Page 12 - CCCA 226419 Magazine Fall 2014

{ ProFile } a canadIan wIth InternatIonal Appeal By Michael Dempster Christine Healy has negotiated major deals in her career, including multi-billion dollar oil and gas transactions off Canada’s east Coast. it’s thrilling work. But she’s quick to remember a smaller deal she negotiated as a teenager that’s paid dividends for a lifetime. he deal? She convinced a wonderful practice in Calgary and St. John’s; move but intimidating nun to sign papers in-house as a natural resources lawyer for tthat allowed her to apply for, and the Newfoundland and Labrador govern- eventually earn, a two-year scholarship to ment in 2005: and then join the govern- attend Pearson College, a pre-university ment’s business side where she co-led ne- school in Victoria. gotiations on the $15-billion White Rose The nun, the principal at Healy’s all- extension agreement, followed by the girls Catholic school in St. John’s, was $28-billion Hebron deal in 2008. adamant that Healy’s marks weren’t good “I get asked a lot about switching over enough. After frst “begging and pleading,” from law to the business side. How did I Healy found a solution. make the transition? I just did. I’m sure I “It completely changed my life from didn’t always do the best of jobs at every that moment forward,” says Healy, now moment of the process but I learned all living in Houston and vice president of the way and I got better.” commercial and business development in Healy joined Statoil’s St. John’s offce North America for Statoil, a Norwegian in 2010 because there were few provincial multinational oil and gas company. deals on the horizon and the business side “I said, ‘Sister if no one with better of oil and gas was in her blood. Two years marks applies, will you sign my papers?’” ago she relocated to Houston for a new She conceded. Healy’s prayers were an- job. “We jumped at it,” she says, referring swered and at 16 she moved across the to her husband, two sons, a Boxer dog and country to join students from 75 coun- one “big aggressive cat.” tries where she was stimulated academi- The timing wasn’t perfect. Evan, 12, cally and socially. and Garrett, 9, were in the middle of Later, she would thoroughly enjoy her school and still miss their “long-tailed” studies at Osgoode Hall Law School where Newfoundland family of grandparents, she graduated in 1996; work in private aunts, uncles and cousins. Competitive 12 CCCa Magazine | Fall 2014 autoMne