Christine Healy
In conducting high-stakes negotiations with giant oil companies like Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp., Christine Healy says the key to a successful outcome is knowing yourself, and what really matters.
"I tell people who are new to the negotiation team that you have to imagine that you've set a beautiful table, with all the things that are important to you, and the other side have done exactly the same thing," says Ms. Healy, a 1996 Osgoode Hall Law School graduate who joined the Newfoundland and Labrador department of natural resources in 2007. "The whole negotiation process is about picking things up off the table and deciding whether you really need them or not. Even though you are very attached to your mother's crystal glass, it may have to go. You have to take a very careful look at what you really want to have on that table."
Given that approach, Ms. Healy and her 18-person team last February concluded the Hibernia South Project, one which will mean $13-billion in direct revenue to the province. It's the third such deal that Ms. Healy was instrumental in producing: in 2007, there was the $15-billion White Rose Extension Agreement, followed by the $28-billion Hebron Project in 2008.
"We're a province of 500,000 people, and we've had significant challenges in the past," says Ms. Healy, who shared the negotiation leadership with Jim Keating, vice-president, oil and gas, of St. John's based Nalcor Energy, a crown corporation and fourth largest electricity generator in Canada. "These projects are an opportunity to be game-changers. Everyone on the team is a passionate advocate for Newfoundland and Labrador, and we see the potential that these projects have."
When she was asked to co-lead the Hebron negotiations, it was an offer she could not refuse, even though there was a formidable obstacle in that the first set of Hebron talks came to an impasse. Looking to work out a deal in Toronto, regarded as neutral ground by the provincial government and Chevron Corp., of San Ramon, Calif., Ms. Healy ended up spending four months working out a formal agreement.
That presented a challenge for the mother of two sons, now aged 7 and 5, since Ms. Healy initially took on the government position so she could better manage her work-life balance. But Ms. Healy pulled through, and gives credit to her husband, Craig Young, an engineer, and her mother, Cathy Healy.
"It's a lot of hours," says Ms. Healy, adding that during the lengthy late-night talks she would consult a cheat sheet to see what a certain sum would finance in the province. "Whenever you get tired, you'd flip to that page, and say, 'Well, I think I will hang in a bit longer - for that MRI machine or autism program for kids under 12.' "
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