Investment and Operations
David Mansell
David Mansell
Founder & Managing Partner
David is a tenured private equity executive, having spent 18 years at Onex Corporation, a Toronto-based global private equity firm, including ten years as a Managing Director. David has invested through several economic cycles and has been a key player on a number of successful investments, and also one or two tough investments where many lessons were learned.
David led Onex’s investing activities in the North American packaging, machinery & equipment, and consumer sectors and has experience with virtually all types of transactions including take-privates, IPOs, sponsor-to-sponsor, carve-outs, tuck-ins, and selling to strategic buyers. David led or co-led investments totaling ~US$2 billion of equity and worked on transactions totaling ~US$3 billion of equity.
During 2020 and early 2021, David served as an advisor to Finance Canada and then as CEO of Canada Enterprise Emergency Funding Corp., a Federal Crown Corporation charged with implementing the Large Employer Emergency Financing Facility (LEEFF) program to provide liquidity to large Canadian companies impacted by COVID-19.
Before joining Onex, David worked for McKinsey & Co. in New York and Toronto. David qualified as a chartered accountant, has an MBA from Harvard Business School, and a B.Comm. from University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa.
David has been a board member of various private and public companies based in Canada, the U.S., Germany, and Switzerland.
David and his wife have four children. He is an avid tennis player and rugby fan. David is actively involved in leadership roles at several not-for-profit organizations.
Steve Lawrynuik
Steve Lawrynuik
Founder & Operating Partner
Steve has almost three decades of senior leadership, operating and business transformation experience, including 25 years at Husky Injection Molding Systems, a global leader of plastic injection molding equipment and services, where he ran Husky’s Machines and Hot Runner divisions. During the four years that Husky was owned by Onex, EBITDA more than doubled, earning ~3x multiple of capital. This result was driven by an extensive business transformation plan covering strategic sourcing, operations, aftermarket, product re-engineering, product-line rationalization, and SG&A restructuring. Steve was the executive suite leader of this transformation plan.
After the successful execution of the transformation plan, Steve became President of Husky’s Medical & Specialty Packaging business where he led the acquisition of Schoettli, a Swiss mold maker with plants in China and California, and led the integration of Schoettli and the previously acquired KTW business. Steve and his leadership team led the closure of several facilities and consolidated production while improving output by introducing production control processes, systems and software, and driving capacity sharing across all plants globally.
Since leaving Husky in 2018, Steve has been active on various initiatives. He serves on the board of Precision Global, a leading manufacturer of aerosol valves and actuators. As an active board member and advisor to Precision’s CEO, Steve has played a key role in the successful execution of Precision’s transformation. Steve recently led the successful sale of a small privately-owned business to a family office investor.
Steve attended Queens University and is a mechanical engineer. Steve and his wife have four children and live just north of Toronto. He enjoys outdoor sports and adventure travel.
Ian Kessler
Ian Kessler
Founder & Partner
Ian is an experienced private equity investor who has worked across several industries and transaction types at Brookfield Asset Management, a leading global alternative asset manager, and Onex Corporation, a Toronto-based private equity firm.
Ian has experience with a range of transaction types including complex carve-outs, public-to-privates, tuck-ins, and sponsor-to-sponsor deals across industrials, packaging, business services, consumer, healthcare, and infrastructure services.
While at Brookfield, Ian covered business services in North America for Brookfield’s flagship private equity fund. He helped lead transactions across private equity strategies, including Brookfield’s flagship private equity, long-term equities, special investments, and growth teams.
While at Onex, Ian was actively involved in evaluating acquisitions and conducting due diligence on investment opportunities. He served as a board observer of SCP Health.
Before joining Onex, Ian worked for McKinsey & Co. in New York and Toronto. Ian’s client experience included business transformation underwriting and execution, sales optimization, capital planning, as well as strategic and transactional projects for institutional investors.
Ian graduated from Harvard Law School where he served as president of the Harvard Association for Law and Business. He received a B.A. from New York University where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
Ian and his wife live in Toronto with their three children. Ian serves on the boards of UJA of Greater Toronto and Hold’em For Life Charity Challenge.
Ivan Jovcevski
Ivan Jovcevski
Partner & Chief Financial Officer
Ivan is an experienced private equity executive, bringing over 13 years of industry experience to the firm. As CFO of Kent Road Capital, Ivan is responsible for the firm’s operations, investor relations, and finance functions.
