Our People

A global team with deep fintech knowledge and operational experience.

Paul Desmarais III

Partner

Adam Felesky

Partner

Samuel Robinson

President

Stephan Klee

Chief Financial Officer

Stephanie Choo

Partner

Sacha Haque

Partner, General Counsel & Secretary

Ben Harrison

Partner, Head of Partnerships & Policy

Hélène Falchier

Partner

Nick Hungerford

Venture Partner

Adam Vigna

Chief Investment Officer, Sagard Holdings

Jonathan Tétrault

Managing Partner, Sagard Holdings

François Lafortune

Partner, CEO of Diagram

Joseph Lau

Chief Information Security Officer

Jonathan Metrick

Chief Growth Officer

Elsa Vilarinho

Communications and Brand Lead

Leslie Hill

Senior Principal, Investor Relations

Johnita W. Mizelle

Senior Principal, US Distribution

Amer Javed

Vice-President of Finance

Joanie Bérard

Director of Fund Accounting

Kristine Collado

Director of Fund Accounting

Maxime Desrochers

Director of Fund Accounting

Junaid Subhan

Director, Legal Affairs and Chief Compliance Officer

Dominique Perron

Director, Legal Affairs

Carina Doshi

Chief of Staff

Melissa Gasser

Principal

Robert Hamlin

Principal

Sinath Kim

Principal, Partnerships & Policy

Brendan Callaghan

Head of Enterprise Sales

Ricky Lai

Principal

Jake Bodanis

Associate

Mickias Hailu

Associate

Andre Masse

Associate

Grégoire Viat

Associate

Carl Qiu

Associate, Partnerships and Policy

Cassandra D'Ambrosio

Fund Accountant

Charlene Li

Fund Accountant

Karel Vuong

Senior Associate, Investor Relations

Ahmed Syed

Associate, Investor Relations

James Crocker

Data Engineer

Roberg Gold

Compliance Associate

Antoinette Marrone

Director of Paralegal Services

Sneha Jena

Senior Corporate Accountant

Ivan Koparan

Research Associate

Leo Liu

Analyst

Cecilia Tong

Executive Assistant

Suong Tran

Executive Assistant

Ron Close

Leadership Advisor

Gregory Fleming

Advisor

Hugues Le Bret

Advisor

Jamess Forrest

Advisor

Imran Gulamhuseinwala

Advisor

Kris Hansen

Advisor

Peter Hancock

Advisor

Ron Hirson

Advisor

Chris O'Neill

Advisor

Dr. Richard Reiner

Advisor

Sharon MacLeod

Advisor

Successful businesses, lasting partnerships

See all partners

Paul Desmarais III

Partner

Paul Desmarais III is the Chairman and CEO of Sagard Holdings, the Executive Chairman and Co-Founder of Portage Ventures, and the Chairman and co-founder of Diagram. Within the investment portfolios of Portage Ventures and Sagard Holdings, he is the Chairman of Wealthsimple and Dialogue, a director of KOHO Financial and Grayhawk, and a board observer of Nesto.

Paul is also a Senior Vice President of Power Corporation of Canada. As a part of his responsibilities at the holdings, he sits on the boards of Groupe Bruxelles Lambert and Imerys.

Prior to his current role, Paul worked at Goldman Sachs in the Investment Banking Division, Investment Strategy Group, and Special Situations Group; Imerys in supply chain management and strategy; and Great West Lifeco in risk management. Paul is a recipient of a B.A. in economics from Harvard College and holds an MBA from INSEAD in France.

Adam Felesky

Partner

Adam Felesky is the Chief Executive Officer of Portage Ventures and is based in Toronto. He is the Founder and former CEO of Horizons Exchange Traded Funds, a director and founding investor of BetaShares Exchange Traded Funds in Australia and also led the launch of an ETF platform in Colombia.

Previously, Adam worked in JPMorgan Derivative's group in New York, where he co-led the coverage for many top tier corporate clients amongst the oil & gas and power & utility sectors. Adam began his career in investment banking at JPMorgan Canada and CIBC World Markets respectively.

Adam is a current member of the Fintech Advisory Committee for the Finance Minister of Ontario as well as the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC). He also supports numerous charities and currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Immigration Access Fund.

Adam is the recipient of a B.Eng. in Civil Engineering and a B.A. in Political Science from McMaster University.

Samuel Robinson

President

Samuel Robinson is the President of Portage Ventures and also serves as President of Sagard Holdings and Vice-President of Power Corporation. Samuel joined Sagard and Power in 2016 after an 18 year career at Goldman Sachs, during which he lived and worked in the United States, Asia, Australia and Europe.

He served in a variety of positions at Goldman Sachs, including CAO and Head of strategy for the global Investment Banking Division, COO of the firm’s emerging markets businesses, Asia Regional Chief of Staff and Chief of Staff to the firm’s President. Earlier, he trained as a financial institutions investment banker, worked in venture capital and was involved for many years in corporate strategy and investor relations at Goldman Sachs.

Samuel was educated at Christ Church, Oxford. He also holds a M.A. in English and a M. Phil in Modern Middle Eastern Studies. He serves on the Development Board of Christ Church and on the U.S. Board of the Cambodian Childrens’ Fund.

