Asheesh Advani
Mr. Advani is the President and CEO of Virgin Money USA and pioneered the business of managing
person-to-person loans between relatives and friends as the CEO and Founder of CircleLending.
Launched in 2001, the company grew at rates exceeding 25% per quarter and established the new
product category before attracting the interest of Richard Branson's Virgin Group which acquired
a majority stake in the firm in 2007.
Asheesh is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and commentator on financial innovation in the media. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Time Magazine, profiled in segments on PBS, CNN, and National Public Radio, and is the subject of case studies at Harvard Business School and Babson College.
Raised in Toronto, Asheesh now lives in Boston, MA.
He previously worked with the World Bank in Washington DC where he first discovered the opportunity to build a business to facilitate informal finance. He began his career as a management consultant at the Monitor Group, a strategy consulting firm, and subsequently was Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Monitor’s office in Cambridge, MA. Asheesh was named one of the Boston's Top 40 Entrepreneurs Under 40 in 2005. He is a graduate of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and from Oxford University, where he received a Commonwealth Scholarship.
Phil Hopper
Phil has an extensive background in the delivery of banking based technology and financial
markets products. He is currently the founder and CEO of Australia's first P2P lending site
www.iGrin.com.au.
Has a wealth of experience in the establishment, management & delivery of on-line financial
websites. With over 15 years Banking and Technology experience he has formerly worked at
Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Macquarie Bank. He holds a Masters of Management, Grad
Dip Applied Finance & Investment, Ad. Diploma in Project Management and Bachelor of Information
Technology.
Richard Kostoff
Richard Kostoff is a Canadian financial services professional with 35 years of experience in the
investment industry. He is currently the principal of Templar Investments, a consulting and
advisory firm, located in Toronto and most recently was the Deputy Chair of TD Securities.
At TD Securities, Richard was responsible for senior capital markets coverage related to a wide variety of government, infrastructure and corporate financing assignments.
Over the course of his career, Richard’s senior management responsibilities included: fixed income sales and trading, derivative marketing and equity and debt capital markets origination. In addition to TD Securities, Richard’s relevant experience includes RBC Dominion Securities (Director), Gordon Capital (Partner), Pemberton Securities (Senior Vice President), and Midland Doherty (Vice President). He started his career at Canada Life Assurance Company as a junior fixed income trader in 1972.
Stuart MacDonald
Stuart is the CEO and Founder of TripHarbour, the web's first combined cruise community and
cruise planning and buying site. Previous to this, Stuart was Founder of
Expedia.ca
which he
grew into the most successful online travel company in Canada and the most successful local
Expedia unit in the world.
Following that successful initiative, Stuart went on to serve as SVP Packages and Chief Marketing Officer of Expedia.com, based in Seattle, WA. In that role, Stuart was responsible for marketing strategy and execution for the Expedia.com brand, one of the leading brands in the world.
Prior starting Expedia.ca, Stuart's background included a number of key sales and marketing roles in the leisure and corporate travel industry, both on and off-line, including Signature Vacations and Rider-BTI Travel Group. Stuart is also a co-founder of MESH, Canada's What's Next? Web Conference, happening annually in Toronto. Stuart sits on the Board of Directors of TakingItGlobal.org, the Toronto-based global online community for youth, using social media to promote social change, with over 170,000 members worldwide, and is an Advisor to GiveMeaning.com, the Vancouver-based philanthropic giving portal. Born in British Columbia and raised in Nova Scotia, Canada, Stuart maintains a home in Toronto with his wife and two young daughters.
Gregory Milavsky
Gregory Milavsky is an experienced private equity executive based in Toronto and is the Senior
Managing Director of Canterbury Park Capital, a Canadian private equity fund targeting
control-oriented buyout and expansion investment opportunities in small to mid market companies.
Mr. Milavsky was previously Managing Director and Group Head of Private Equity Investments for
Scotiabank, a position he has held since July 2000. Prior to that he was head of Rothschild
Quantico Capital, a merchant banking venture based in Toronto.
In addition to the foregoing, Mr. Milavsky's extensive experience in the investment industry includes five years at Rothschild Canada Limited, most recently as Senior Vice President and Director. Prior to Rothschild he worked for James D. Wolfensohn Incorporated in New York and for the Canadian Imperial Bank Group in London and Tokyo. Mr. Milavsky graduated from the University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Applied Science in Civil Engineering and has a Master in Business Administration degree with Distinction from the Harvard Business School.
Anthony Novac
Anthony Novac is an accomplished technology and real estate developer, angel investor
and entrepreneur.
Currently Anthony is the CEO and co-founder of Toronto based technology start-up, Spreed Inc. and is the President of an entertainment focused real estate development company.
Previous to this, Anthony had been a co-founder and CEO to three companies in the last 7 years, all of which Anthony has lead the growth and sold off to the delight of his shareholders and investors.
As an angel investor, Anthony is actively engaged in advice to start-ups in which he is personally invested.
Anthony heralds from Halifax and currently lives in Toronto with his wife and two children.