Prior to joining Kent Road Capital, Ivan held a variety of roles and responsibilities in Onex Corporation’s finance group, including public and fund financial reporting, consolidation and, most recently, leading the performance reporting and analysis function. Ivan began his career in the PricewaterhouseCoopers Toronto audit and assurance practice, serving public and private clients across a range of industries.
Ivan is both a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA, CA) in Ontario and a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in Illinois, and holds a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) from the University of Toronto.
Julian Perrault
Julian Perrault
Senior Associate
Since joining Kent Road, Julian has been actively involved in evaluating and conducting due diligence on new investment opportunities.
Prior to joining Kent Road, Julian was a member of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) Relationship Investments team, providing strategic capital to public companies, and CPPIB’s Active Equities North America team, a long/short public equity strategy. Prior to CPPIB, Julian worked in the diversified industries investment banking team at National Bank Financial.
Julian holds an Honors Business Administration degree from the Ivey Business School at Western University.
Desmond Swamy
Desmond Swamy
Principal
Since joining Kent Road, Desmond has been actively involved in all areas of the investment process, which includes identifying new opportunities and conducting due diligence.
Prior to joining Kent Road, Desmond was part of the investment team at Clairvest, a Toronto-based private equity firm. While at Clairvest, Desmond focused on evaluating opportunities in land-based gaming and industrials across North America. He served as a board member of Durante Rentals, Air Tindi and Discovery Mining Services.
Prior to Clairvest, Desmond worked in investment banking at Goldman Sachs and RBC Capital Markets.
Desmond graduated from the Ivey Business School and Western University with a dual degree in Business Administration and Biological Sciences.
Garbo Liu
Garbo Liu
Associate
Since joining Kent Road, Garbo has been actively involved in evaluating and conducting due diligence on new investment opportunities as well as supporting portfolio company activity.
Prior to joining Kent Road, Garbo was a part of the Consumer and Industrial Products investment banking team at RBC Capital Markets. While at RBCCM, Garbo focused on mergers and acquisitions as well as equity and debt financing in the consumer, retail, business services and restaurant space in North America.
Garbo graduated from the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University with a double degree in Mathematics and Business Administration.
Senior Advisors
Mark MacTavish
Mark MacTavish
Chair of Investment Committee
Mark has over 25 years of experience as an investor and advisor. As an investor, Mark invests personal capital in select lower middle market businesses and certain non-private equity asset classes. As a value-added advisor, Mark sits on several operating company and philanthropic Boards as well as on Investment Committees and Advisory Boards for select private equity investment entities.
From 2000 until 2021, Mark held increasingly senior leadership positions at ONCAP, the North American middle-market private equity platform of Onex Corporation, in both Toronto and New York, where he joined as one of the four initial founding hires and helped grow and lead the firm over four successively larger private equity funds. Prior to joining ONCAP, Mark held private equity positions at Lehman Brothers in New York and J.H. Whitney & Company in Connecticut.
Mark holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Queen’s University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Michael Buckstein
Michael Buckstein
Michael is Chief Executive Officer of Barrday, Inc. and, since acquiring the company in 1993, has grown the business to become a world leader in protective and composite markets. To meet its growing needs Barrday added weaving, coating, laminating and unidirectional facilities in the United States, acquired a prepreg operation in the United States, acquired chemical operations in Canada, and established both distribution and a joint venture with European partners.
Prior to joining Barrday in 1993, Michael was a merchant banker with First City Capital Markets and prior to that was an industrial engineer, plant manager and technical sales engineer with Dominion Automotive Industries, Inc. Michael has a Bachelor of Applied Sciences in Industrial Engineering from the University of Toronto and an MBA from Harvard University.
Michael is an active investor in a variety of manufacturing, technology, and real estate ventures and is also active in many community endeavors. Michael lives in Toronto with his wife, Rena, and they have three sons.
Colleen Goggins
Colleen Goggins
Colleen is an experienced senior executive who has worked across a broad range of industry categories and geographies. She is recognized for her track record of profitable business-building and maximizing team performance.
Colleen joined Johnson & Johnson in 1981 and over time, assumed increasing responsibility in marketing and general management roles. In 2010, she was appointed to the Johnson & Johnson Executive Committee as the Worldwide Chairman of the Consumer Group. She served in this role for 10 years, with responsibility for strategic leadership of the $16BN personal care and healthcare portfolio. She oversaw a number of successful turn-arounds and completed over 40 strategic acquisitions, leading to significant growth during this period.
