Paul Desmarais III is the Chairman and CEO of Sagard, an alternative asset management firm active in venture capital, private equity, private credit, real estate, healthcare royalties and private wealth.

Paul took the helm of Sagard in 2016, along with a handful of close partners bound by a common vision: partnering with entrepreneurs to catalyze transformation in our investments and communities. In five years, Sagard has experienced outstanding growth, with assets under management increasing eightfold to over $13B, more than 250 professionals joining its ranks, and over 80 companies added to the portfolio.

Sagard has built a global network of expertise that helps companies lead, embrace, and stay ahead of disruptive trends in the financial services, technology, and healthcare spaces, amongst others. The team is behind some of the largest technology success stories in Canada such as Wealthsimple and Dialogue.

Within the Sagard ecosystem, Paul is the Executive Chairman and Co-Founder of Portage Ventures and the Chairman and Co-Founder of Diagram. Within the investment portfolios, he is the Chairman of Wealthsimple and Dialogue, and a director of Grayhawk and nesto.

Paul is dedicated to helping build a better business world. He is Co-Founder of the Black Wealth Club, where emerging Black leaders go to learn about creating wealth and reinvesting it in their communities. Under Paul’s leadership, Sagard has committed to a more sustainable financial system by becoming a signatory of the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment, enlisting as a CREO participant, and embarking on its journey to carbon neutrality. Paul will also co- chair the Centraide (United Way) campaign in 2022.

Paul is a board member of the Glenbow Museum and serves as Chair to the Next Canada Emeritus board of advisors. He is a recipient of the Duke of Edinburgh Award for his work chairing the fundraising campaign for the Kenojuak Culture Center. He was formerly a board member of the Rideau Hall Foundation and Alpine Canada. Paul also co-founded Young Canadians in Finance and co-chaired the True Patriot Love Expedition to the magnetic North Pole.

Prior to his current role, Paul worked at Goldman Sachs in the Investment Banking Division, Investment Strategy Group and Special Situations Group, Imerys S.A. in supply chain management and strategy and Great-West Lifeco Inc. in risk management. He has earned a B.A. in Economics from Harvard College and holds an MBA from INSEAD

Brendan Carroll is a Senior Partner at VPC, which he co-founded in 2007. He is responsible for strategic initiatives and firm operations in addition to sourcing, evaluating and executing investment opportunities. Mr. Carroll also oversees marketing, fundraising, business development and investor relations for the firm. He is a member of the firm’s Investment Committee and Valuation Committee.

Mr. Carroll serves as member of the board of directors of VPC portfolio company, johnnie-O.

Previously, as a member of the Solutions Group at Magnetar Capital, Mr. Carroll specialized in direct financings to lower middle market companies. He has held various investment banking positions at William Blair and Robertson Stephens, specializing in corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Carroll has also worked in various capacities for former U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman (I- CT).

Mr. Carroll received a B.A. with honors in government from Georgetown University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He speaks frequently on debt and private equity investing issues and has served as a guest lecturer and panelist at the University of Chicago’s Booth Global School of Business, Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and Harvard Business School. Mr. Carroll is a member of the Finance Council of the Archdiocese of Chicago and Loyola Press and previously served on the Board of Regents at Georgetown University. He is also a director on the board of the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and is also a member of the board’s Finance Committee.ee.

Callum joined Investec in 2010 and leads the Direct Lending franchise at Investec and is a member of the Bank’s Executive Committee. He has direct responsibilities for the Direct Lending business with responsibilities for sponsor coverage, origination and structuring of private debt solutions for mid-market European corporates and PE clients. The team have a flexible lending mandate that spans underwriting, unitranche and club/bilateral financing solutions and is a market leader across their target markets.

Callum has 20 years of investment banking, strategy consulting and leveraged finance experience in Europe. Prior to joining Investec, Callum was a Director and in the Leveraged Finance team at the Royal Bank of Scotland. Callum holds a Chemical Engineering degree (Hons) from the University of Auckland (NZ), a Bachelor of Business from Massey University (NZ) and an MBA from Cambridge University (UK).

Kevin Lawi is a Managing Director of CSAM. He joined CIG in 2021 to lead the origination and structuring of transactions across the capital structure for Private Credit Opportunities within CIG.

Mr. Lawi was previously a Senior Director in the Public Sector Pension Investment Board’s (PSP) Credit Investments group. Mr. Lawi was a founding member of the team at PSP responsible for building out the firm’s private credit direct investing activities in 2016. At PSP, Mr. Lawi had senior origination, underwriting, structuring and portfolio management responsibilities for both liquid and illiquid credit strategies across the capital structure including unitranche loans, second lien loans, high yield bonds and structured equity. He led Credit Investment’s investing activities in the industrial and financial institution industry verticals and represented the firm in Board of Director meetings of portfolio company investments.

Prior to joining PSP, Mr. Lawi was a Vice President at Goldman Sachs & Co. in the Leveraged Finance Group. At Goldman Sachs he was responsible for underwriting and structuring debt financing transactions with leading financial sponsors and sub-investment grade corporates. He began his career at JPMorgan as a Credit Analyst. Mr. Lawi graduated from Duke University with a J.D./M.B.A. and a B.A. from Columbia College.

Laurent is a Founding Partner of Kartesia. In his role, Laurent is responsible for overseeing the management and development of the company, more particularly in relation to fundraising and investor relations. When founding Kartesia in 2013, Laurent had over 13 years of experience in private equity finance. Before founding Kartesia, Laurent co-founded the Altercap funds at LBO France, which successfully raised and invested € 500m in corporate credit opportunities since 2009. Laurent was a member of LBO France executive committee. Previously, Laurent worked four years as Assistant Director at the Intermediate Capital Group (ICG) Paris office where he structured various mezzanine and equity investments. Laurent started his career in 2000 at Credit Agricole CIB (formerly Crédit Agricole Indosuez) initially in project finance focusing on Telecoms, and then as an investment manager focusing on leveraged finance.

Mr. Chowrimootoo joined Hayfin in 2022 and is a Managing Director and Portfolio Manager for Private Credit, focussing on sourcing, analysing investment opportunities, and providing portfolio management across the private credit strategies. Prior to joining Hayfin, Mr. Chowrimootoo was a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs based in Paris, leading its Credit Finance footprint expansion across Europe, having started his career as a banking and capital markets attorney at White & Case. Mr. Chowrimootoo graduated from St John’s College Oxford in 1998, where he read Law and Law Studies in Europe.