8 minute read
A “Clariti” of Vision leads to Success
Tell us about your time at Strath
Strath was monumental in shaping what my life would look like in my career years. I arrived there at the age of 13, while my family was living in Egypt (I had spent my younger years in my birth country, India). Aside from the sheer fear the first few times of travelling alone by air from Cairo to London, getting on the Tube to Euston Station, taking the overnight train to Perth and then a taxi to Strath, the greatest shock was culture shock — everything was so different from the way I had grown up thus far!
I had to adjust my mindset to see the opportunities in my new ecosystem — and once I did that, then everything was onward and upward. The focus on discipline, academia, sports, a way of being in a community of people from cultures I was not familiar with — these were all formative influences that I hadn’t really had any training for or exposure to in my younger years.
Those influences helped shape me from being a scared, physically unfit young boy through my journey at Strath, which culminated with my being on the second XV rugby team and finishing as Dux of School. I even had the gall to sign up for the Oxbridge exams in the fourth term — and not surprisingly
I didn’t get through, but eventually Cambridge gave me a spot based in part on my A Level results!
I have many fond memories of my time at Strath. One of the things that stands out is the incredible setting in the Scottish countryside. The Duke of Edinburgh hiking trips through that amazing landscape, the access to skiing and sailing, the pond and the river nearby, these were all calming and exhilarating aspects of life at Strath. Another was the incredibly positive change in culture and sensibilities that was brought about when Strath became co-educational.
I made many lasting friendships with some amazing people. Many of the teachers were highly inspirational for me also, including David Pighills (who actually let me stay with him during a mid-term holiday when I had nowhere else to go), David Williams, Douglas Langlands... and the list is long.
Overall, the thing I am most thankful for was that my five years at Strath allowed me to mature and grow both emotionally and intellectually with a rigour and discipline that I had not known in my younger years. With the help of a compassionate and supportive culture overall.
Tell us anything that you learnt at Strath that you have taken through into your working life.
The things I learned at Strath have helped me in countless ways in my working life. For instance, understanding that nothing good comes easily and that hard work pays off. The importance of discipline in thinking through things and solving complex problems. The importance of compassion and fairness in all dealings with people, both professional and personal. The importance of active listening without rushing into solution mode.
Tell us about your varied career path after leaving Strath
Having finished the Law tripos at Cambridge in 1986, I arrived in Toronto in July that year to take up a spot as a summer student at a terrific law firm called Davies, Ward & Beck (now called Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg, or Davies for short). I had a great summer experience, and Davies was kind enough to give me a part time job during my required conversion year, which I spent at the University of Toronto gaining my Canadian law equivalence. Following that, I proceeded in the normal course through my articles and the Bar Admissions Course and was called to the Ontario Bar in 1989. From then until 1997, I practiced law with Davies, and I believe at the time I was the youngest partner to be admitted to the partnership at the age of 26. My practice there focused on corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions (M&A).
In 1997, I was offered the opportunity to join the investment banking group at Bank of Montreal (BMO), one of Canada’s main banking organizations. BMO had been one of my main clients while at Davies, and they had a sense that I could make the transition from law to investment banking. While I had not been looking to make a change away from law, I realized I had a deepseated curiosity about business, investments, valuation, how deals come together and get done, and so, against some grumbling from my Davies partners, I took the plunge and joined BMO Capital Markets in the M&A group within the investment bank.
The next three years were a whirlwind. I learned a ton alongside some of the best M&A practitioners in the country, several of whom remain close friends today. I participated in some of the country’s largest and most interesting deals, including the situation surrounding an acquisition attempt for Air Canada, the country’s largest airline, and the consolidation of that airline with its main competitor, Canadian Airlines.
Then it happened again! Onex Corporation, the country’s largest (at the time) publicly traded private equity firm and a client of BMO Capital Markets, reached out and asked if I would consider joining a portfolio company, publicly traded Celestica Inc., to head Celestica’s acquisition and joint venture initiatives. Again, this seemed like a very exciting next step in my career. I joined Celestica as Senior Vice President, Corporate Development in mid 2000. After a few years doing some really innovative and interesting transactions (during which time the technology “bubble” burst and the resulting downdraft in Celestica’s share price left the company with poorly valued acquisition currency, driving a need to be much more creative in putting deals together), I was asked to take general management leadership, with full P&L responsibility, of the company’s Enterprise Division. That division had revenues between US$3 and 4 billion, served customers like IBM, EMC (now part of Dell) and Sun Microsystems (now part of Oracle) and was in need of a turnaround as its Return on Invested Capital (ROIC) was less than the company’s overall cost of capital. By the time I left Celestica, the division had grown and profitability had increased, and the division was earning ROIC well above the company’s cost of capital.