Stephan Klee

Chief Financial Officer

Stephan Klee is a Partner and the Chief Financial Officer at Sagard Holdings and is based in New York. Previously, he served as the Chief Financial Officer for SoFi’s Banking Division, which was created through the merger of Zenbanx Holding and SoFi, two of the world’s leading Financial Technology companies. Prior to that, he served as Chief of Staff and Chief Financial Officer of ING Bank in both the United States as well as Canada. Stephan currently serves on the Board of Coastal Bancorp (Nasdaq: CCB) and is the chairman of their Audit and Compensation Committees.

Stephan holds a Bachelor’s degree in business from the University of Applied Sciences Osnabruck and earned his Masters of Business Administration from the Richard Ivey School of Business. He is also an AMP graduate from the Harvard Business School. Stephan is a certified public accountant (CPA).

Stephanie Choo

Partner

Stephanie is a Partner at Portage Ventures – a global fintech-focused VC investing at seed, series A and series B. She is passionate about funding the next generation of financial services entrepreneurs – and currently serves on the boards of Albert, Atomic Financial and Conquest Planning. Prior to Portage, she led a team, which built and launched a leading digital advice platform in Canada, which now serves over a 1.5M Canadians. Prior to that, she was an early employee at a payments startup – working on mobile banking solutions and a management consultant at the BCG, focused on financial services.

Sacha Haque

Partner, General Counsel & Secretary

Sacha Haque is a Partner, General Counsel and Secretary of Sagard Holdings and is based in Montreal. Before joining in 2017, Sacha was with Power Corporation of Canada and Power Financial Corporation for nine years, where she most recently served as Assistant General Counsel & Assistant Secretary. Prior to Power, Sacha was an Associate in Corporate / M&A law at Dentons LLP, a global law firm.

Sacha holds Civil Law (LL.L) and Common Law (LL.B) degrees from the University of Ottawa, and is a member of the bar in Ontario and Quebec. She is a Director of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) Foundation, Member of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation and a Member of the Canada Committee of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Commonwealth Study Conference. She has previously served as a Director or Chair of a number of not-for-profit governance, community and fundraising initiatives.

Ben Harrison

Partner, Head of Partnerships & Policy

Ben is a Partner and the Head of Partnerships and Policy at Portage Ventures. Prior to joining Portage in 2018, he spent more than 15 years at Canada Life in senior level strategy, product development and marketing roles across the organization, including the Head of Innovation for Canada.

As Head of Partnerships, Ben’s team works with those investors to help them execute on their strategic objectives through a combination of commercial partnerships with the fund’s portfolio companies and relevant and differentiated insights into the trends shaping the fintech sector.

Ben also leads Portage’s government affairs mandate and has helped to position the organization as a leading voice for pro competition and innovation policy developments. He sits on the board of the Paytechs of Canada and is a member of the Digital Identity Laboratories advisory panel.

Ben is a graduate of the Business Administration program (BBA) from Wilfrid Laurier University.

Hélène Falchier

Partner

Hélène Falchier is a Partner at Portage Ventures based in Paris, France. Hélène joined Portage from CNP Assurances (“CNP”) where she served as CEO of its corporate venture program, Open CNP. Prior to Open CNP, Hélène was CNP’s Head of Private Equity, managing a portfolio of €7.5bn AUM with investments in Europe and the US. Before joining CNP, she served as the Head of Investments in real estate, private equity and stocks for Ecureuil Vie. Hélène is also the Chairman of the AFIC LPs club (French Association for Investors for Growth). Hélène holds a master’s degree in economics and an Executive MBA from HEC Paris.

Nick Hungerford

Venture Partner

Nick Hungerford is a Venture Partner at Portage Ventures and is based in Southeast Asia. He is also the founder of Nutmeg, Europe's leading online investment management service and led the company from an idea through development and $100M of funding. Nick is a digital ambassador for the UK Department of International Trade, a member of the European Power 50 and recipient of Spears Entrepreneur of the year award.

He previously worked at Barclays in areas of product, trading and wealth management and was a Divisional Director at Brewin Dolphin PLC. Nick is a non-executive Director of Innovate Finance, the association representing the UK’s global FinTech community and an advisor to and investor in a number of technology-led startups.

Nick obtained an Undergraduate degree from Exeter University in the UK and holds an MBA from Stanford University. He is a Fellow of the Securities Institute and a member of the Global Entrepreneur Program. Nick is a volunteer teacher at a number of UK universities in the subjects of behaviour finance and entrepreneurship.

Adam Vigna

Chief Investment Officer, Sagard Holdings

Adam Vigna is Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer of Sagard Holdings and Sagard Credit Partners, and is based in Toronto. He also serves as Vice-President of Power Corporation of Canada. Prior to this role, he was Managing Director at CPPIB. Adam was responsible for leading CPPIB's Global Principal Credit Investments Group (“PCI”) with approximately CAD 20 billion of AUM. Prior to joining CPPIB, Adam was Vice-President at Goldman Sachs in the Special Situations Group (“SSG”) in New York and Toronto. In 2006, he moved to Toronto from New York to become one of the three founding members of the Canadian Special Situations Group (“CSSG”). Before joining SSG, Adam worked in Goldman's Investment Banking Division in New York where he was a part of their Financial Institutions Group (“FIG”). Adam currently serves on the board of Peak Achievement Athletics and previously served on the boards of Antares Holding (Chair), Antares Capital, Teine Energy, Laricina Energy, Long Point Energy, and Blackhawk Mining (Observer).

Adam has led the entire SCP team for a number of years at a different investing organization.

Adam holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) degree from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario.

