Ralph Desando

Deputy CEO – Alternative Investments

Yorkville Asset Management

Kent Willmore

Founder and CEO

Crescero Natural Capital

Kent Willmore is a seasoned agricultural entrepreneur and thought leader with over 30 years of hands-on experience in Canadian farmland operations, investment management, and sustainable land stewardship. As the Founder and CEO of Crescero Natural Capital, Kent leads one of Canada’s most respected farmland asset management firms, headquartered in Chatham, Ontario.

Under his leadership, Crescero has launched and managed four farmland investment funds, each delivering strong, risk-adjusted returns while aligning the interests of investors and farm families. Kent’s approach centers on a simple but powerful premise: restoring and managing natural capital is the key to unlocking both ecological resilience and long-term economic value.

He is the architect of Crescero’s investment philosophy, which treats soil health, water access, and biodiversity not just as environmental goal posts but as core drivers of asset performance. Through proprietary diligence frameworks, infrastructure upgrades, and disciplined stewardship, Kent and his team improve farmland productivity while delivering scalable, institutional-grade outcomes for investors.

Kent holds a Bachelor of Environmental Studies and a Bachelor of Education from the University of Waterloo, where he was recognized as an All-Canadian Academic Athlete. He is an active member of the Canadian Association of Farm Advisors (CAFA) and the Ontario Federation of Agriculture.

Fardan Ali

Vice President, Wealth Strategy & Advisor Enablement

Designed Wealth Management

Fardan is Vice President, Wealth Strategy & Advisor Enablement, where he works closely with advisors and leadership to develop platform strategy, investment solutions, and practice management initiatives that help advisory teams grow and serve clients more effectively. In his role, Fardan focuses on helping bridge the gap between investment managers, dealers, and advisory teams. His work includes evaluating investment solutions, supporting advisor education, and building initiatives that improve the advisor and client experience across the firm. Throughout his career, Fardan has conducted more than 200 branch audits, interviewed over 80 asset managers, and played a key role in hiring and developing talent. He is known for his practical approach to navigating regulation, product innovation, and advisor growth.

Josh Booth

Partner

Dawson Partners

Josh Booth is a Partner at Dawson, a global alternative asset manager focused on providing structured solutions to private markets. Josh joined Dawson in 2019 and has 13 years of private equity and investment banking experience. Prior to joining Dawson, Josh worked as a Principal and senior member of the Funds investment team at CPPIB in Toronto and London, UK. Josh was primarily responsible for sourcing, executing and monitoring private equity fund investments and managing several of CPPIB’s largest GP relationships. In addition, Josh represented CPPIB on several limited partner advisory boards in North America, South America and Europe and was also a member of the Funds, Secondaries and Private Equity Asia investment committees for CPPIB. Josh began his career in investment banking at Paradigm Capital. Josh holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Economics from Queen’s University and is a CFA® charterholder.

Andy Yan

Principal & Portfolio Manager

Westcourt Solutions

As Principal & Portfolio Manager, Westcourt Solutions, Andy is responsible for the growth and development of Westcourt’s partner firms. Andy is registered as a Dealing Representative.

Andy previously worked at a large alternative equities manager focusing on long/short strategies where he facilitated the national roll-out of two new alternative mutual funds (both liquid alts) across Canada’s bank advisory and independent wealth management platforms. He was also responsible for covering institution clients and the due diligence/model portfolio teams within the bank advisory channels. With his deep knowledge of alternative investments, Andy advised his clients on the roles that these strategies play in a well-diversified client portfolio.

Andy earned a Bachelor of Mathematics degree from the University of Waterloo and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Charterholder. He also completed the Canadian Securities Course (CSC) from the Canadian Securities Institute.

Laurence Vigeant-Langlois

Partner

AE Industrial Partners, LP

Dr. Vigeant-Langlois is a Partner at AE Industrial, with a primary focus on new business development and portfolio management across AE Industrial’s funds in private equity and venture capital, where she serves on the Investment Committee of AE Ventures, and on AE Industrial’s Origination Guiding and Responsible Investment Committees. She currently serves on the Boards of Directors of AEI portfolio companies: Alpine Air, Applied Composites, Columbia Helicopters and G.S. Precision, and on the Boards of Directors of AE Ventures portfolio companies: EVIO, FLYR, Gamma Alloys, Near Earth Autonomy and Revolution Space. She previously served on the board of Edge Autonomy prior to its sale to Redwire in 2025, and recently volunteered her time as a Senior Commercialization Advisor with DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency of the US Department of War focused on breakthrough technologies for national and economic security.

