PCM EXPANDS CORE TEAM WITH TOP-NOTCH HIRES
We are pleased to announce a number of new appointments to the PCM team over the past few months. Our newest team members bring deep private equity and investing experience and they substantially increase our ability to source and execute new investment opportunities. We couldn’t be happier to welcome the following incredible folks to the team:
Mike Scarola joins PCM as a Partner. Mike holds a B.Comm from Saint Mary's University and an MBA from Dalhousie University. He is also a CFA charterholder. Mike started his career in 2004 with RBC Royal Bank in Commercial Banking in Halifax and moved to RBC Capital Markets with the Investment Banking group in Toronto in 2007. During his time with RBC Capital Markets, Mike worked in a number of different product and coverage groups including Leveraged Finance, Technology, Media & Telecom sector coverage and Financial Sponsor coverage. At RBC, Mike was responsible for advising public and private company Boards, senior management and Private Equity ownership groups on strategic acquisitions and divestitures. Most recently, Mike was a Managing Director in RBC Capital Markets' Financial Sponsor coverage team where he had leadership responsibilities for some of the most active large and mid-sized Pension and Private Equity participants based in Canada. Prior to joining RBC, Mike competed at an elite level in Canoe Sprint Racing and represented Canada at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.
Nora Nestor joins PCM as our Chief Financial Officer. Nora holds a Bachelor of Business Administration (Honours) degree from the Schulich School of Business at York University, a Master of Taxation degree from the University of Waterloo and has recently completed her ICD.D designation jointly offered by the Institute of Corporate Directors and the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. Nestor is also a CPA charter holder. Nora brings over 15 years' experience and has worked extensively in the areas of corporate taxation. Prior to joining PCM, Nestor was Director of Taxation at West Face Capital Inc., one of Canada's preeminent hedge funds. Before that, Nestor spent over a decade in the Mergers & Acquisitions Tax and Audit groups at Deloitte.
Blake Bracalenti joins PCM as a Vice President. Blake holds a Bachelor of Arts in Honours Business Administration (with distinction) from the Richard Ivey School of Business and is a Chartered Professional Accountant. He began his career in the Financial Services practice of Deloitte LLP in Toronto where he earned his CPA designation. Subsequently, Blake gained corporate finance experience working as an Associate in KPMG LLP’s mid-market practice and in the Consumer & Industrials group at RBC Capital Markets, where he worked on an array of M&A, debt and equity financing mandates in the healthcare, retail, consumer and industrial sectors. Following RBC, Blake joined Clairvest Group Inc., a Toronto based mid-market private equity firm with over 30 years of successful partner-focused investing experience. During his time at Clairvest, Blake was actively involved in thesis development, deal sourcing initiatives transaction execution and portfolio company support - including the provision of acquisition, financing and strategic advice.
Patrick Smith joins PCM as an Analyst. Patrick holds a BASc in Civil Engineering from Queen’s University. During his undergraduate degree Patrick held internship positions as a data analytics programmer at CI Financial and with RBC Capital Markets in fixed income sales & trading. After graduation Smith joined RBC Capital Markets as an analyst on the Mortgage Investment Group’s proprietary trading desk where he was responsible for group trading operations and risk management analytics. Following RBC, Patrick spent three years as an Associate at Northwater Capital Management, an alternative asset manager. At Northwater, Patrick worked in the liquid alternatives group as a quantitative researcher and trading analyst and was involved in the development of multiple trading strategies across the asset classes of alternative beta, risk parity and factor betas.
These new team members join the Co-Founders and Sam Kogan in rounding out PCM’s core team. Sam joined PCM as a Vice President (and our first full-time employee) in November of 2018. Sam holds a BBA (with Distinction) from Wilfrid Laurier University and a BMath (with Distinction, Dean’s Honours List) from the University of Waterloo. Sam started his career in investment banking at TD Securities’ M&A practice and spent nearly four years as an Associate and Senior Associate at Onex Partners, one of the oldest and most successful private equity firms globally.