Jonathan Tétrault

Managing Partner, Sagard Holdings

Jonathan Tétrault is a Managing Partner of Sagard Holdings and is based in Montreal. He leads the corporate development activities of Sagard Holdings and is responsible for the value creation team supporting Sagard Holdings’ portfolio companies. Prior to this role, Jonathan served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group where he oversaw the operations and corporate development activities of the group globally. Prior to joining Cirque du Soleil, he was a Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company, where he advised institutional investors, private equity firms, asset management firms and banks on a broad range of strategic and investment matters in more than 25 countries.

Jonathan holds an MBA from Oxford University, an LL.B. from the Université de Montréal, and a CEP from the Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris. He is a member of the Barreau du Québec and serves on several boards, including the C.D. Howe Institute, the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, the One Drop International Foundation, and the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal.

François Lafortune

Partner, CEO of Diagram

Francois Lafortune is a Partner at Portage Ventures and the Founder and CEO of Diagram Ventures. Prior to his current role, François spent eight years at McKinsey & Company, where he co-led the Canadian Business Technology practice. François also worked at Tandem Expansion, a growth equity fund focused on Canadian technology companies.

François launched his first business at the age of 13, assembling and selling white boxes personal computers. In 1999, he was the youngest entrepreneur to join Qualité Étudiants, a home services franchise system. In 2002, François co-founded Vitres.net, which has since grown to become the largest student franchise system in Quebec. He is now the Chairman of the Board of Residencia, the parent company, which owns six home services brands and serves more than 20,000 clients annually.

François is the recipient of a B.Eng. degree from McGill University (Honours Program, graduating with Great Distinction), and holds a MBA from Stanford’s GSB.

Joseph Lau

Chief Information Security Officer

Joseph Lau is the Chief Information Security Officer at Sagard Holdings.

Prior to this role, Joseph was the Head of Critical Infrastructure Partnerships at the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security where he oversaw the declassification and transfer of cyber defence technology from government to large financial services enterprises in Canada and managed a team of cyber security advisors who supported the telecommunications, finance, energy, health, and transportation sectors.

Before the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, Joseph spent time in Doha, Qatar with Global Risk Advisors where he was the Director of Cyber Security. His prior experience includes a long history of public service as part of Canada's Communications Security Establishment where he spent fifteen years in progressive roles at the intersection of technology and security.

Joseph holds a Bachelor of Computer Science (Honours) from the University of Manitoba and a Master of Business Administration from Queen’s University.

Jonathan Metrick

Chief Growth Officer

Jonathan Metrick is the Chief Growth Officer of Portage. Prior to coming onboard, Jonathan was the CMO of Policygenius, America’s leading insuretech marketplace, where he led a division of +40, helped the business scale 10x in revenue, and secure their Series D funding.

Previously, Jonathan led marketing at Hult International Business School in London, building out their global marketing teams, and has marketing experience across entertainment (Live Nation), luxury goods (Tiffany & Co) and retail (Diesel). Jonathan began his marketing career at Procter & Gamble in Toronto. He is also the board chair for the Canadian Climate Challenge.

Jonathan holds an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Commerce with distinction from Queen’s University.

Elsa Vilarinho

Communications and Brand Lead

Elsa Vilarinho has served as Communications and Brand Lead at Sagard since 2021. As a member of the value creation team, Elsa oversees the overall strategy and orchestration of Sagard's brand and external communications activities, and provides support to the leadership teams of portfolio partners in areas of communications. She is based in Montreal, Canada.

Prior to Sagard, Elsa was Vice-President of Marketing at an IOT startup where she was responsible for building the marketing practice and positioning the corporate brand. For the last 15 years, Elsa managed large tech and finance accounts in some of Canada's leading advertising agencies, most recently at SID LEE. For almost a decade, she was an elementary school teacher.

Elsa holds a B.Ed. from the University of Montreal where she graduated in 2000 and is in the process of obtaining her MBA from HEC Montreal. Elsa is also a proud member of the board for Equilibre and the emcee of Alcove, a series of micro-conferences featuring visionaries across all industries.

Leslie Hill

Senior Principal, Investor Relations

Leslie Hill is a Senior Principal, Investor Relations at Portage Ventures and is based in New York. Prior to this role, she was a Director at Optima Fund Management, an alternative asset manager, where she managed the firm’s U.S. long/short equity portfolios. As a voting investment committee member, she also facilitated the firm’s investment dialogue with its diversified client base.

Leslie holds a Bachelor of Arts in Government, cum laude, from Harvard College.

Johnita W. Mizelle

Senior Principal, US Distribution

Johnita Walker Mizelle is a Senior Principal, US Distribution at Sagard and joined the firm in 2021. Johnita is responsible for raising assets across each of Sagard's strategies and their underlying funds with a focus on US-based investors. Johnita is based in New York, US.

Prior to Sagard, Johnita was Head of Investor Relations & Ecosystem Development for the Americas at Anthemis Group. Prior to that, Johnita has held roles at LM Capital Group running the business development team and serving on the executive committee. Johnita began her career at Goldman Sachs in the equities division and has subsequently held senior roles at The Williams Capital Group, Progress Investment Management Company and Lyxor Asset management.

Johnita holds a Bachelor of Science from Spelman College (1996) where she studied chemistry and was a NASA Scholar, and she holds a MBA from Harvard Business School (2008) and was a Morgan Stanley Fellow and recipient of the Dean’s Award for Leadership.

