Joseph C. Canavan is an icon in the financial services industry. He is the Principal of Canavan Capital and has the formidable reputation of understanding and then funding a business plan or an idea, and he almost seems like a talent scout for the business community as he leads and backs an enterprising organization or start-up to the next level. He is probably one of the few entrepreneur-cum-businessman-cum-social activists I’ve met who makes you feel instantly at ease and is humble with a capital ‘H’ as he constantly remembers the names people who’ve helmed projects that he has backed. As opposed to countless CEO’s who constantly use the word ‘I’ in 9 out of 10 times, Joseph begins his sentences with a ‘We did’. I can understand the value of collaborating with a person like him—and I know for sure that the people who work with him, or under his guidance appreciate the mentorship, value-added advice and candour he brings into furthering and expanding their plan of action.

He recently stepped down as the Chairman and Interim CEO of the Children’s Aid Foundation, an organization which funds programs that give Canada’s most neglected and vulnerable children the support they need to reinvent their lives. In his volunteer capacity as interim CEO, the organization was significantly restructured bringing in a new leadership team, revitalizing the brand and doubling revenues to the highest levels in the foundations history. Prior to this, Joseph Canavan was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Assante Wealth Management and United Financial Corporation, an affiliated asset management firm until November 2009. Assante is a national wealth management company with $27 billion in assets under administration, for over 300,000 clients across Canada.

Before joining Assante, Joe was the President and CEO of Synergy Asset Management, a wealth management company he founded in December 1997 – an organization which quickly became known as one of Canada’s most innovative mutual fund companies. Synergy was acquired by CI Financial in October 2003. In 1994, he launched GT Global (Canada), which became the fastest-growing mutual fund company in Canadian history. Under Canavan’s leadership, the company gained $2.4 billion in assets in less than 30 months. GT Global is now part of AIM Trimark. In 1989, he joined Fidelity Investments. As Vice President and Director of National Sales, he helped grow assets from $60 million to $6 billion in four years.

Joseph Canavan was awarded “Person of Influence of the Decade” at the Canadian Investment Awards in 2004. In 2006, he was honoured as Concordia University’s “Alumnus of the Year” and in 2014 was given the “Outstanding Contribution” award by the Children’s Aid Foundation. In his accomplished career, he is a Board Member of The Next 36, director of the Fraser Institute, Board Member of Kids and Company, Board Member of Brandprotect; Board Member of Nasdaq listed HF2 Financial, Board Member of the National Arts Centre Foundation and past Chairman of the Ontario Science Centre-Innovators Ball. He is also one of the investors behind ‘Borrowell’, one of the leading lending organizations that works with fairness, and offers a low interest fee on loans. Joseph has a Bachelor of Business Administration from Concordia University and has completed Harvard University’s three-year executive management program for owners and presidents of companies.

How did your quest for being so successful in funding the right projects begin? And how early did it really start?

I started a Trivia game on Rock music while I was in University, and sold it right away. That was my first enterprise on creating a big idea, implementing it and then selling it. This is exactly how business works—the steps are realistically quite the same—and it all begins with a creative proposition.

Talk to us about one of your most successful ventures, and how you grew the business from scratch                                                                            

When I started working at Fidelity we were left with a miniscule percentage of the stock, the rest being sold off to Fidelity International. We had approximately 60 million in assets, 4 employees and a year to prove ourselves. It was a sink or swim scenario. What was the outcome; from 60 million we grew to 120, from there we touched ½ a billion and there onwards we grew it to 1 billion, to peak our assets to over 6 billion. Wow, now that I think about it, that was a formidable stretch but at the end of the day we made the impossible, possible.

Since you’ve been at the helm of managing money and markets, according to you what kind of investments work best for a company’s growth and prosperity?   

 You want to be looking at the market differently, like at Fidelity the 3 balance funds worked out for the investors. That was then. Having said that, you also try to understand what the market wants. Being current is paramount. For instance from 1989 to 1990 there was the concept of regional investing, then in the 90’s we had sector investing. Nowadays you have the most professional portfolio managers advising you. Also there are different kinds of investment styles—from value investment to a Warren Buffet portfolio style that fluctuates to a Growth Style Investment to a Momentum investment to a Small Cap Investment. When Synergy Investment (Joseph was its President and CEO) was sold to CI Financial we proposed a much bigger offering so that our investors were all winners at the end of the day.

You’ve certainly worked with some of the brightest people in the industry. What according to you are truly great leadership qualities, and who do you think are the game changers?                                                                                                         

First of all you always want to be surrounded by smart people, and you know I’m talking about men and women who think on their feet. Our common mindset is this: Changing the world for Canadian investors—and to do this we need to see the future clearly, in short we require visionaries in the business world. I’m happy to say that I’ve met quite a few and the criteria for their success is apparent—all of them have character, ambition, integrity, drive, are trustworthy and have the vision that I was speaking about. You need to be able to see what lies ahead. Clarity of thinking and the ability to discern what’s coming up next is a great asset. It’s also good to give back to the community and to society what you’ve learned, and many a time I’ve given the ‘Bay Street’ advice freely, and without expectations.

Jude Paul Fernandes                                                                                                                                                                               jude@thesouthasiannews, @JudePaulFerns