2026 SPEAKERS & PANELISTS

Adrian Lang is Chief People and Legal Officer at Staples Canada, where she has accountability for all people, culture and talent matters, as well as all legal, regulatory and compliance matters. She also oversees internal and external communications, community impact and inclusion teams. Prior to joining Staples, she was Head of Operations and Small Business Solutions at Bank of Montreal, where she led the integration and management of Small Business payment products, as well as managed operations for the cards business in North America and oversaw operational risk and compliance for the cards business.

She also held roles as Head of Business Management for Personal and Commercial Banking, and Associate General Counsel, where she led the litigation team for P&C Canada.  

She is the recipient of the WGCC Vanguard Award, the Canadian General Counsel Award for Litigation Management, and Benchmark Litigation awarded her team Litigation Team of the year.  She also received the Community Builder Award from the Canadian Corporate Counsel Association.  Prior to joining the Bank, she was a partner with Stikeman Elliott’s Toronto litigation group, where her practice focused on commercial litigation, securities litigation, and class action litigation. She was repeatedly recognized as a leading lawyer by Lexpert, Benchmark Canada and Best Lawyers and was recognized by Lexpert® in 2008 as one of the "Leading Lawyers Under 40".

Ms. Lang currently serves on the Board of War Child Canada and the Board of Women General Counsel Canada.  She has served on numerous other boards, including the Advisory Board of the Class Action Defences Quarterly, the Board of Governors for Royal St. George’s College (where she was also Chair of the Governance Committee), The Advocates' Society, the Advisory Board of Young Women in Law, Canadian Stage Company (where she was also Chair (2013-15)), and the YWCA Toronto.  She was a Vice Chair for the 2017 Princess Margaret Ride to Conquer Cancer. She graduated from the Institute of Corporate Directors’ Directors Education Program and has her ICD.D designation.