Amer Javed

Vice-President of Finance

Amer is the Vice-President of Finance at Portage Ventures. Prior to joining Sagard, Amer served as the Vice-President of Finance at Tangerine Bank (formerly ING Bank of Canada) and as the Chief Financial Officer of Tangerine Investment Management Inc. and Tangerine Investment Funds Limited. Amer brings deep expertise in designing, building and implementing effective, efficient and scalable Finance department work-flow procedures, controls, policies and systems. Amer is an alumni of KPMG and graduated from the University of Toronto with a bachelor of commerce degree with a specialization in accounting and a major in economics.

Joanie Bérard

Director of Fund Accounting

Joanie Bérard is a Director of Fund Accounting at Sagard Holdings and is based in Montreal. Prior to joining Sagard, Joanie spent 7 years at PSP, where she was most recently Director in their Investment Finance team. She was also with Deloitte, where she earned her CA/CPA designations.

She is a graduate of HEC Montreal.

Kristine Collado

Director of Fund Accounting

Kristine Collado is a Director of Fund Accounting, Portage at Sagard and joined the firm in 2021. Kristine is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day fund operations, NAV calculations and capital activities for Portage Ventures. She is based in Toronto, Canada.

Prior to joining Sagard, Kristine served as a Vice President at Maples Group where she managed the fund accounting services and was an integral part in establishing a Center of Excellence in Montreal. Kristine started her career with Citco Group Limited in Singapore, where over 11.5 years she held different roles within the middle office and fund accounting department and most recently worked as a manager in Toronto.

Kristine holds a B.S. degree in Accounting (Cum Laude) from the Ateneo de Zamboanga University in the Philippines.

Maxime Desrochers

Director of Fund Accounting

Junaid Subhan

Director, Legal Affairs and Chief Compliance Officer

Junaid Subhan is Director, Legal Affairs and Chief Compliance Officer at Sagard Holdings. Before joining in 2019, Junaid served as General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer & Corporate Secretary at CoPower Inc., a fintech start-up. Prior to CoPower, Junaid advised on a variety of corporate and securities law matters, including public and private offerings, M&A, corporate governance and securities regulatory compliance for a wide range of market participants at the Toronto offices of Stikeman Elliott LLP. Junaid began his career in the Emerging Companies and Venture Capital group of a prominent New York-based law firm. Junaid is called to the bars of Ontario and New York and holds degrees in common law and civil law from McGill University and an undergraduate degree in science and finance from McGill University. Junaid was honoured as the “Young Lawyer of the Year 2016” by the Federation of Asian Canadian Lawyers.

Dominique Perron

Director, Legal Affairs

Dominique Perron is a Director, Legal Affairs at Sagard and joined the firm in 2020. Dominique is responsible for the oversight and management of legal matters relating to Sagard’s activities and operations, including fund formation, fundraising, investment and asset management activities (more specifically in the fields of venture capital and private equity), as well as governance, data privacy and intellectual property. Dominique is based in Montreal, Canada.

Prior to Sagard, Dominique was a Director, Legal Affairs at PSP Investments, one of Canada’s largest pension investment managers, advising on private equity transactions and fund investments in the areas of buyout, venture capital, special situations, credit and infrastructure. Before PSP, Dominique was an Associate in Corporate / M&A at Stikeman Elliott LLP.

Dominique holds a Civil Law (LL.L) degree from Laval University and a Masters (LL.M) degree from McGill University. She is also a member of the Quebec bar. She currently serves as President of the Board of Dress for Success Montreal and previously served as chair for a number of not-for-profit governance, community and fundraising initiatives.

Carina Doshi

Chief of Staff

Carina Doshi is Chief of Staff, Portage Ventures at Sagard and joined the firm in 2021. Carina is a trusted partner working closely with the Chief Executive Officer of Portage Ventures, and is responsible for managing various strategic initiatives and supporting decision making through research and execution. She is based in Toronto, Canada.

Prior to Sagard, Carina was Assistant Vice President, Corporate Strategy, at Manulife where she was responsible for global strategic planning and strategic initiatives, in collaboration with business and functional leaders, that enabled the company’s plans for growth, performance management, and new market entry. Before that, she was an Investment Associate at TA Associates where she was responsible for sourcing, investment due diligence and portfolio value creation, and an Investment Banking Analyst in the Financial Institutional Group at Citigroup.

Carina holds B.S. in International Economics from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University (summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa) and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Melissa Gasser

Principal

Melissa Gasser is a Principal at Portage Ventures and also serves as Principal at Sagard Holdings based in Montreal. Prior to this role, she worked as a Senior Analyst in the Financial Services group at Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), where she provided in-depth research and investment analysis to the Global and Canadian equity portfolio managers and additional support to the Private Equity and Fixed Income teams.

Melissa earned a BComm in Finance and Economics from the John Molson School of Business at Concordia University.

Robert Hamlin

Principal

Robert ("Bob") Hamlin is a Principal at Portage Ventures and based in New York. Prior to joining Portage in 2019, Bob worked for the International Finance Corporation, the investment arm of the World Bank. At IFC, he was a member of the Young Professionals Program and an Associate with the Global Fintech Investment Group, one of the largest emerging market fintech investors globally with $450 million invested to date across 46 companies. Prior to joining IFC, he worked as an investment banker for Marlin & Associates, a boutique investment bank focused on the fintech sector, and began his career with the Investment Banking division of Goldman Sachs.

