Business Advisor
Stephen is a leading advisor and financial expert who works with private Business Owners to drive value and to put in place transformational strategies that position businesses for exit on optimal terms.
He has a successful track record in the Private Equity and Venture Capital Industry, managing large portfolios of private companies developing growth strategies, executing transformations and achieving numerous liquidity events. He has international credentials being a qualified CPA, CA in Ontario, Canada and is an FCA in England and Wales.
Prior to founding Rizolve Partners, a leading strategic business advisory firm to the Lower Mid-Market, Stephen was a leading executive with a top quartile Private Equity firm DRI Capital and a Partner with Lumira Capital, one of Canada's leading Venture Capital firms. Before applying his skills in private capital, Stephen was the CFO at Harlequin Enterprises, a global publisher, and qualified as a CPA and Chartered Accountant with Deloitte in London, UK.
Stephen has also conducted numerous successful consulting assignments in his own consulting practice involving acquisitions, disposals, financings, reorganizations, turnarounds and strategic advisory to numerous CEOs in both the public and private arenas.
Stephen served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Ontario Genomics and Chaired its audit committee for over 10 years, retiring in late 2023.
Stephen received a B. Sc. in Economics with honors from the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom.
In the Private Equity industry Stephen has chaired a country wide CFO task force leading this industry group through such paradigm changes in International Financial Reporting Standards, and Private Equity Valuation and Reporting best practices.
He is also a sought after international speaker.
Business Focus
Rizolve Partners is a group of multi-disciplinary Advisors with significant experience in leading companies through growth and accretion in value while preparing an exit for shareholders. They advise on putting strategies in place to improve the quality of the assets of the company and drive increases in value. This advice is given is typically ahead of a liquidity event where the need to also create an exit plan 3-5 years ahead is an imperative for business owners wishing to achieve optimal value for their lifetimes work. One of the important features of an exit plan is a deliberate focus on ensuring that the business and its assets are ultimately transferable.
Stephen makes the clear distinction that Rizolve is an advisory firm, not a consulting firm. He differentiates that Consultants do the work and our advisors advise on optimal strategies to implement. That is not to say that we won't help out where needed or to initiate work, but our clients continually say that where we make the difference is that we help to create a plan and then we are there for the full duration of the execution of the plan. This enables Rizolve to oversee the action; we remain around to advise on navigating the issues and we are there to advise on pivots that may be required to finally find a path to success.
Our experts have deep competency in Strategy, Finance, Sales acceleration, Marketing, Human Resources, Valuation, Deep Data mining and dashboarding. All of our partners have deep experience of formulating strategy and executing transactions.
Rizolve works with Strategic Partners who facilitate the Transaction such as Investment bankers, Brokers, M&A lawyers, Personal Financial Advisors, Accountants and tax experts and other consultants where specific expertise is required to facilitate Value building strategies or liquidity events.
The Rizolve Partner difference
Many business Owners in the lower mid-market have never been through a transaction in their life and many don't have experience, resources or staff with such experience. Market participants often approach such owners to sell their siloed wares. Rizolve spends much of its time educating Owners on the end to end story of "How to prepare to Sell their Business". It is NOT like selling a house. It is a complicated transaction that requires understanding of the process and the many pitfalls and requires advice from an aligned group of advisors. Rizolve brings that aligned group together for the Owner.
The perspective that Rizolve has on the end to end process is valuable to a client in minimizing mis-steps (that can be costly) and the secret sauce is that we are with them over the whole journey and bring in other advisers at the right time.
Rizolve advocates having a Personal Financial Advisor on the team early in the Business exit planning process in order to ensure that the Owner knows his "Magic number". This knowledge arms the seller with the ability to signal early in the process what his/her needs are to the buyer and to finally say yes to an offer that may not meet his aspirational price, but which meets his/her needs.
