Get Off Your ‘S’ and DO Governance! with Melinda Park, Partner at BLG LLP

The Boardroom 180 Podcast

In this episode, host Munir Haque interviews Melinda Park, a partner at Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, who made history as the first woman to chair the firm's board. With over 20 years of legal experience in corporate governance, securities, and capital markets, Melinda discusses how her career journey has been driven by a fascination with how corporate entities operate. She addresses the unique role of a corporate lawyer in boardrooms and explains to Munir how they provide objective counsel and help guide critical business decisions.

Melinda talks about the importance of governance in corporate settings, particularly in preventing decision paralysis and effectively managing risks. Good governance provides a framework that allows boards and management teams to make informed decisions and work through complex issues, even when outcomes are not necessarily perfect. Melinda stresses the value of healthy tension, maintained by governance, between boards and management. She says that such tension ensures that decisions are vetted completely and not just passed without thorough consideration.

Munir and Melinda explore the evolution of governance practices and Melinda highlights how important diversity is in boardrooms. She stresses that diversity of thought is needed, which comes from varied backgrounds and perspectives that include factors of age, experience, and gender. She argues that diversity is key to addressing modern challenges such as cybersecurity and AI. The conversation ranges from how governance has changed through the years, shaped by legal developments and case law, to why having policies is not the same as acting on them, to the importance of governance in ESG. Melinda enjoys these topics and is a passionate and informed speaker, making this interview an essential listen.

About Melinda Park

Melinda has practised securities and corporate law for over 20 years, with a focus on securities, corporate finance and commercial transactions.

She represents corporate clients on securities and corporate matters, including mergers and acquisitions and reverse takeovers (RTOs), going public in Canada, and financings by way of prospectus and private placement offerings.

She regularly advises boards of directors and committees of public and private companies.

Melinda has extensive experience advising corporate clients and structuring business transactions. She regularly provides expertise on corporate governance and continuous disclosure for companies listed on both the TSX Venture Exchange and the TSX.

Melinda is a senior member of BLG’s management, and is the immediate past Chair of the firm’s Partnership Board – the first woman at BLG to hold the position. She served on the board for six years.

Melinda is also a member of BLG's Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) initiative. She was appointed to the King's Counsel in 2024.

Melinda provides legal services through a Law Corporation.

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Contact Munir Haque | ActionEdge Executive Development:

• Website: AEEDNow.com
• Linkedin: Action Edge Executive Development Inc.
  
  

Contact Melinda Park:

• Website: BLG.com
• Email: [e-mail]
• LinkedIn
  
  

Podcast Production:

• Recording: PushySix Studios
• Production Assistance: Astronomic Audio

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Transcript

Melinda Park: [00:00:03] And I think unfortunately, when situations, especially when they get tense, everybody starts to think they need the perfect solution. Everybody is perceived either pro or con or this or that, and we don't really give ourselves the grace to act as human beings in a tense situation and then try and resolve it. What governance can do is provide some of the framework such that when things are tense, when things are coming at you that you couldn't have anticipated, it gives you a bit of a framework and a guide such that some of the bad and some of the really ugly can be avoided.

Munir Haque: [00:00:42] Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of The Boardroom 180 Podcast. I'm your host, Munir Haque, an executive coach and senior board strategist. I have partnered with Action Edge Executive Development to lead their governance and political acumen division. In each episode, we meet with governance leaders and step into their boardrooms, where decisions shape the world around us.

Munir Haque: [00:01:01] Hello, everybody. Today's guest is Melinda Park. Melinda is a partner in the Securities and Capital Markets group for the law firm of Borden Ladner Gervais LLP in Calgary. She's the first woman to serve as a chair of the firm's board in their history. She's practiced law for over 20 years, representing corporate clients on securities and corporate matters, including mergers and acquisitions, reverse takeovers, going public in Canada, and financing by way of prospectus and private placement offerings. She advises clients on structuring business transactions, corporate governance and continuous disclosure for companies listed on both the TSX Venture Exchange and the TSX. Melinda regularly advises boards of directors and committees of public and private companies. In 2017, the Women's Executive Network named Melinda one of the 100 Most Powerful Women in Canada. She's also been recognized in the 2015, 2017, 2018, and 2019 editions of The Best Lawyers in Canada. And she has her ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors. Welcome to the show, Melinda. Thanks for joining us.

Melinda Park: [00:02:16] Thank you very much. Pleasure to be here.

Munir Haque: [00:02:18] Maybe what we can do is start a little bit more about your background and BLG the law firm, what kind of services you provide.

Melinda Park: [00:02:26] Oh, sure. Well, the beautiful thing about BLG, it's Borden Ladner Gervais, but BLG rolls off the tongue a little easier, is that we are one of Canada's largest law firms, and sometimes we are the largest. I think it all depends on how the numbers go on any given day and how many students we have, and that gives us the luxury of being able to provide our clients with access to legal advice all the way across the country, both our national and international clients. So even if you're regionally based, but you have something that gets impacted in another province, we can be there. And definitely if you're international, we can be there on a national platform. So that's a real, I think, valuable platform for me as an individual lawyer then, because when we're giving counsel to our clients, specifically when you know you have the whole team behind you in all areas of expertise, it makes it a little easier to go through the complexities that corporate clients are having nowadays.

Munir Haque: [00:03:25] I can imagine that. I'm sure you didn't start out in corporate governance, or maybe you did, but what drew you to the corporate end or spectrum of the profession?

Melinda Park: [00:03:36] So my career has been going for quite a while, a...