I returned to BMO Capital Markets in 2010 in a senior investment banking role. While I originally rejoined to help the firm with establishing and nurturing C-level and Board-level relationships, I quickly got pulled into doing deals, and eventually was asked to take leadership of the firm’s Growth Markets business for the investment and corporate bank. I left BMO at the end of 2014 as the bank’s focus at that time was enhancing its returns from the significant investments it had made in the USA.
I decided to take some time off to think about the meaning of life and my next career steps. I had been through a very difficult time in my personal life and was in a relatively new relationship with my lovely wife Christine (we were married in 2016) and I wanted to nurture that.
Tell us what inspired you to set up an independent investment banking boutique in 2017
During my “time off” I spent some time as an operating advisor with Carlyle, one of the best and most well-known asset managers in the USA. My focus was on portfolio companies in their midmarket equity fund. That was an important learning time for me.
In 2016, I started to consider my next steps in earnest. I knew I loved the investment banking business, but I didn’t care for the politics and interpersonal dynamics at most of the investment banks I had come across. During my time with Carlyle and before, I had experienced some really amazing people and businesses in the mid market and upper mid market, and it was my belief that these deserving people and businesses were not getting the care and attention they deserved from the larger “bulge bracket” investment banks due to their relatively modest size. Those were the fundamental drivers behind my setting up Clariti Strategic Advisors TM .
In 2016 I spoke to a number of close business coaches and confidants and did a good amount of market research and started to write the blueprint for what would become Clariti. The things that were important to me all contributed to the value system we have today: a partnership model with no politics; a teamwork approach; sharing of equity ownership among all our people; a client-first mentality; a “no stone unturned” approach to solving client problems; and a compassionate yet results driven culture.
Clariti was launched in 2017. We have been very fortunate to be able to attract the incredible people we have in the Clariti ecosystem — from our Advisory Board to our governance board to our leaders inside the business all the way through to our younger colleagues — their contributions and partnership are invaluable and very much cherished.
Tell us a little bit more about the business
Clariti’s business is organized into three broad verticals today. The Strategic Advisory vertical provides business clients with strategic business advice. For example, we have recently completed advising an international insurance entity on launching a digital banking arm, which has now received regulatory approval.
The M&A vertical provides business clients with advice on buying and selling businesses and executes these deals. The vertical also includes a specialist restructuring advisory practice that helps business clients obtain needed relief from lenders through a negotiated restructuring. We don’t act as trustees in bankruptcy, preferring to be “upstream” and value-added in our advisory practice.
The Capital Raising vertical helps business clients find access to debt, equity and hybrid capital from high quality sophisticated and institutional investors.
The industries we like to serve include: Financial Services; Technology; Healthcare; Energy & Extractive Resources; Real Estate; Industrials; Infrastructure; and Retail & Consumer.
What have been your greatest challenges and what have been your top highlights so far in your career?
In one word, people.
In this business, we help our clients solve critical and complex problems. Our people must have a client-first attitude. They must be willing to work as a team. They must be prepared to put the needs and interests of the firm and its clients in front of their own. Finding the right people who fit this cultural mold is incredibly important. Finding these people is the greatest challenge. In our experience, it takes a good six months to fully understand someone’s wiring and whether they will be a good partner in the longer term.
The corollary is when we do find people who fit in this way, it is incredibly exciting as it grows the partnership with mutual trust and respect, and delivers results.
What are the latest trends in the industry you are in and how do you harness them?
The industry we are in is fundamentally about providing strategic advice. We have a portfolio of clients with a portfolio of needs at any given time. Our services help clients at all stages of the market. As such, we are somewhat insulated from the shorter-term ups and down of the market and its dynamics. For instance, much has been made recently about the global supply chain woes that have been brought about by the pandemic and inflation. Those are real struggles our clients are having. The solution for some of those clients could be to help them find capital to address the increased stresses they face in their business model, or perhaps to help them negotiate a restructured balance sheet with their lenders or other creditors, or perhaps to help them acquire businesses that are relatively constrained in this environment and are available at a reasonable valuation.
What impact has the pandemic had on you and your career?
I’m a long term thinker and planner. While it is true that the pandemic caused much of our firm revenue to be delayed, we took the opportunity to hire some really good people and onboard some really great clients. As the effects of the pandemic ease, our revenue is growing again, and we have a tremendous group of grateful clients whom we have supported through the very difficult pandemic environment.
What advice would you give anyone who wants to work in investment banking?
Don’t think of investment banking as “doing deals”. Think of investment banking as building a career helping clients solve critical, complex and momentous problems — becoming the “trusted advisor” — that is what motivates and excites me. Investment banking is as much about financial analysis and deal structuring as it is about understanding the human aspects of all dynamics, both internal and external. It is about solving real world strategic problems for real world clients and people.