Bob holds a Bachelor of Arts in Social Studies from Harvard (graduating cum laude) and a Master of Business Administration from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He serves on the Advisory Board of The Resolution Project, a New York-based non-profit that funds and mentors young people pursuing social impact ventures in 80 countries.

Sinath Kim

Principal, Partnerships & Policy

Sinath Kim is a Principal on the Partnerships & Policy team at Portage Ventures. Prior to joining Portage, she was responsible for identifying and facilitating fintech partnerships, delivering insights on fintech trends, and leading the implementation of the partnerships framework as Director, Innovation Engagement at CIBC. Sinath also has in-depth knowledge and experience in risk and compliance through her time at BMO Financial Group.

Sinath has an MBA from the Schulich School of Business at York University and an MLIS from the University of Western Ontario.

Brendan Callaghan

Head of Enterprise Sales

Brendan Callaghan is a Senior Sales Principal at Portage Ventures. There, he is responsible for helping our portfolio companies build their inside sales capabilities and be helping develop/coach sales teams to be more scalable.

Before joining Portage, Brendan has had a career working with some of Toronto’s most notable start up’s Honeycomb Worldwide, Varicent Software, Field ID, and Leonardo. Brendan’s last role before joining Portage was as the Global Sales leader for OrangeHRM where he was responsible for all aspects of sales for the company.

Brendan is accustomed to starting a sales team from scratch or taking over an existing team and bringing in process and accountability within the sales organization. Brendan is also a former Co-President of the American Association of Inside Sales Professionals and an admitted Sales Geek.

Brendan graduated with a BA in Honours Business studies at the University of Huddersfield.

Ricky Lai

Principal

Ricky Lai is a Senior Associate at Portage Ventures and is based in Toronto. Prior to joining Portage, Ricky worked at a Canadian startup focused on simplifying responsible consumer lending in the US. Ricky also spent time as an Associate at Mithril360, the analytics and portfolio management affiliate of Mithril Capital Management. Prior to that, Ricky was a member of the Mergers and Acquisitions advisory practice for KPMG Canada, where he focused on strategic and financial investments in software and healthcare companies.

Ricky received a BSc and a MAcc from the University of Waterloo, specializing in Biotechnology and Accounting. Ricky is a chartered professional accountant (CPA, CA).

Jake Bodanis

Associate

Jake Bodanis is an Associate, Portage Ventures at Sagard and joined the firm in 2019. As a member of Portage, Jake invests in early-stage and growth-stage fintech opportunities globally. He is responsible for all aspects of the investment process, including origination, due diligence, execution, and portfolio management. Within the investment portfolio, Jake is a board observer of Conquest Planning. He is based in Montreal, Canada.

Prior to Sagard, Jake worked in the Private Equity group at PSP Investments where he worked on leveraged buyouts and structured investment transactions in the financial services, technology, and retail sectors.

Jake holds a B.A. in Honours Business Administration from the Richard Ivey School of Business (Dean's Honour List).

Mickias Hailu

Associate

Mickias Hailu is an Associate, Portage Ventures at Sagard and joined the firm in 2021. As a member of Portage, Mickias invests in early-stage and growth-stage fintech opportunities globally. He is responsible for all aspects of the investment process, including origination, due diligence, execution, and portfolio management. He is based in New York.

Prior to Sagard, Mickias worked for The Hartford, a diversified insurance and investment management company. At the Hartford, he was a Senior Analyst supporting the M&A and Strategic Venture Capital teams where he helped execute nearly $6 billion in large-scale transactions and perform diligence on early-stage investment opportunities (Seed, Series A, Series B). He also completed The Hartford’s Leadership Development Program and had prior rotations in Wealth Management and IT Finance. During his time in business school, he worked with Core Innovation Capital, a fintech-focused VC, on an investment thesis about financial inclusion.

Mickias holds a B.Sc. in Finance and minor in Global Enterprise Technology (magna cum laude) from Syracuse University. He also holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. Mickias is a recipient of the Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA) designation. He is an alumni and active volunteer for Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT), a nonprofit that is helping build corporate leadership pipelines with qualified Black, Latinx and Native American candidates.

Andre Masse

Associate

Andre Masse is an Associate, Portage Ventures at Sagard and joined the firm in 2018. As a member of Portage, Andre invests in early-stage and growth-stage fintech opportunities globally. He is responsible for all aspects of the investment process, including origination, due diligence, execution, and portfolio management. Andre is a board observer of Albert, Atomic, Boosted.ai, Integrate.ai and Pledg. He is based in Montreal.

Prior to Sagard, Andre was an Associate at the Boston Consulting Group in Montreal where he developed digital strategy in the Retail sector and worked in the Technology and Telecommunications practice on pricing & promo analysis. Prior to that, he interned in Sales & Trading with National Bank of Canada’s Structured Products team and in Statistics at SOM Surveys & Studies.

Andre holds a B.B.A. in Finance from HEC Montreal (Honours).

Grégoire Viat

Associate

Grégoire Viat is an Associate at Portage Ventures based in Paris. Prior to joining Portage in 2021, he spent more than six years in Investment Banking with Morgan Stanley in London and Paris. He was involved in a number of transactions across M&A and capital markets (public and private) in the Basic Materials sector globally.

Grégoire holds a master’s degree from ESCP Business School in Paris, from which he graduated in 2014.

