Tanya Weston is a distinguished legal, compliance, and governance executive whose career spans more than eighteen years across global technology, SaaS, and highly regulated commercial environments. Known for her rare combination of strategic clarity, operational discipline, and cross-functional leadership, she has built her reputation as a trusted advisor to boards, executives, and product organizations navigating complex regulatory landscapes. Throughout her journey, Tanya has remained grounded in a core belief: that effective governance is not about restricting innovation, but enabling it responsibly, ethically, and at scale.
Tanya’s career foundation began in public service and regulatory policy, where she gained deep technical exposure to epidemiology, litigation advisory work, and health policy through positions with Health Canada and the University of Dundee. These early roles sharpened her analytical mindset and established a lifelong capability to assess legal and compliance challenges through both scientific and strategic lenses. This multidisciplinary perspective continues to distinguish her approach to risk management and decision-making in corporate environments.
Her transition into private practice at MBM Intellectual Property Law LLP marked the beginning of a decade-long evolution into a sophisticated commercial and regulatory lawyer. Tanya advised on intellectual property matters, prosecuted patents and trademarks, drafted licensing and R&D agreements, and supported clients through litigation and regulatory issues. Her work with emerging and established technology companies provided her with a deep understanding of product development lifecycles and the interplay between innovation, regulation, and market readiness.
Tanya stepped into the corporate legal world in 2012, taking on leadership responsibility at Nordion as Director of Corporate Compliance, Legal Counsel, and Chief Privacy Officer. There, she launched and managed a comprehensive compliance program spanning anti-corruption, privacy, audit readiness, and investigations. Her efforts—recognized by the Nordion Excelerator Award—demonstrated her ability not only to create sound legal frameworks but also to embed ethical decision-making into the operational fabric of a company undergoing transformative change.
Her subsequent roles as Corporate Counsel at Harris Computer Systems and Halogen Software expanded her influence across employment law, commercial negotiations, procurement, data privacy, RFP support, and global contracting. Tanya became known for her decisiveness, her composure under pressure, and her talent for bridging legal rigor with business pragmatism. These years solidified the generalist breadth she would later leverage at the executive level.
Tanya’s most defining professional chapter began at Shopify, where she spent more than six years shaping the legal infrastructure of one of the most globally recognized SaaS and e-commerce platforms. Rising to Associate General Counsel and Head of Commercial Services, she led a multidisciplinary team of 28 supporting product development, partnerships, procurement, marketing, logistics, and sales. She advised senior leadership on federal regulatory issues, privacy frameworks, AI readiness, go-to-market strategy, corporate risk management, competition matters, and investment planning. Tanya emerged as a pivotal voice within the organization—someone who could translate regulatory complexity into actionable strategy during periods of rapid product evolution and global expansion.
From Shopify, Tanya moved into the role of General Counsel, Corporate Secretary, and Data Protection Officer at Assent, a high-growth SaaS company focused on product compliance. There, she served as the chief legal officer, shaping corporate governance practices, guiding executive decision-making, and supporting the organization through acquisition and restructuring. She oversaw data protection compliance, ensured readiness for incidents and investigations, negotiated global commercial agreements, and managed all aspects of legal, compliance, employment and AI governance. Her leadership strengthened Assent’s privacy posture, enhanced board operations, and steered the company through a major inflection point with clarity and stability.
Throughout her career, Tanya has built a global footprint—supporting business activities across North America, Europe, the Middle East, India, and Asia Pacific. Her strong international orientation allows her to anticipate jurisdictional challenges and support multinational teams with cultural awareness and regulatory fluency. She remains widely respected for her expertise in GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA, PHIPA, AI governance, and complex technology contracting, as well as her ability to guide organizations through transition, M&A activity, and market expansion.
At this stage in her professional journey, Tanya is pursuing board service as a means of contributing her broad operational and legal expertise to growing technology companies seeking responsible, sustainable, innovation-driven leadership. Having supported boards as a Corporate Secretary, she understands both the governance mechanics and the strategic demands placed on directors. She brings a unique mix of commercial insight, product literacy, regulatory depth, privacy specialization, and transformational leadership—qualities increasingly essential in modern SaaS and AI-enabled organizations.
Beyond her technical credentials, Tanya is motivated by a deep commitment to ethical stewardship, cross-functional collaboration, and empowering organizations to meet the challenges of tomorrow with confidence. Her ability to move fluidly between legal, strategic, and operational contexts sets her apart as a leader equipped to add meaningful value at the board level, particularly for companies evolving within complex or highly regulated industries.
Tanya’s professional narrative is grounded in resilience, intellectual curiosity, and a belief that governance and innovation can thrive together when approached with integrity and foresight. She brings not only technical mastery but also the wisdom gained from navigating high-velocity environments, global regulatory frameworks, and organizational transformation over nearly two decades.
Character:
Tanya exemplifies integrity in every aspect of her leadership, consistently grounding her decisions in fairness, accountability, and purpose. She demonstrates resilience when guiding organizations through periods of uncertainty or change. Her commitment to ethical stewardship inspires confidence among executives, boards, and cross-functional teams alike.
Knowledge:
She possesses a deep and interdisciplinary command of commercial and corporate law, regulatory frameworks, privacy, AI governance, and SaaS operations. She applies her knowledge with precision, ensuring teams understand both the legal implications and the strategic opportunities within a given challenge. Her extensive international and cross-sector experience gives her a uniquely broad lens through which to support organizational growth.
Strategic:
Tanya excels at seeing around corners, anticipating risks, and positioning organizations for long-term success. She approaches decision-making with both analytical rigor and pragmatic clarity, ensuring her guidance is grounded in business realities. Her ability to connect product innovation with regulatory foresight makes her an invaluable contributor to any boardroom.
Communication:
Communicating with exceptional clarity, translating complex legal concepts into practical, actionable insights for technical and non-technical audiences. She fosters alignment across multidisciplinary teams through empathy, transparency, and thoughtful dialogue. Her presence in leadership settings is steady, compelling, and consistently solution-oriented.
