Global consultancy strengthens its executive team as legal and procurement departments shift from AI pilots to full-scale deployments
Stella Legal announced the company has appointed enterprise tech veteran Enrique Mertins as Chief Technology Officer and legal AI leader Chris Williams as Director of Revenue, strengthening its executive team as legal and procurement departments shift from AI pilots to full-scale deployments.
The company said the dual appointments reflect rising demand for partners who can guide organizations through AI readiness, implementation, security, and long-term adoption—not just tool selection. CEO and Founder Tyson Ballard called the hires “a clear signal of where the market is heading and what our customers now expect.”
“Adding Enrique and Chris to the Stella Legal team reinforces our commitment to defining how modern legal teams adopt and scale AI—and to ensuring customer impact remains at the center of that shift,” said Ballard.
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Based in the U.S., Mertins brings more than two decades of experience across AI, cybersecurity, cloud platforms, and enterprise technology, with prior roles at American Express, Jackson Hewitt, and Microsoft. He also serves in the U.S. Army Reserve as Commander of an Innovation Unit focused on AI/ML, cybersecurity, simulation, and medical IT modernization.
As CTO, he will oversee Stella Legal’s technology strategy and lead development of secure, scalable platforms that support AI adoption in legal and procurement environments.
“Enrique has built and operated technology in some of the most complex and regulated domains,” Ballard said. “His applied AI and enterprise platform experience will directly benefit customers preparing to operationalize AI at scale.”
“Stella understands what it takes to drive real outcomes with AI,” Mertins said. “I’m excited to help build technology that enables legal teams to adopt AI safely, intelligently, and with measurable impact.”
Williams joins from Legora, where he helped build the company’s commercial engine during global expansion. His background includes enterprise pipeline development, partnerships, go-to-market execution, and community building.
Ballard said Williams brings “a rare mix of community instinct and enterprise sales pragmatism” at a time when legal teams are prioritizing ROI and operational results.
“Legal and procurement teams are moving fast from curiosity about AI to expectations of performance,” Williams said. “Stella is built for that journey—from readiness assessments to implementation and sustained adoption. I’m excited to help scale a growth engine and practitioner community that reflects how teams want to evaluate and deploy next-generation technology.”
Based in the Netherlands, Williams will lead enterprise pipeline strategy, expand Stella’s partner ecosystem and practitioner community, and develop editorial and event programs that spotlight measurable customer outcomes.
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