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CCCA_V3No3_Profiles-FIN.qxd:CCCA_V1No1_Profile-FIN.qxd 9/16/09 9:46 PM Page 16 Profile Anne Giardini doesn’t believe in choosing between a legal career and the creative life. I t is not an exaggeration to call Anne Giardini a natural- their needs,or how they live or how they see the world,”she says. born storyteller. Giardini is a curious hybrid in the corporate world: a hard- After all, Giardini, a novelist and president of the driving business executive who applies equal effort and attention to both her creative and professional lives. It might be tempting Canadian subsidiary of forestry giant Weyerhaeuser Company, is the daughter of literary icon Carol Shields. for every lawyer who has an unfinished manuscript tucked in a Growing up, she watched her mother manage a busy to view her as a high-achieving anomaly,but she is an inspiration household while churning out award-winning novels, and says drawer or musical instrument collecting dust in the basement. she always knew she would be a writer. Still, there is no denying Anne Giardini is driven.“I have lots But her keen interest in people and their stories also helped of energy.Probably an overabundance.I have to do something or power a top-flight legal career that has taken her from the ranks I go mad,” she told The Globe and Mail earlier this year. of in-house counsel to the executive suite. Her list of accomplishments is extraordinary: appointed presi- “I want to hear the narrative of whomever I’m dealing with, dent of Weyerhaeuser in 2008 after serving as vice-president ROBERT KARPA whether it’s another company or customer, or I won’t understand and general counsel and assistant general counsel; author of two 16 CCCA Canadian Corporate Counsel Association FALL 2009