Theodore (Dela) Avle is the GC at Bruce Power, Canada’s first private nuclear generator on a 2,300-acre site along the shores of Lake Huron in Ontario. Dela leads an experienced team of high-performing legal and administrative professionals.
Before coming to this role, he worked internationally for top law firms in the US, Ghana and Canada, as well as with NGOs in Ghana and with the United Nations in Liberia, while pursuing his NCA to practice law in Canada, where he has lived for two decades.
A lifelong learner, Dela obtained his JD from Harvard Law School, and has been called to the bar in Ontario, New York State and Ghana. He is also a graduate of the Finance and Accounting for Non-Financial Manager program from the Wharton Business School of the University of Pennsylvania, and completed the mini-MBA for in-House Counsel Program at the Boston University School of Management. He also holds a master’s Certification in Project Management from York University’s Schulich Business School.
“When I was applying for law school, I also considered a PhD in English or international relations,” he says of his journey. “In the end, I decided a career in law would be far more rewarding than one as an English professor. I always had a penchant for business, and as a child, people would remark that I could be a fine lawyer one day.”
Earlier in his career in New York City, Dela expressed an interest in corporate work. This led to assignments in securities law at the law firm he was at, which turned out not to be as stimulating as he had imagined. To spice things up while considering his options, he returned to his homeland (Ghana) and took on two full-time jobs: one working for an NGO, the Ghana Center for Democratic Development; and the other in law with one of the premier law firms in Ghana, where he has a broad practice which also included litigation.
Another turning point came as he reflected on whether to specialize or be more generic, and whether to go in-house or open his own practice.
Dela chose to complete his NCA to practice in Canada — and decided to do so while working in a legal role with the United Nations in Liberia.
He then articled with Blakes in Canada in their competition division, a very specialized group with, in his opinion, one of the top teams in Canada.
A few years later, in his interview with Bruce Power as he was considering whether to move in-house, Dela emphasized his objective of combining corporate leadership and strategic thinking with the law piece. The team then knew he was the candidate they were looking for, and Dela joined Bruce Power in 2009 as senior legal counsel. He subsequently spent time in rotations and secondments in senior management roles in the Supply Chain, Projects & Engineering, and Human Resources divisions. His leadership potential was recognized by Brian Armstrong, then GC at Bruce Power. Brian was also involved in developing the Business Leadership Program for In-House Counsel.
“Brian wholeheartedly encouraged me to attend the first cohort of the program,” says Dela. “I had a fair amount of leadership training already, and when I looked at this program, I knew this was the right time and I wanted to pursue it. My company is a strong supporter of building leaders.”
Over the course of the program, Dela met many like-minded people and benefited from mentors, experts in the field, and participants who were more senior or already GCs. “For me, I have always been a businessperson who happens to be a lawyer. In the program, I met many like-minded people who are still part of my network today.”
Dela elaborates on the importance of building your value-add as in-house counsel with programs such as the Business Leadership Program: “Companies can hire legal advisors and, now with the introduction of AI, for far less than the cost of in-house counsel. You must figure out your value proposition to the company so that you become a strategic part of the business.”
Dela has written several articles for CCCA and participated in podcasts directed towards in-house counsel. He served for six years on the Association’s Board and continues to volunteer as a mentor, which he encourages others to do — especially graduates of the Business Leadership Program. He sees it as a way to “move the knowledge forward and give back to the community that helped them succeed.”