Jason Chertin

Partner

McMillan LLP

Jason Chertin is an accomplished corporate finance lawyer with a dynamic capital markets and securities law practice and extensive experience in mergers and acquisitions. Structuring and executing a variety of capital market transactions, Jason advises on public offerings, and mergers and acquisitions with emphasis on negotiated transactions, plans of arrangement and amalgamations, and stock exchange listings. He is a leader of the firm’s Investment Funds & Asset Management Group.

Jason acts for issuers, underwriters, investment funds and asset managers in addition to stakeholders in the cannabis and mining sectors. He advises on public and exempt securities offerings, takeover bids, business combinations, reverse takeovers, qualifying transactions, reorganizations, proxy contests and related party transactions.
A significant part of Jason’s practice involves advising investment fund managers and portfolio advisers on public and exempt offerings of securities by open-end mutual funds, closed-end investment funds, commodity pools and pooled funds. He also assists with dealer and adviser registration and compliance matters.

Jason’s experience in securities regulatory work encompasses proxy solicitation, corporate governance, continuous disclosure, preparation for annual and special meetings of shareholders, compliance with NI 81-102 and IRC requirements, prospectus renewals, and applications to regulatory authorities for exemptive relief.

Óscar Becerra

Wealth Consultant

Cidel

Oscar joined Cidel in 2016 working in the LATAM division. He is responsible for developing the Colombian market. He works closely with private clients, families, tax professionals and investment advisers on asset management and fiduciary services providing holistic planning solutions.Prior to Cidel, he worked with the Colombian Government’s Trade and Investment Commission.

Oscar has his BA in Finance and International Relations from Universidad Externado de Colombia and an MBA from the Desautels Faculty of Management, McGill University. He is a Chartered Investment Manager (CIM®) and also a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP).

Joseph Micallef

Partner, Tax

KPMG

Joseph specializes in wealth and asset management, private equity, banking, capital markets, financing and leasing entities and broker dealer taxation matters. In addition to leading the wealth and asset management tax practice. Joseph also advises clientson tax accounting and tax risk governance matters. During Joseph’s career he also has practised outside of financial services in the resources, power and utilities, life sciences, and technology industries.

James Burron

President & Co-Founder

CAASA

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).

Óscar Becerra

Wealth Consultant

Cidel

Oscar joined Cidel in 2016 working in the LATAM division. He is responsible for developing the Colombian market. He works closely with private clients, families, tax professionals and investment advisers on asset management and fiduciary services providing holistic planning solutions.Prior to Cidel, he worked with the Colombian Government’s Trade and Investment Commission.

Oscar has his BA in Finance and International Relations from Universidad Externado de Colombia and an MBA from the Desautels Faculty of Management, McGill University. He is a Chartered Investment Manager (CIM®) and also a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP).

Layth Ashoo

Partner

Maverix Private Equity

Layth is a Partner at Maverix Private Equity. In this role, he is responsible for deal sourcing, execution and portfolio company oversight. He brings 15 years of industry experience spanning private equity, management consulting, investment banking and software development.  Layth has been involved in the origination, evaluation, execution, and oversight of buyout and minority investment transactions since 2017.

Prior to his career in private equity, Layth joined McKinsey & Company in 2012 where he led and operational and financial restructurings, due diligences, and strategic reviews for clients around the globe. He was previously an associate in the investment banking division of RBC Capital Markets where he was involved in a variety of capital markets and M&A transactions, joining in 2010.

Layth holds an Honours BASc. degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Waterloo and an MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business. He is a Young Patrons Circle Ambassador with the Royal Ontario Museum. In his time away you can find him skiing, scuba diving, or reading.

Brian Ko

Managing Director, Corporate and Infrastructure Debt Finance

Fiera Private Debt

Brian Ko is a Managing Director at Fiera Private Debt, a division of Fiera Capital, where he is primarily responsible for co-managing a $1.4+ billion portfolio, as well as investor relations.  Prior to joining Fiera in 2019, Brian worked at Integrated Asset Management Corp. as a Managing Director with the private debt group since 2011.  Previously, Brian held progressive roles at DBRS where he was rating debt securities.

Katie Fasken

Managing Director

Slate Asset Management

Katie is a Managing Director of Slate Asset Management.

She is responsible for leading capital raising and investor relations efforts for Slate and its businesses.

Katie joined Slate in 2016. Prior to joining Slate, Katie was on the financial institutions investment banking team at CIBC World Markets and also worked on the institutional equity sales desk.

She holds an Honours Business Administration degree from the Richard Ivey Business School at West