Carl Qiu

Associate, Partnerships and Policy

Carl Qiu is an Associate, Partnerships and Policy at Sagard and joined the firm in 2021. With a particular focus on Portage Ventures, the venture capital arm of Sagard, Carl is responsible for helping Sagard’s investors maximize the strategic value of their investment by identifying and facilitating commercial partnerships between limited partners and portfolio companies and delivering actionable insights on market trends and developments in collaboration with the investment and value creation teams. He is a member of the value creation team and is based in Toronto, Canada.

Prior to Sagard, Carl spent four years at RBC across several divisions, most recently at RBC Ventures where he supported the relationship management and business development teams on key strategic initiatives.

Carl holds an MBA from the Schulich School of Business, York University and a B.B.A. in Political Science from the University of Toronto.

Cassandra D'Ambrosio

Fund Accountant

Cassandra D’Ambrosio is a Fund Accountant at Sagard Holdings and is based in Montreal. Before joining in 2019, she worked in audit for several years, beginning her career at PwC and then switching to PSB Boisjoli where she became a manager in the audit and assurance department. Cassandra has worked in diversified activity sectors including mutual funds trusts and pension plans. She is currently a lecturer at the McGill School of Continuing Studies teaching various audit and assurance topics for the Graduate Certificate in Professional Accounting program.

Cassandra obtained a Bachelor Degree in Commerce as well as a Graduate Diploma in Public Accountancy from McGill University and is a CPA auditor, CA.

Charlene Li

Fund Accountant

Charlene Li is a Fund Accountant at Sagard and joined the firm in 2021. Charlene is responsible for day-to-day fund operations, NAV calculations, and the accounting of capital activities for Portage Ventures, the venture capital arm of Sagard. She is a member of the finance team and is based in Montreal, Canada.

Prior to Sagard, Charlene served as a Senior Analyst at Fiera Capital and Senior Fund Accountant at Maples Group where she delivered NAV calculations for clients with a total AUM of over $3B.

Charlene holds a B.Comm. in Accounting from McGill University. She is a candidate for the Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA, CA) and Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designations.

Karel Vuong

Senior Associate, Investor Relations

Karel Vuong is a Senior Associate, Investor Relations at Portage Ventures based in Toronto. Prior to joining Portage, he served as the General Manager and first employee at Diagram where he established a new $30M fintech-focused fund and venture builder. Karel began his career as a software developer and product manager in Toronto, Waterloo, and the San Francisco Bay Area. Karel studied Computer Science at the University of Toronto - Trinity College.

Ahmed Syed

Associate, Investor Relations

Ahmed Syed is an Associate at Sagard Holdings and is based in Toronto. Prior to this role, he was an Associate at CIBC Capital Markets where he supported the Equity Derivatives Trading desk, assisting with Structured Notes origination and related Treasury functions.

Ahmed Syed holds a Bachelor of Accounting and Financial Management (Honors, Co-op) from the University of Waterloo.

James Crocker

Data Engineer

James Crocker is a Data Engineer at Portage Ventures and is based in Toronto. Prior to this role, he was the Data Lead at Setter, a home services marketplace, where he built out their data infrastructure, models and metrics leading to a data driven culture that achieved 5x YoY growth.

James holds a Masters in Business Analytics from Ivey Business School, from which he finished as Valedictorian, and B.Sc in Computer Science and B.E.Sc in Engineering from Western University from which he graduated 1st in class.

Roberg Gold

Compliance Associate

Antoinette Marrone

Director of Paralegal Services

Antoinette Marrone is Director of Paralegal Services at Portage Ventures and is based in Montreal. She also serves as Director of Paralegal Services of Sagard Holdings. Antoinette is a senior paralegal with extensive experience in corporate, commercial and securities law, and some experience in investment fund management. Before joining in 2019, Antoinette spent over 20 years in the legal field as a paralegal or as head of the paralegal department for various groups, including at a national law firm, as well as the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, Dollarama and Bombardier. She has on several occasions helped build and restructure paralegal departments. She has also served on committees promoting and mentoring paralegals and the paralegal profession.

Antoinette is a member of Canadian Association of Paralegals and of the International Practice Management Association.

Sneha Jena

Senior Corporate Accountant

Sneha Jena is a Senior Corporate Accountant at Sagard Holdings Based in Montreal. Prior to Sagard, Sneha as worked in financial accounting roles for Ernst & Young and Saint-Gobain. Sneha holds an MBA degree with Majors in Accounting & Finance and currently is a CPA Candidate.

Ivan Koparan

Research Associate

Ivan Koparan is a Research Associate, Portage Ventures at Sagard and joined the firm in 2019. Ivan is focused on investment research, investment operations and reporting efforts, and supports the investment team throughout the investment process, including origination, due diligence, execution, and portfolio management. Ivan is based in Toronto, Canada.

Prior to Sagard, Ivan interned at iGan Partners as an investment analyst, where he helped evaluate early-stage Canadian MedTech and B2B SaaS companies. Prior to that, he interned at the Ontario Ministry of Health where he worked with the Health Capital team assisting in the capital planning process for Hospitals in Ontario.

Ivan holds M.A. in Economics from the University of Waterloo with a focus on applied economics. He also received his Bachelor of Accounting and Financial Management (BAFM) from the University of Waterloo.

