Manijeh Colabella,
Senior Governance Consultant, Watson Advisors Inc.

Manijeh is a senior governance consultant and lawyer at WATSON Advisors Inc. where she helps strengthen and ready boards of directors and their committees and individual directors to shape the future of their organizations. Through governance reviews, board and director evaluations, governance structure and framework development, facilitated conversations and governance education, Manijeh works with boards on a wide range of complex issues of governance and dynamics. With over 25 years of experience as a leader in governance and law, Manijeh brings a collaborative, solutions-oriented approach to Boards and their directors and works across all sectors, including private and public companies, not-for-profit organizations, charities, pension and benefit plans, regulatory bodies, member-based organizations, and Crown and public sector organizations.

As a former Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary of a TSX-listed equity capital provider to private companies across North America, Manijeh has a passion and unique expertise for navigating private and public companies and not-for-profit corporations through transition and change. With extensive experience as a director, corporate secretary and general counsel and a deep knowledge of emerging governance issues, including environmental, social and governance (ESG) and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, Manijeh provides thoughtful insight and expertise to boards and management teams that are practical, effective and enhance their organization’s success. She is also a seasoned tax and corporate law specialist, with extensive experience advising public, private, family, and not-for-profit enterprises of varying size, complexity, and stage of transition with respect to governance, succession and continuity.

Manijeh holds a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting Concentration) and is a member of the law societies of British Columbia and Alberta. She also has her ICD.D certification through the Institute of Corporate Directors as well as her TEP (Trusts and Estates Practitioner) designation through the Society of Trusts and Estates Practitioners. She is past co-chair and current volunteer with the Vancouver steering committee of WCM (Women in Capital Markets), a mentor with Women Lawyers’ Forum, a member of the ICD’s BC Chapter Executive, and sits on the boards of White Rock Museum & Archives and the VSO School of Music.