Canadian financial services · advisory and board work
A senior operator in the room when the quarter gets hard.
I spent twenty-five years as a CFO and senior leader inside Canadian banks, lenders, wealth managers and fintechs. These days I sit beside the people running them. Sometimes that is a board seat, sometimes a standing advisory retainer, sometimes a specific project that needs to land.
A short introduction
I’ve spent my career inside Canadian financial services, not next to it.
For twenty-five years I’ve been the person sitting in the CFO chair, the head-of-bank chair, or the chief strategy seat at Canadian financial services companies. I started on a trading floor at one of the big-five investment banks. I was the public-company CFO of a national asset manager during a period that took us past $20 billion in AUM and through the launch of Canada’s first crypto ETFs. I ran finance at a chartered bank, at a mortgage business, and most recently served as Head of Banking at a Canadian fintech.
I’m not in those operating seats today. I’m at the stage where I’d rather work with several CEOs and boards at once than only one. So I’ve organized my time around three things: a small number of board seats, a handful of standing advisory retainers, and one or two projects at a time that need a senior person to actually run them.
Most of the people I work with say the same thing eventually: it feels like they quietly added a CFO and a small strategy team, without the headcount.
What I’m honestly good at is the thing a CEO doesn’t have time for and the board keeps asking about. The capital plan that has to be defended, the regulatory letter that came in this morning, the board deck the night before, the OSFI conversation, and the decision memo that has to be right. I have done all of it from the inside, which is why I tend to move quickly when I am brought in from the outside.
Engagement models
Three ways to work together.
Independent Director
Board seats with Canadian financial services issuers, lenders, and regulated subsidiaries. I’ve sat in front of OSFI as management; I can sit beside you as a director who understands what they’re really asking.
02Strategic Advisor
A standing retainer for CEOs and founders who want a senior person on call. Most clients see me every other week, with email and phone in between when something hard lands on the desk.
03Project Leadership
For when there’s a discrete piece of work that needs a senior owner: a capital raise, an acquisition, a regulatory response, a turnaround. I take the workstream and run it to the finish line.
A small practice, by design
I take on a handful of engagements at a time.
It’s how I keep the work real and the answer mine. If your quarter has a hard problem, the easiest thing is to send a short email.