Leo Liu

Analyst

Leo Liu is an Analyst, Portage Ventures at Sagard and joined the firm in 2021. As a member of Portage, Leo invests in early-stage and growth-stage fintech opportunities globally. He is responsible for all aspects of the investment process, including origination, due diligence, execution, and portfolio management. He is based in Montreal, Canada. Prior to Sagard, Leo interned in Private Equity at Novacap where he worked on leveraged buyouts in the Technology, Media, and Telecommunications (TMT) sector. Prior to that, he completed a Finance internship at Procter & Gamble (P&G) where he helped assess strategic initiatives. Leo graduated from Concordia University with a B.Com. in Finance (with distinction).

Cecilia Tong

Executive Assistant

Cecilia Tong is an Executive Assistant at Portage Ventures, based in Toronto. Prior to Portage, Cecilia was an Executive Assistant at CI Investments for three years. She also brings over seven years of marketing support experience across industries such as financial services, publishing, and fashion in areas including content creation, social media, and event management.

Cecilia holds a Bachelor of Administrative Studies, Honours Marketing degree from York University.

Suong Tran

Executive Assistant

Suong Tran is an Executive Assistant at Portage Ventures and is based in Toronto. Prior to joining Portage, Suong worked in the startup industry for over 4 years and she was the Office Manager and Executive Assistant at Nymi supporting C-level executives.

Suong holds a Honours Bachelors of Arts degree in History from the University of Waterloo.

Ron Close

Leadership Advisor

Ron Close is a Leadership Advisor at Portage Ventures. Concurrently he is also a director or trustee of Maple Leaf Food Inc., Thomson Reuters Founders Share Company and MaRS Discovery District. He has previously served as CEO of Pelmorex Media Inc. (The Weather Network) and as Entrepreneur-in-Residence at The Ivey School of Business.

Ron’s other previous executive positions span from start-ups (CEO/co-founder of NetCom Canada, Inc.) to large corporations (President of BCE’s Bell New Ventures unit). His previous directorships include Pelmorex, The Globe and Mail, Canada Media Fund, CTVglobemedia and MaRS Innovation.

Ron’s non-profit activities include past chairmanship of the Toronto chapter of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO) and current membership in the World Presidents Organization (WPO).

Gregory Fleming

Advisor

Gregory J. Fleming is the Chief Executive Officer of Rockefeller Capital Management, a role he has held since the firm, formerly known as Rockefeller & Co., launched in March 2018. Mr. Fleming is also a member of the Board of Directors. Prior to leading Rockefeller Capital Management, Mr. Fleming was the President of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management and Morgan Stanley Investment Management. Before joining Morgan Stanley in 2010, he served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Merrill Lynch from 2007 to 2009, and previously ran Merrill Lynch’s Global Investment Banking business. Mr. Fleming joined Merrill Lynch as an investment banker in 1992. He had also been a principal at Booz Allen Hamilton. Mr. Fleming is a director of Colgate University; a member of the Board of Advisors for the Yale Law School Center for the Study of Corporate Law, the Council on Foreign Relations and the Economic Club of New York; a director on Turn2 Foundation Board; a trustee at Deerfield Academy; and a member of the Ronald McDonald House Board of Directors. He serves as a Visiting Lecturer in Law and a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Center for the Study of Corporate Law at Yale Law School. He is a Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude graduate in economics from Colgate University and received his J.D. from Yale Law School.

Hugues Le Bret

Advisor

Hugues Le Bret is Founder & Chairman of Nickel, a fintech created in 2012 and sold to BNP Paribas in July 2017. Hugues was previously Chairman and CEO of Boursorama, a French online bank owned by Societe Generale Group. Hugues has been Head of Communications of Société Générale Group and a member of the Company's Executive Committee for ten years (1999-2009). He was previously CEO of an Havas subsidiary (1996-1999) to whom he sold ABW, the investors relation company he founded in 1994. From 1991 to 1993, Hugues Le Bret was Head of Development at Média-Finance (Publicis Group). He started as a financial journalist in 1987. He carried out his national civil service at the French Embassy in Lima, Peru in 1988-89. He is a graduate of the ISG business school. He speaks French, English, Spanish and Italian. Hugues is a board member of Nickel, SJB (Bollinger), Xilam Animation, Algoterapeutix, Paylead and Firm Funding. He is a member of Wu, a charitable organisation helping former prisoners find work). Hugues Le Bret is the author of L'Espoir Économique (1998) The Week When Kerviel Nearly Broke The Global Financing System (2010) and NoBank (2013).

Jamess Forrest

Advisor

Jamess Forrest is an investor, advisor and entrepreneur in the Australian start up landscape. He is currently Managing Director of Clearsign Capital, a family office. He spent over 10 years with J.P. Morgan and Deutsche Bank in Australia. He formerly founded Zipments Australia, was Director of Juwai.com and currently serves on the Board of the Stanford Australia Foundation.

Imran Gulamhuseinwala

Advisor

Imran Gulamhuseinwala is the Implementation Trustee for the Open Banking Implementation Entity in the United Kingdom. He was appointed by the Competition and Markets Authority in April 2017. As Implementation Trustee he is responsible for leading the Open Banking Implementation Entity and ensuring the UK's 9 largest banks implement a standard Open Banking API to meet their obligations under PSD2 and the CMA's retail banking Order. Imran was formerly the Global Head of FinTech at EY for five years where he served FinTechs, corporate clients and private equity investors on a wide range of strategic, operational, capital raising and deal-related issues. Prior to joining EY in 2014 Imran spent 16 years focussed on the financial services sector. He brings a unique perspective on the sector having worked as advisor, investor and entrepreneur in the FinTech space. Imran spent 8 years providing strategic advice with Oliver Wyman and a further 8 years investing in the financial services sector with Bridgepoint Capital and latterly with Resolution where he led the M&A team. Imran also founded FinTech 50 startup, CommuterClub. Imran holds a Masters in Engineering from Cambridge University and is a CFA charter holder.

