Page 12 - CCCA 239285 Magazine_Fall 2015

{ PROFILE }

“

When I joined Hootsuite,
I started putting my nose in a little bit of

everything because
I was the fi rst in-house and I needed to decide on
”
the scope of what
needed to be done on the legal front.

the door. And people know that from 5 That’s when the stars began to align. have a blank sheet of paper in front of you
to 7 at night is my family time. So when Vancouver-based Goldcorp held a com- and you have to build it. When I joined
I get a meeting invite for 5 o’clock, I de- petition to hire an MBA graduate as an Hootsuite, I started putting my nose in a
cline. But I am available [after that] if apprentice. Pepin applied. So did Etienne little bit of everything because I was the
people need to talk to me.” Morin, her then boyfriend. They were fi rst in-house and I needed to decide on
Pepin has also taken a few pages from fi nalists, and when Morin won the com- the scope of what needed to be done on
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg’s best- petition, they moved to Vancouver, later the legal front.”
seller, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will married and started their family. Today Pepin focuses on high-level
to Lead. Pepin has learned to say no and Through networking, Pepin joined the projects, such as strategic alliances with
not feel guilty for taking time for family. founding executive team of Canpages, an social media partners like Facebook,
She’s also aware of traits that can impede independent search company created in LinkedIn, Twitter and Google+. Global
growth. “I think I can do it all,” she admits. 2006. She was hired to lead the human compliance, global employment and
To that end she’s become better at delegat- resources department and do a little le- privacy are high priorities. Mergers and
ing, schedules quiet time daily to concen- gal work, which became “quite a bit.” The acquisitions, and managing legal work
trate on big picture items, and often works company took off, climbing from 50 em- fl ow—“We have hundreds of enqui-
remotely, and effectively, from home. ployees to over 700 and from one prov- ries coming into the department every
Combined, it’s a work culture that al- ince to countrywide. day”—all fall under her umbrella.
lows Pepin to focus on a thriving business Pepin, nicknamed “The Director of Pepin also sits at the executive table,
that receives an estimated 1,000 job ap- Everything,” became deeply involved in unlike some counsel she’s spoken with,
plications a week. Hootsuite is a tool used the business, dealt with complex issues who feel they operate in silos. “In meet-
by about 800 of the Fortune 1000 com- and wore several hats. “I fell back in love ings, it’s not necessarily about me con-
panies, helping any size of organization with law because of everything I handled tributing. It’s about hearing what we’re
and individuals manage a suite of social there.” doing… being up to speed on what’s
media accounts in one online dashboard Canpages was sold to Yellow Media coming next and being able to support
or phone app. in 2010 for $225 million. Pepin worked the velocity of the business.”
Pepin landed at Hootsuite three years at two more companies before joining A legal department, as she explains
ago. Her path after graduating with a law Hootsuite—a rare opportunity, she says, on her LinkedIn profi le, is one that is a
degree from Laval University in 2000 has to be part of two great success stories. true partner to the business, and not an
included a number of “great learning” Pepin sees herself as an innate builder, obstacle to common sense. That’s her vi-
experiences. However, she found private a fi xer. In a hyper-growth business, a per- sion: a philosophy that blends business
practice too competitive, and the work, son needs to do everything from scratch, and law in a fashion she couldn’t imagine
too isolated for her liking. Two other she explains. a decade ago.
companies, one in-house, provided the “You’re not walking into a company
taste for business that led to her MBA that has everything fi gured out. Policies
track in 2005-2006. and processes aren’t established. You just Michael Dempster is a Calgary-based writer.

12 CCCA MAGAZINE | FALL 2015 AUTOMNE