Since then, Colleen has served as a non-executive director for public companies, including the TD Bank Group, BAYER AG, SIG Group AG and IQVIA Corporation, and as an advisory board member for companies held by Onex and Blackstone.
Colleen holds a Masters of Management degree from the Kellogg School of Management and a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin- Madison.
Colleen is engaged in service with a number of non-profit organizations, with a focus on higher education and food sufficiency. She is a member of the University of Wisconsin Foundation, is a trustee of the International Institute of Education and serves on the Board of New York Citymeals-on-Wheels. She resides in Princeton, NJ.
Mike Haddad
Mike Haddad
Mike served as President and CEO of Schreiber Foods from 2008-2019 and now serves as Board Chair of Schreiber’s Board of Directors. Schreiber is a leading producer of customer-brand yogurt, cream cheese, natural cheese, American cheese and shelf stable beverages, with over 8,000 employees and 32 production facilities on five continents.
Mike joined Schreiber in 1995 after spending eight years with Haddad Enterprises, a family-owned business. In 2006, he was named President and COO and elected to Schreiber’s Board of Directors.
In the community, Mike is a former Director for the Make-A-Wish Foundation-Wisconsin and a former Trustee of St Norbert College. Mike currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Green Bay Packers, Bellin Health Systems, Associated Bank and the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy. Mike is also a veteran having served four years in the United States Marine Corp Reserves.
He and his wife Leanne have two grown children and have also been blessed with three grandchildren.
David Komlos
David Komlos
David is an entrepreneur, CEO, and expert in how to accelerate problem-solving, team alignment and transformation. For over 20 years, CEOs and leaders of Fortune 500 companies, private equity-backed firms, health systems and governments have partnered with David on how to approach their top challenges. He has founded and led several companies, including Syntegrity, a globally-respected consultancy that was acquired by RTI International in 2016.
David is co-author of Cracking Complexity: The Breakthrough Formula for Solving Just About Anything, From Anywhere, Fast. He is a speaker and is published in the Wall Street Journal, HBR.org, Chief Executive, Fast Company, World Economic Forum, and Forbes.
David has been a board member of several private companies and currently serves on the Advisory Board of the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association, a global organization committed to achieving gender parity in leadership positions. He has an MBA from the Schulich School of Business in Toronto and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Toronto.
David and his spouse have 3 children. He is an avid runner and skier.
Colin Osborne
Colin Osborne
Colin is President and CEO of Samuel, Son & Co., Limited. Samuel is a complex industrial products company, with ~$4.5 billion of sales and close to 100 facilities operating in Canada, U.S and Mexico.
Before joining Samuel in 2015, Mr. Osborne was President and CEO of Vicwest Inc, a publicly traded industrial products company with operations in NA, Europe and South America. Earlier in his career, Colin held senior leadership positions at Stelco Inc including COO and EVP Strategy.
Colin sits on the Board of Samuel, Son & Co. and Hudbay Minerals Inc, and previously sat on the board of numerous public and private equity run businesses including Strongco Inc. and TMS International.
Colin has also been active in the community and has been on the board of both Mohawk College and McMaster Innovation Park. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree from McGill University and has completed the Executive Management Program from the Smith School of Business at Queen’s University.
Jim Reid
Jim Reid
Jim knows what it takes to build a high-performing culture and successfully lead organizations through tremendous growth. An accomplished executive and trusted advisor to seven CEOs, Jim has navigated significant change and immense pressure to consistently build winning teams that outperform.
Originally trained as a military officer and helicopter pilot graduating at the top of his class, Jim built his leadership expertise working alongside key thinkers, including Jim Collins, Jeffrey Pfeffer, John Kotter and Dave Ulrich.
As the recently retired Chief Human Resources Officer at Rogers Communications, Jim has been on the forefront of transformational change making the company one of the best places to work in Canada. Recognized by ROB Magazine in 2021 as one of Canada’s 50 best executives, Jim brings credibility, insight, and integrity to all he does.
Jim’s book ‘Leading to Greatness’ will be published in March 2022. It combines the best research on high performance with over 30 years of observing what the very best leaders do differently to excel.
Jim and his wife Pattie have four children and a growing team of grandchildren.
Frank Stieler
Frank Stieler
Frank is a non-executive board member, a mentor and an industry expert to various executives and investors. Until 2020, Frank was CEO of the KraussMaffei Group, one of the world’s leading suppliers of machinery and systems for manufacturing plastics and rubber products. Over the last 20 years, Frank has held numerous leadership positions with international industrial companies – focusing on machinery, plant engineering, and large projects.