Kris Hansen

Advisor

Kris Hansen has over 20 years of experience in providing technology solutions for the financial services industry. Throughout his career, he has led teams in architecture design, executed successful core banking transformation projects, and designed and developed commercial software. Recognized as a visionary in the industry, Kris has helped organizations develop innovative solutions that tackle today’s issues while strengthening them for the challenges ahead.

He is the former chief architect at ATB Financial and former head of solution architect at the Royal Bank of Canada. He began his career as a system administrator and software developer, started one of the first internet provider companies in Canada and built a successful software services company in the Hawaiian Islands.

Kris has received a Master of Business Administration and an undergraduate degree in applied studies from Athabasca University.

Peter Hancock

Advisor

Peter Hancock is the Former President and CEO of AIG. Prior to leading AIG, Mr. Hancock spent 20 years at J.P. Morgan where he founded the global derivatives business, restructured and ran the fixed income and credit businesses and served as group CFO and Chief Risk Officer. After joining J.P. Morgan, Mr. Hancock co-founded Integrated Finance Limited, where he served as President for seven years.

Ron Hirson

Advisor

Ron Hirson is an entrepreneurial executive and investor with two decades of business and product management experience. He currently serves as DocuSign’s Chief Product Officer leading the Product and Customer Experience teams. He joined DocuSign in 2013 and has more than 20 years of product management experience in large and entrepreneurial ventures.

Prior to DocuSign, he was an Entrepreneur In Residence at Khosla Ventures and Mayfield Fund after serving as Co-Founder and President at Boku (LON:BOKU). Before Boku, Ron was Vice President of Product Management at AT&T Interactive where he was responsible for the company’s new and existing advertising products. Prior to the acquisition of Ingenio by AT&T, Ron served as Vice President of Product Management where he led the product management team for Ingenio. Ron began his career as a management consultant with Price Waterhouse where he focused on ERP software design and implementation. Ron is an inventor with 70+ issued patents and over one hundred filings.

He has been interviewed/quoted or a guest on Bloomberg, Forbes, Fox News, NYT, TechCrunch, Reuters, WSJ, etc.

Ron is a board member of UCSF Ophthalmology Department’s fundraising arm, That Man May See, and founded Alcatraz Swim for Sight with his wife raising almost $1 Million dollars for vision research. He is also an advisor to startups including SigFig, FundBox, Sonder and PasswordBox (acquired by Intel).

Chris O'Neill

Advisor

Chris O’Neill is an Advisor to Portage Ventures, based in San Francisco. He is a purpose-driven technology leader with over 20 years of experience, including general management of some of the world’s most beloved brands, strategy, product development, go-to-market, marketing, and business operations.

O’Neill orchestrated the successful turnaround of Evernote as Chairman and CEO. Prior to Evernote, he served in several key leadership roles at Google, including business operations at Google [X] and leading Google Canada. He briefly worked in product marketing for HSBC, and began his career as a strategy management consultant at Oliver Wyman (formerly Mercer Management Consulting). O’Neill advises and invests in high-growth technology companies. As an angel investor, he focuses on exceptional Canadian entrepreneurs building enduring companies like: Ritual.co, Relay (Kik), Milq/Layer6 (TD Bank), Whirlscape, Helpful (Shopify).

He serves on the board of Gap Inc. (NYSE: GPS) and is a former board member of Tim Hortons (NYSE: THI), Shop.org, and the Canadian Marketing Association (CMA). He is currently a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO), a Charter Member of the C100, and a former member of the Canadian Council for Chief Executives (CCCE).

O’Neill graduated from the University of Western Ontario with a B.A in Economics (with distinction) and holds an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He was born in Toronto, grew up in Acton and Goderich, Ontario, and currently lives in Northern California with his wife, Christina, two children, Jack, and Molly.

Dr. Richard Reiner

Advisor

Dr. Richard Reiner is a serial entrepreneur and company builder, active with numerous companies in the cybersecurity, blockchain, and IoT space as an executive, investor, advisor, and board member. He is currently Executive Chair of dfuse; Executive Chair of Fluent.ai; and Chair of Cybeats. He was previously Chief Technology Officer - Safe Identity, in Intel's Security Group and President of PasswordBox leading up to the company's acquisition by Intel.

Sharon MacLeod

Advisor

Sharon MacLeod is an advisor at Portage Ventures and a Board Director of IGM Financial Inc.

Sharon is a marketing leader with over 20 years of experience growing brands and businesses within Unilever. Her most recent positions were Global Brand Vice President and North American Personal Care Vice President. She has been recognized as a leading marketer by her peers and led award-winning marketing campaigns across digital, social, PR, content and traditional communications. Having held Global, US and Canadian roles, Sharon has expertise leading and executing consumer driven strategy, segmentation, brand portfolio management and delivering revenue, share and profit growth.

Sharon has been a Diversity and Inclusion leader for the past decade, designing and spearheading Villa Leadership for Women, Unilever and the World Food Program’s designated program for Women’s Leadership. She is a Catalyst Canada Business Honouree and one of WXN's Most Powerful Women.