PROFILE
The shift from litigator to tomorrow's leader
Jody Becker has embraced the entrepreneurial spirit at EllisDon Corp. By Vawn Himmelsbach
Jody Becker's parents told her that she came out of the womb arguing and that's how she ended up at law school. Becker, who at 37 years of age won the
Tomorrow's Leader Award at the 2011 Canadian General Counsel Awards in Toronto this past June, has clearly found her path. Now vice president and gen- eral counsel at EllisDon Corp. — one of Canada's construction giants — she was initially drawn to law by the prospect of becoming a litigator, which she did for many years. Now, however, she's hung up her robes in favour of resolving situations before they go to court. When she made the transition to in-
house counsel and joined EllisDon in 2007, Becker worked with a legal staff of two, including herself. Despite the reces- sion, the company has grown by at least 50 per cent since she joined, and her role has also grown during that time. Now heading up a legal team that includes three other lawyers, she helps to secure financing and manage risk for deals worth millions of dollars. Expecting to do a lot of litigation man-
agement, Becker's role quickly changed into one that involved more corporate work with a heavy focus on public-pri- vate partnership (P3) projects. A few of
It's a company that says it's entrepreneurial
and it really is, so the fact that I was a litigator didn't matter — I can litigate today and do project management tomorrow. JODY BECKER, EllisDon Corp.
INHOUSE OCTOBER 2011 • 35
