Private Equity / Venture Capital Day: Access to Private Fund & the Canadian PE/VC Landscape

Mr. Cohen also teaches finance and entrepreneurship in the MBA program at Harvard Business School, as well as Investments at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Mr. Cohen has helped to start and grow a number of investment management firms. He has also served as an actuarial consultant specializing in pension plan asset/liability management. He is a frequent speaker at investment conferences globally, such as the Sovereign Investor Institute and the Foundation and Endowment Asset Management conference.

Mr. Cohen is a highly respected researcher whose main focus is on the relationship between institutional investors and the stock market. He has published frequently cited articles on the ex-ante identification of outstanding investment managers and the prediction of security and asset-class performance. His work has been published in top academic journals including the Journal of Finance, Quarterly Journal of Economics and Journal of Financial Economics. His 2003 paper “The Value Spread” (with Christopher Polk and Tuomo Vuolteenaho) and his 2005 article “Judging Fund Managers by the Company They Keep” (with Joshua Coval and Lubos Pastor), were both nominated for the annual Smith-Breeden Prize for the best asset-pricing paper published in the Journal of Finance.

Mr. Cohen holds an AB in Mathematics from Harvard College and a PhD in Finance from the University of Chicago.

Michael Bunn practises corporate and securities law with an emphasis on the investment management sector. He regularly provides advice on the establishment and capital-raising needs of Canadian and international investment funds, including retail mutual funds, hedge funds and private equity funds. Once a fund is launched, he remains on hand to advise on continuous disclosure, regulatory, corporate governance and other ongoing matters. He also provides registration advice for Canadian and international investment fund managers, investment advisors and dealers regarding their business activities in Canada.

Prior to joining our Toronto office, Mr. Bunn practised at a leading offshore law firm in the Cayman Islands and at another major law firm in Toronto.

Key industry sectors

• Financial institutions

Law school and education

• LL.B., University of Ottawa, 2003
• B.A., University of Ottawa, 1999

Rankings and recognitions

• Who’s Who Legal: Canada, 2019: Private Funds
• Acritas Stars, 2018 – Designated as a “Star” lawyer by a panel of over 4,300 senior in-house counsel
• Who’s Who Legal: Canada, 2018: Private Funds
• Acritas Stars, 2017 – Designated as a “Star” lawyer by a panel of over 3,000 senior in-house counsel
• Who’s Who Legal: Canada, 2017: Private Funds

Barry Segal has a diverse tax practice that includes public and private M&A, debt restructurings, corporate finance, corporate reorganizations, structuring private equity investments, advising domestic and cross-border investment funds, and international tax planning for Canadian and foreign corporations. He also acts as counsel on federal and provincial tax audits and appeals.

Mr. Segal is Toronto chair of the business law group.

Henry joined SS&C in 2006 and has been instrumental in building out SS&C’s presence in Canada. He leads teams that specialize in private equity and hedge fund administration solutions, with a particular focus on funds with complex strategies, products and structures. Prior to joining SS&C, Mr. Toy was a Senior Trader for TD Bank before becoming the CFO/COO of Fore Research & Management, a hedge fund in New York.

James co-founded CAASA in response to industry support for a Canadian alternatives association to serve all aspects including: hedge / alternative strategies; private lending; private real estate; private equity; plus emerging areas where Canada is a leader such as digital assets / blockchain and robo-advisors.

Prior to CAASA, James was the Chief Operating Officer of AIMA Canada where his team of three worked with 12 committees to produce 50-60 events per annum across Canada, organize 100+ committee meetings, and increase member numbers over his 7-year tenure from 66 to 164 corporate entities.

James also has experience in research and writing for the CAIA Association as well as serving on CAIA’s Exam Council and as a grader for the Level II portion of the exam.  He also had roles in institutional sales and FoHF structuring in Seoul, South Korea, as a Product Manager at ICICI Wealth Management, and an Investment Advisor at RBC Dominion Securities.  He graduated from Simon Fraser University with a BBA (Finance).

Gord is passionate about building and starting technology companies and through his career has built global sales operations and distribution channels covering The Americas, EMEA and APAC. Gord’s previous roles outside of his own start up include SVP Business Development at Jazinga Inc., VP Business Development at Tira Wireless, VP Business Development at Appligo (acquired 2003) and Director, Global Business Development at 724 Solutions (NASDAQ: SVNX).

Seamon Chan is Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Palm Drive Capital, a global venture capital and growth equity firm investing in technology companies including WeLab, Jet.com, Clover Health, Carta, Catalyte, and Boom Supersonic.

Seamon is Co-Founder of Lair East and Lair East Labs, a cross-border innovation space and accelerator in New York. Previously, he was at Insight Venture Partners, a $23 billion venture capital and private equity firm with investments in JD.com and Alibaba. Seamon brings entrepreneurship and operating experience through various startup roles in the mobile, gaming, advertising, and social networking spaces in US, China, and Europe. Earlier in his career, he gained experience at companies such as Hitachi Data Systems and Citigroup, as well as research labs such as Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab and Center for Integrated Systems.

He was on the founding teams of Stanford Chinese Entrepreneurs Organization (Stanford CEO) and NYC Chinese Entrepreneurs Organization (NYCCEO), both organizations with thousands of members and alumni in US and China. Seamon is a Committee of 100 Next Generation Leader, a member of the Milken Institute Young Leaders Circle and the Economic Club of New York.

Seamon graduated from Stanford University and is completing the Owner/President Management program at Harvard Business School.

Managing Director of Raiven capital, a global venture capital firm – A $350M early stage hybrid Canadian & Silicon Valley growth fund. Raiven Capital is a “born global” venture capital fund. Raiven seeks revolutionary technologies built by cognitively diverse teams. Supreet and his team apply deep knowledge and operational mastery to forge risk into strong return.

Supreet blends his Leadership, Corporate Development and technology transformation across startups, large companies and turnarounds to create success. As a digital transformation expert, Supreet’s deep operational knowledge and lessons learned help him guide and mentor companies. He has helped many companies and people to become ready for Work 3.0. B  lending innovation with process management to create nimble new organizations. He is especially passionate about technology and healthcare innovation from telemedicine to cutting edge plays with VR and AI.

Supreet is a Singularity University Global Impact Challenge Mentor, as well as a mentor for InCredibles in the EU.  Supreet was CEO of a $1B Global Security firm, a general partner in a $2B venture fund, a senior executive at IBM, CA Technologies and a global partner at KPMG. He served on Boards of thirty startups and has brought 25 products and services to market across multiple industries globally. Currently he serves on Artificial Intelligence, IoT, Block Chain and Cybersecurity startup boards. He has an MBA from TRIUM – a joint offering of the London School of Economics, New York University and HEC in Paris.