Prior to joining AE Industrial, Dr. Vigeant-Langlois worked for GE Aerospace as Chief Executive Officer of the GE Passport joint venture with Safran Aero Boosters (Belgium) and IHI (Japan), and as program management executive responsible for the GE Passport, CF34-3 and CF34-8C engines on Bombardier and Mitsubishi’s aircraft. Previously at GE, Dr. Vigeant-Langlois joined the tiger team that founded GE Additive to transform industrial 3D printing, and led the strategy and global field marketing teams supporting the sale of GE Aviation’s engines, systems and services across commercial, business and military aviation.

Before GE, Dr. Vigeant-Langlois led commercial, product and engineering teams in aerospace and high- tech industries. At Sikorsky Aircraft (Lockheed Martin), she launched new engineering innovation, ran defense offset programs and led the Operations Analysis and contract R&D teams. At aircraft lessor CIT (Avolon), she gained increasing responsibilities in acquiring $9B of aircraft and engines. At The Weather Company, she led the democratization of cockpit weather information and the launch of SiriusXM Aviation Weather. She also previously transported air freight flying Learjets across North America.

She received SM and PhD in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a BEng in Mechanical Engineering from McGill University, is a graduate of the International Space University space studies program, UTC’s Darden executive program, several GE Crotonville programs, the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School and completed the CFA Level 1. She is a certified FAA commercial pilot with Learjet privileges and a flight instructor in gliders. She also serves as Board Advisor to AI health tech company Triangulate Labs, and is a member of The Wings Club and PEWIN.

Shael Soberano

Chief Investment Officer

Sharno Group Inc.

Shael Soberano, CFA, is the Chief Investment Officer of Sharno Group, a privately owned independent principal investment group and family office focused on identifying strategic, value-add investment opportunities across a wide range of traditional and alternative asset classes and strategies.

Shael is also the President & CEO, Portfolio Manager & Chief Compliance Officer of Sharno Capital Corporation, a registered Investment Fund Manager, Portfolio Manager, and Exempt Market Dealer with the Ontario Securities Commission. Sharno Capital Corporation manages the Azalea Fund LP, a private investment fund focused on smaller capitalization public equities, utilizing a fundamental value and research-intensive approach.

Prior to the Sharno Group of Companies, Shael Soberano was Vice President, Senior Analyst at Vision Capital Corporation, a leading Toronto-based Hedge Fund manager focused on publicly traded real estate related securities. Shael first joined Vision Capital as an Analyst in 2009, shortly after its inception. He was promoted to Vice President, Senior Analyst in 2014, and was registered as an Advising Representative with the Ontario Securities Commission in 2017. With a wide range of roles spanning both business development and investment management initiatives, Shael’s contributions were integral in growing Vision Capital’s assets under management and contributed to its award-winning risk-adjusted performance over that period.

Shael is a CFA Charterholder and completed the Bachelor of Management and Organizational Studies Honours Degree with a Specialization in Finance at the University of Western Ontario. Shael completed the Partners, Directors, and Senior Officers (PDO) Course in 2019 and the Canadian Securities Course (CSC) in 2010, provided by the Canadian Securities Institute (CSI).

David Manzano

Managing Director

Golub Capital

Mr. Manzano joined Golub Capital in 2020 and is a Managing Director on the Global Product Group within the Investor Partners Group. He is responsible for supporting business development and investor relations as a subject-matter expert for the Firm, strategies and products. Previously, Mr. Manzano was a Partner, Managing Director and co-head of the Senior Debt Business in the Private Debt group at AEA Investors, where he was responsible for managing a diverse portfolio of middle market club and syndicated leveraged loans. Prior to this position, he was a Principal and Portfolio Manager at Callidus Capital Management, where he managed several collateralized loan obligations. Prior to that, Mr. Manzano was an investment banker in the Leveraged Finance group at Merrill Lynch & Co. and began his career at The Chase Manhattan Bank. Mr. Manzano earned his BA in Government from Cornell University. He received an MBA in Finance from Columbia University.