“If there is anyone who made an impact in shaping LRC the way we are today, it is Jolie Lin.”
— Simon Fish, General Counsel, BMO Financial Group
Jolie Lin, Founder & CEO
Jolie is the Founder & CEO of Linnovation Works. She is a creative and collaborative thought leader who truly impacts the organizations she serves. Her calm, direct and innovative approach enhances both effectiveness and productivity in whatever capacity she’s engaged, and she brings tremendous experience and insight to each matter she approaches.
Jolie was recently commissioned by Women General Counsel Canada (WGCC) to support its board in designing and launching General Counsel University (GCU), a leadership program to enhance competencies, knowledge, attributes and skills necessary for legal leaders to become the “Most Sought” GCs. GCU received great interest from media and other organizations, and filled to capacity almost immediately with two cohorts of incredible women GCs from across Canada.
Before founding Linnovation Works & GCU, Jolie worked at Bank of Montreal for more than a decade beginning in 2009. As the Head of Innovation, she led global initiatives for BMO’s Legal & Regulatory Compliance group. She spearheaded projects to optimize resources and bring greater efficiencies. She established functions for project management, records and information management, continuing professional development, centralized litigation support (eDiscovery and legal holds), internal knowledge-sharing systems, and effective and integrated board reporting. Jolie was also accountable for managing legal and regulatory risk for BMO’s Technology & Operations functions, including cybersecurity, privacy, procurement, technology outsourcing, brand IP, marketing, advertising and social media.
In her last role at BMO, Jolie was the Chief Legal Officer for its Canadian Personal and Commercial Banking businesses. As VP & Deputy General Counsel, she was accountable for managing legal and regulatory risk relating to all of BMO’s retail branches (~900) across Canada, personal and corporate credit cards, its commercial loan portfolio, Corporate Finance Division, Treasury & Payment Solutions and Special Accounts Management. Jolie led her team in managing significant regulatory exams and reviews, cyber attacks, unprecedented consumer class actions, innovative new product development, and countless customer questions.
Prior to joining BMO, Jolie was a partner in the Financial Services Group at Osler, Hoskin and Harcourt LLP. She was also Associate General Counsel at Vale Inco Limited responsible for Knowledge Management immediately before joining BMO.
Jolie received her LLB from Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto. She is a board member of Canada’s National Ballet School (and Chair of its Nominating and Board Governance Committee), and of Women General Counsel Canada. Jolie is also the Executive Director of The National GC Network, a not-for-profit organization founded by GCs and Senior In-House Legal Leaders who self-identify as Indigenous, Black or People of Colour, whose mission is to advance equity, diversity and inclusion values in their organizations and the legal community.
What people say…
“If there is anyone who made an impact in shaping LRC the way we are today, it is Jolie Lin, Vice-President & Deputy General Counsel, Canadian Personal and Business Banking. I've benefitted enormously from working closely with Jolie during her decade with the bank and come to admire her calm, direct and innovative approach no matter the circumstances. Jolie brought a high standard of leadership and professionalism to everything she took on. From her current role, building a strong legal team to navigate the intricacies of our retail banking business in Canada in the face of significant regulatory change, to her initial role, creating our Technology & Operations Legal and Knowledge Management (KM) team where she enhanced both our effectiveness and productivity by, among other things, skillfully leveraging how we use technology, internalizing eDiscovery, and leading our efforts to report in an accessible and meaningful fashion.”
— Simon Fish, (former) General Counsel, BMO Financial Group
“Having worked with Jolie at BMO for 6+ years through a variety of roles, I can tell you that you will find no one more creative and collaborative to help you address your challenges. Jolie brings tremendous experience and insight to every matter she approaches – but always with a keen willingness to learn and explore different perspectives – and as a result, the things she has a hand in are always better than where they started. Jolie and I worked together on a variety of matters – from organizational design and team staffing matters, to technology design and development, to process improvement and implementation – and in every venture, she brought her considerable talents, drive and energy to envision, iterate and deliver. With her wonderful sense of adventure and sense of humour, Jolie is a pleasure to work with and you will always be enriched from spending time with her. I am excited to have her involved in developing and driving initiatives in my new organization – and I know you would benefit from her talents too!”
— Bindu Cudjoe, SVP, Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary, Laurentian Bank of Canada
I thoroughly enjoyed working with Jolie during my years at BMO — I found her always to be creative and innovative, keenly interested in helping people work smarter and more productively. I particularly admired her ability to transform our board reporting process—everything from leveraging one set of reports for multiple committees to ensure consistency of message and better use of executive time, to integrating key messages from leaders and coaching crisp and insightful writing. I could always count on her to be an engaged and thoughtful peer at our leadership table, on topics ranging from diversity, equity and inclusion, to enterprise risk management and regulatory compliance.