Expanding White Star Capital’s Canadian presence, General Partnership and Operations
Today is a special day at White Star Capital — not only will we be conducting our first-ever fully virtual Annual General Meeting with our investors, but we also have the pleasure to make a series of exciting announcements about our team in Canada and our global General Partnership.
Expanding with the opening of our Toronto office and growing our team in Montreal
Since White Star Capital opened its first Canadian office in Montreal in 2014, we have invested in 10 Canadian start-ups. Collectively, these companies have gone on to raise over $300m, create over 800 tech jobs, and generate one of the largest AI-related exits to date in Canada, Mnubo. We are excited to continue to make a significant impact on the Canadian VC ecosystem.
To that end, we are pleased to announce that Sanjay Zimmermann, who joined White Star Capital as an Associate in early 2017 in our Montreal office, has been promoted to the role of Principal and has recently moved to Toronto. Sanjay has worked on over 10 investments made by the firm across Canada, New York, Germany, and South East Asia. He spent the past year completing his MBA at INSEAD and officially returned to White Star Capital this September. Sanjay will be leading our efforts to identify talented teams and founders raising Series A and B rounds across Ontario.
Sanjay will not be alone in Toronto — he will be joined by an exceptional new hire, Tandis Azarbad, who will be joining as White Star Capital’s new Vice President of Finance and will be working closely with our CFO, Julie Plouffe. Tandis has extensive experience in fund administration and management and returned to Canada after having worked in Silicon Valley for over four years as the right-hand person to the CFO of Sequoia Heritage. She most recently held the role of VP finance and operations at Forthlane Partners in Toronto and now we are now thrilled to welcome her to the White Star Capital team.
Moreover, Christophe Bourque, General Partner, will be continuing to split his time between Montreal and Toronto (virtually for the time being) and lead our firm’s Canadian investment efforts.
Tandis, Sanjay, and Christophe will be establishing White Star’s office in Toronto in the coming months.
We have also strengthened our presence in Montreal with the recent hire of Jonathan Brun as our Associate in the Montreal office. Jonathan joined White Star Capital this summer after spending five years in Investment Banking at Scotiabank. His experience will help White Star Capital strengthen its presence in Quebec and support the Canadian investment team.
Jean-Francois Marcoux, Co-founder, and Managing Partner shares “I am proud to see how our Canadian team has evolved since 2014 to a solid team of 8 individuals across Montreal and Toronto which puts us in a great position to continue backing exceptional Canadian entrepreneurs”.
Expanding White Star Capital’s General Partnership and improving Operations
In addition to our growth in Canada, we have also expanded White Star Capital’s global General Partnership as well as created new roles and responsibilities designed to improve our scaling operations.
We are pleased to announce that Julie Plouffe, White Star Capital’s CFO, has been promoted to General Partner and named Chief People Officer (CPO). Julie is based in our Montreal office and has been with the firm for over two years. Since joining, Julie has played an essential role in building White Star Capital’s global platform and her experience, which extends beyond finance, puts her in an ideal position to oversee the firm’s global human resources efforts.
We are also pleased to announce that Patrick Recasens Morente, White Star Capital’s General Counsel has been promoted to General Partner and named Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO). Patrick is based in our Paris office and has been with White Star Capital for over a year and has played a pivotal role in White Star Capital becoming a management company regulated in France by the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) which regulates the French financial market place. Since joining, Patrick has also shown a strong commitment to improving White Star Capital’s ESG practices and standards.
Eric Martineau-Fortin, Founder and Managing Partner of White Star Capital, shares: “I am thrilled to see Julie and Patrick join the General Partnership as they have been true pillars to the firm, working hand in hand together on both sides of the Atlantic. I look forward to seeing them continue to grow in their new additional roles of CPO and CSO.”
