Team & Partners

Jeff is a Chartered Market Technician (CMT) and Economist. His entire career has been in the capital markets industry where he has been involved in market risk and economic analysis. As a former policy maker at the Bank of Canada, he contributed to the decision-making process to ensure financial market stability in Canada. In the private sector, he often makes trading and hedging decisions, comments on market conditions, and advises clients on hedging strategies. He is currently the Risk Manager at Maple Leaf Foods Inc.
He has served as board member in the MTA Treasury Committee, the Ontario March of Dimes Investment Committee and the Canadian National Institute for the Blind Finance Committee.

Henry is the Head of Metals Department of Korea Resources Corporation. He was the Chief Operating Officer of KORES Canada since 2010, a subsidiary of Korea Resources Corporation – Korean Government Enterprise with assets over $1.5 Billion and 40 resource projects globally. Prior to 2010, Henry held several management and director positions with KORES’ overseas and investment departments. Henry is a Geologist and holds a Bachelor of Geology degree from Seoul National University, Korea.

Mr. Alex Kanayev, MBA, CPA, ICD.D is Managing Partner at AIP Private Capital – a Canadian PE/VC firm, a member of CVCA and TMA. He is a Director of Capital Guardian and a Member of the Advisory Board of AIP Asset Management Inc. and sits on the board of several companies.

Previously, he worked as Senior Vice President at a hedge fund, sub-advisor to a Sprott Fund and was Portfolio Manager at BMO Financial Group. In Europe, Mr. Kanayev was an investment banker and worked for private equity groups and some of their conglomerates in Russia. He studied International Business at San Diego State, completed MBA at York University, is a CPA and earned the ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors. In 2014, he was nominated for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

Andrew has buy-side experience in both the private and public equity markets. Prior to joining AIP, Andrew was an analyst at a Toronto-based private equity group focusing on mid-market owner managed businesses. Andrew has transaction experience in the healthcare, clean tech, software and tech enabled service sectors.

Andrew is active in the Toronto community, where he has written numerous case studies, and sits on the fundraising committee of a Toronto based charity. Andrew completed his Bachelor of Commerce at Ryerson University and is a CPA.

Colin joins AIP from a previous career in strategy consulting and economic development. Prior to joining AIP, Colin helped establish a $20mm national innovation fund where he was responsible for creating the initial investment criteria and vetting the prospective companies.

As a consultant, Colin created launch strategies for healthcare products and blockbuster pharmaceuticals both in Canada and internationally. Colin has also helped develop brand strategies for major players in sectors such as Cannabis, Tech, Non-Profit and more. Colin has an MBA from the Schulich School of Business, and a BSc from the University of Toronto.

Saurabh is an entrepreneur turned investment professional. He started his professional career with his family business of metals and gradually ventured into the sell-side industry. He brings along 5 years of sector agnostic mid-market M&A and capital raising experience. Prior to joining AIP, Saurabh was working as an Associate at a Toronto-based investment bank. Prior to which he worked for mid-market focussed investment banks in India. Saurabh completed his Bachelor of Commerce at University of Delhi (India) and is a CFA.

Elena Pikulina, MEc, FMVA is an Analyst at AIP Private Capital. Elena has over 10 years of international corporate finance experience having worked with companies in Asia, the EU, and North America. Before joining AIP Private Capital, Elena worked for a venture stage fintech company as their Chief Financial Officer where she focused on private placement activities and improving operational efficiency by building financial reporting policies, budgeting systems, and growing the company to profitability.

Mrs. Pikulina completed her Master of Economics at Russian State University for Trade and Economics, earned a Diploma in IFRS from ACCA, a Financial Modeling and Valuation Analyst qualification from Corporate Finance Institute, and she has passed CFA Level II.

Emad is a representative from Dubai. He previously worked in the Mergers & Acquisition (M&A) Advisory Group at American Express. He has also spent a number of years in Investment Banking (M&A) at RBC Capital Markets. Emad is a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) Candidate – Level II and has a MBA from the University of Aspen.

Suresh has over 26 years of experience of managing acquisitions, strategic alliances and joint ventures and has participated in raising over $40 million. Previously, he was the CEO at Icron Technologies where he increased revenue from zero to $8 Million which resulted in the stock price increasing from $0.14 to $2.59/share. Prior to that, he worked as the COO at PCS Wireless, where he grew the company from 5 employees to 120 and was pivotal in increasing stock price from $0.15 to $17.80/share.