally passionate about, and how has that influenced your professional perspective?

I served on the board of directors for the Canadian Mental Health Association (Edmonton Region), thus mental health and, more broadly, the wellbeing of our staff is top of mind. Stantec is community-minded and we all give back to various causes through our annual Stantec in the Community Day.

How do you determine the balance between internal legal capability and external counsel support, and what do you value most in external legal advisors in the Canadian market?

Stantec has brought a lot of its legal work in-house and has the luxury of having developed many legal capabilities to serve the organisation in house. We bolt on external support if and as needed. Often times, when external legal advisors are engaged, their mandate is limited – we usually have an answer (or a directional sense of outcome) and look to external counsel for a gut-check and/or broader market perspective. We have mature working relationships with external counsel, and so our discussion is focused and reserved for high-value work. Without a doubt, the thing I value most in external legal advisors is the ability to deliver services in a manner that fairly reflects business realities. Advisors with a strong commercial sense are so much more effective than ones that are gummed up in technical details.

How does your legal team contribute to broader business strategy within your organisation, and can you share an example where legal input materially influenced a key decision or outcome?

Our legal team is fully engrained into our business strategy. I feel as much a lawyer as I do a business leader, interchangeably swapping out my legal hat for my business hat, and vice versa. Legal input most often manifests itself in the way we approach business decisions through a risk management lens (that’s management, not elimination). I pride myself on being a pragmatic/commercial lawyer that’s able to assess legal issues in a tightly interwoven way with the business matter to which they relate.

Looking ahead, what do you see as the most significant legal, regulatory, or commercial developments shaping the Canadian in-house landscape over the next 5–10 years?