Our Mission
CAASA’s Core Principles
The Canadian Association of Alternative Strategies & Assets is Canada’s largest association representing the alternative investment industry in Canada with approximately 400 members — including alternative investment managers, pension plans, foundations, endowments, and service providers. Its membership and activities span all alternatives from hedge funds and venture capital to real estate and cryptocurrencies. Founded in 2018, CAASA’s mission is to bring Canada to the world and the world to Canada by promoting information sharing, networking, and collaborative initiatives between its members and the industry at large.
Inclusiveness – We represents a broad cross-section of public and private market participants whose offerings are distributed to true retail, Accredited Investor retail, family offices, endowments, foundations, public and private pension plans, and sovereign wealth funds.
Bringing Canada to the World & the World to Canada – our activity is in all areas of Canada, from larger asset management hub, to those with major / a concentration of investors, to others where service providers congregate. Examples include: Toronto, Montréal, Québec, Halifax, Ottawa, Vancouver, Victoria, Calgary, Edmonton, and Winnipeg. It is important for a truly national organization to be engaged in all aspects and regions.
Transparent Governance & Structure – CAASA was created and is controlled by the membership and local staff for the benefit of members and the Canadian alternatives industry at large. The association’s Member Advisory Panel (MAP) works with its staff in formulating and adapting overall strategy, new and continuing initiatives, event and conference themes and formats that focus on particular aspects and/or geographical areas in the Canadian alternatives industry.
Engagement & Activity – CAASA serves and represents the alternatives industry in Canada by engaging in member-lead local and national initiatives in advocacy; investor, manager, and industry best practices & policies; committees and working groups dedicated to broad mandates as well as those uniquely Canadian and in areas of national or regional expertise; and production of thought leadership events, publications, and initiatives affecting the Canadian and global alternative investment landscape.
Meet the Team
James Burron
CAIA
Co-Founder & Partner
Caroline Chow
Co-Founder & Partner
Paul Koonar
CFA
Partner
Stanley Tow
Accounting Manager
Manya Thakur
Membership Coordinator
James Burron
CAIA
Co-Founder & Partner
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).
Caroline Chow
Co-Founder & Partner
Caroline is Vice President and co-founder of the Canadian Association of Alternative Strategies and Assets (CAASA). She works closely with members to establish and grow the Association’s initiatives both within Canada and abroad. She serves a broad range of alternatives such as liquid alts, private lending, real estate and digital assets.
Previously, she spent 5 years at AIMA Canada and during this time, corporate membership, events and committee engagement were doubled.
Caroline is also a certified Culinary Nutrition Expert (CNE) and Les Mills RPM instructor. When she is not contributing to the Canadian Alternatives industry, she provides education, consulting and workshops through her brand, Happy Health.
She is an Honours graduate of the Academy of Culinary Nutrition as well as the University of Waterloo, holds a degree in Honours Economics with a Finance Specialization and has completed the Canadian Securities Course (CSC).
Paul Koonar
CFA
Partner
Paul is responsible for day-to-day operations and member engagement. Through his background in hospitality and previous experience as an independent Financial Advisor he will be working with members to organize many of CAASA’s events.
He is a graduate of the University of Victoria with a degree in Economics and Paul completed the CFA program in June of 2019 and will be writing the CAIA exam in 2020.
Manya Thakur
Membership Coordinator
Manya is the Membership Coordinator at Canadian Association of Alternative Strategies and Assets (CAASA). With her background in marketing and coding, she acts as the first point of contact for member inquiries and is responsible for onboarding new members, ensuring the CAASA website is up to date, managing all email marketing and more.
She completed her degree in Communication Studies at York University in 2022.