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CCCA_V4No2_Profiles-FIN.qxd:CCCA_V1No1_Profile-FIN.qxd 4/29/10 4:21 PM Page 16 Profile Bringing t Bringing E very so often,Shawn Christensen will take an hour or so variety of work that came with going in-house.“I’ve seen WestJet away from his duties to — if you’ll pardon the pun — grow up and change, and I’ve been part of that change.” ground himself. That change has seen the company grow its market share from “I’ll sometimes take a walk through the hangar and just hang out approximately 7 per cent in 2000 to 38 per cent at the end of 2009. for a little bit with the aircraft,” says Christensen, who is WestJet’s That’s up 2 per cent from 2008;over the same period,Air Canada’s vice-president of legal services and corporate secretary.In 2009,the share declined from 57 to 55 per cent,andWestJet has plans to fur- company opened its new, six-storey head office — with environ- ther narrow that gap — likely the focus of new president and CEO mentally friendly features like a rainwater retention system and Gregg Saretsky, who replaced Sean Durfy in April 2010. geothermal heating — next to their existing hangar facility at the In 2004, Christensen became corporate secretary and director Calgary International Airport. at WestJet; in 2007, he was promoted to vice-president.Along the The new location is a boon for Christensen, who earned his way, he grew the company’s legal department, which now consists pilot’s licence while studying law at the University of Calgary,in the of three lawyers. Each member of the team, he says, has a loose late 90s.When the demands of managing the airline’s multitude of degree of specialization, but — in keeping with the low-cost car- legal transactions threaten to cloud his perspective, nothing beats rier’s overall operations — “it’s a lean department, operating at communing with the planes themselves. He doesn’t get behind the maximum efficiency, and everyone gets a little bit of everything.” controls as often as he’d like, but when he does, he says,“it’s a great In addition to managing the legal department, Christensen’s way to get away from it all — literally.” “everything”in particular includes corporate governance and securi- Not that Christensen,37,doesn’t thrive on solid ground as well. ties work — right now,he’s in the midst of preparing for the upcom- The Saskatchewan native joined WestJet in 2002 as the company’s ing proxy season — government relations,transaction work,litigation, first in-house counsel,after a stint at Parlee McLaws LLP,where he labour and employment, and taking an advisory role on WestJet’s developed a practice in corporate commercial solicitation, with a many ongoing projects. Last year, he says, for example, was “hugely focus on aircraft financings. In addition to the chance to combine project-driven,”as the carrier and its wholly-owned subsidiary,WestJet his legal and aviation backgrounds at WestJet, he was attracted to Vacations,put in place new reservations systems,finalized a code-shar- the idea of becoming embedded in a growing business, and to the ing agreement with Southwest Airlines Co., which would have 16 CCCA Canadian Corporate Counsel Association SUMMER 2010