2026 Mid-Market Excellence Award Finalist

Ilan Mints is General Counsel and Director of Corporate Strategy & HR at Downtown AutoGroup, a Toronto-based automotive retail group operating 10 franchise dealerships, representing 13 brands and nearly 400 employees.

Ilan joined DAG in 2020 as its first in-house legal leader, at a pivotal moment: the group was launching its Downtown Toronto Autoplex, a first-of-its-kind multi-dealership facility consolidating eight standalone operations under one roof within a mixed-use urban complex. He led the legal and governance integration of that transition and built the policy, compliance, contracting, and HR infrastructure through which the group operates.

Ilan’s mandate expanded beyond legal advice. Working inside senior leadership, Ilan helped reshape the operating architecture to turn a group of stores into a unified, scalable enterprise. His mandate spans governance, employment, consumer and regulatory compliance, litigation, procurement, commercial leasing, and operational design.

In 2025, Ilan continued building DAG’s in-house legal capacity, leading the renewal and restructuring of DAG's financing, major commercial leasing and expansion initiatives, joint-venture and governance matters, internal restructuring and significant commercial and public-sector agreements.

Recognized by Lexpert and active within the in-house bar, Ilan represents the modern GC: commercially embedded, operationally credible, technology-forward, and central to the business’s decision-making, risk-management and growth.