Prior to KraussMaffei, Frank worked for Siemens and Hochtief as well as for Lurgi (today Air Liquid Group). At Siemens, Frank built the Oil & Gas business. At Hochtief AG, where he was appointed CEO in 2011, he managed the €24 billion group after a hostile takeover and refocused the organization.
Frank is an avid mountain hiker and skier. He lives together with his wife in Germany, just outside of Frankfurt. They have five grown children and four grandchildren thus far.
Rob Tiede
Rob Tiede
Rob is the former CEO of Sonoco (NYSE:SON), one of the largest diversified global packaging companies, with sales of over $5 billion and over 20,000 employees working in 30 countries.. Prior to being named CEO, Rob served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Sonoco, with global leadership, sales and operating responsibility for all of the Company’s diversified consumer, industrial and protective packaging businesses.
Prior to joining Sonoco, Rob worked in private equity as president of Bostic Packaging/ CorrFlex from 2000 to 2004 and president of Sterling International from 1998 to 2000. He also served as EVP of operations for Graphic Packaging’s flexible packaging division.
Currently Rob is an advisor and board member of several private companies.
Rob is active in industry and community organizations and serves on the board of trustees of Azusa Pacific University and is the former chairman of the Flexible Packaging Association and the Hartsville United Way. A native of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Rob became a US citizen in 2013. He and his wife Val have three grown children.
Specialist Advisors
Joel Bangalan
Joel Bangalan
Specialist Advisor - Data Science
Joel has over a decade of experience designing and implementing solutions and analytics for complex organizations. He has participated in several transformation programs for organizations that are shifting from a traditional spreadsheet-based reporting towards solution-based technologies that seek to optimize performance and scalability while retaining flexibility.
Joel has developed data analytics solutions for clients in the manufacturing, retail, food service, asset management, real estate and software subscription industries. His analytical expertise is applied to planning, budgeting, and reporting, as well as on sales and revenue forecasting, workforce scheduling, payroll planning, and advanced statistical analysis.
Joel has global team management experience and has educational and practical background in predictive analytics, mathematics, and risk management. He is a CFA Charterholder (CFA Institute) and a Financial Risk Manager (FRM) and is well-versed in the AGILE Project Management methodology. His management consulting experience includes: business requirements identification, analysis of alternatives, forming recommendations, and facilitating stakeholder discussions.
David Benoliel
David Benoliel
Digital Strategy & Growth
David has over three decades of experience founding and growing a number of companies, both in Canada and internationally. David has a career-long dedication to software- and internet-powered business with a focus on strategic brand and product development, digital / growth marketing, marketing and sales automation, go-to-market strategy, business development, customer success, and sales operations. David works with growing teams, driving them toward successful partnerships and customer development from early stage to market scaling for multi-million-dollar operations.
David’s experience includes leading product and market transformation for Flipgive.com, a sports team funding app, helping to grow annual revenue from $20 million to over $100 million; for Avid, growing annual revenue by 50% as CRO; and other successful projects at CX Digital, a global affiliate and display media group; Eidenai Innovations, an enterprise technology consulting firm; and Ainfluencer.com, an influencer marketplace.
David has a BA from York University and is active in the tech startup community as mentor and advisor. When not spending time with his wife and three sons, David can be found playing and building guitars, playing hockey, tennis, softball, snowboarding and boating.
Jakov Zaidman
Jakov Zaidman
Cyber Security
Jakov is a Principal Information Technology Consultant with over 30 years of technology and business experience. Jakov holds an ISC2 Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) certification. Jakov specializes in Cybersecurity and Information Privacy, IT Architecture, Network Security and Infrastructure, and in assessing and enhancing customer cybersecurity programs by following best practices and industry regulations.
Jakov founded InterLAN Consulting in 1991, to focus on providing advisory services in the areas of network infrastructure and cybersecurity. Over the years, Jakov advised organizations, established cybersecurity programs, and designed and built secure network architectures. Jakov worked with enterprises in both public and private sectors and a wide range of verticals, ranging from hundreds to tens of thousands of employees. Jakov was also the lead IT architect behind the creation of the Ontario Telemedicine Network.
Jakov started his professional career in the Israeli Air Force, working on the nation-wide deployment and maintenance of modernized air traffic control systems. Before founding InterLAN, Jakov worked in senior IT architecture roles for companies Digital Equipment and Intel.
