Clients come to Blackpath when a matter is important, sensitive or difficult to resolve within one organisation or discipline. They trust us to tell them what they need to know, not what they are being told.

Even when an engagement is short, the work takes a long-term view. Blackpath is a relationship-based firm and aims to advise clients over many years. Short engagements still demand a long-term view. Blackpath is a relationship-based firm, built to advise clients over time.

Most engagements take one of two forms: a focused engagement, measured in weeks, that answers a specific question; or a retained advisory relationship that provides counsel across a portfolio of decisions over months or years.

Our advice is direct, confidential and grounded in the realities of commercial decision-making and Country.

Blackpath was built on direct experience of decisions where capital, heritage, risk, partnership and board accountability meet. That matters because many of the hardest questions in major projects are not solely commercial, legal, technical or cultural. They require those forms of judgement to be held together.

We advise companies on what Country may require of them. We advise Traditional Owner groups on the commercial logic and consequences of what is being proposed.

Christopher is a Yirandhali and Koa man and the Founder and Managing Director of Blackpath.

He has more than fifteen years' experience across Rio Tinto, BHP, Fortescue and CS Energy. His senior roles have spanned major capital development, studies, portfolio governance, cultural heritage, closure and Traditional Owner partnership.

At Rio Tinto, Chris directed the West Pilbara studies portfolio. He led Western Range and Brockman Syncline 1, the first two major iron ore developments through Rio Tinto's investment process after Juukan Gorge.

At Western Range, he designed the co-management framework with Yinhawangka Traditional Owners and took the project through feasibility to execution. Western Range became Rio Tinto's first project with a co-designed Social, Cultural Heritage Management Plan.

At Brockman Syncline 1, on PKKP Country, he shaped the engagement model and led an evaluation approach that gave explicit weight to Traditional Owner partnership, consent risk and long-term project value alongside commercial and technical considerations.

He co-developed and co-chaired Rio Tinto's Elevating Indigenous Voices Committee.

Chris holds an Executive MBA from UNSW AGSM and completed Leading Sustainable Corporations at Oxford Saïd Business School.

Our work is governed by independence, conflict discipline and respect for cultural authority. We do not trade in access. We advise one party on a matter and are clear about who we serve.

Blackpath is registered with Supply Nation.

Beyond our commercial work, we provide pro bono support to selected education and community initiatives.