Lyon Point

Who I am

I grew up in SW Ontario surrounded by blue-collar businesses run by my own family, including trucking, farming, and manufacturing companies. That environment shaped how I think about ownership, and it's a large part of what's brought me to this path.

Professionally, I have 15+ years of experience in finance, most recently as Director at a major Canadian bank in a role akin to small/mid-cap investment banking, where my team and I own primary relationships with public and private clients ranging from $100MM to over $3B+ in revenue, across diversified industries: engineering & construction, specialized contracting, transportation, manufacturing, waste management, and business services. Beyond financing execution, we're a core part of the strategic capital and transaction advisory conversation for these clients, helping identify and structure the right M&A, debt capital markets, equity, or subordinated debt solutions, then partnering with specialized colleagues on execution. Before that, I spent several years in a specialized area of real estate investment banking in Toronto and New York, working on complex financing transactions for institutional clients. I'm a graduate of York University in Toronto and the London School of Economics in the UK, a top target school for investment banking in Europe.

I'm now focused on working directly with owner-led businesses, bringing the M&A, capital structure, and financing toolkit used by larger companies to businesses that typically don't have it in-house. I'm the person you'll be dealing with, start to finish.

How I work with owners

Advisory

Independent advice on M&A, capital structure, and financing, from assessing the finance function and how it supports financing and M&A to reworking existing bank and capital arrangements

Embedded role

Joining the team full-time as corporate development lead, owning the acquisition pipeline and the financing roadmap

Partner investment

Investing personal capital alongside the owners, with the option to invest further over time as the partnership develops

Often a combination of the three, structured around the situation and, where possible, with my compensation tied to the results I help create.

Who I work with

Ownership

Closely held, founder- or family-owned businesses where ownership values a hands-on partner and wants to protect employees and long-term customer relationships

Situations

Owners weighing their next growth path: acquiring other businesses, refinancing their bank arrangements, bringing in a capital partner, planning for succession, or preparing for an eventual sale

Size

Typically $2MM – $10MM EBITDA

Financial profile

Consistent profitability with a contract-based or recurring revenue base

Geography

Ontario-based, with a focus on Southwestern Ontario and the surrounding region; open to the right opportunity elsewhere in Canada and the U.S.

Sector focus

I focus on businesses that provide mission-critical upkeep, safety compliance, and operational continuity to commercial, industrial, and public assets, across three core groupings:

Regulatory & compliance-driven services

Fire & life safety, elevator & vertical transportation, critical backup power

Critical facility maintenance & specialty trades

Specialty commercial trades & maintenance, commercial roofing & specialty membrane systems, disaster restoration & remediation

Civil infrastructure & surface support

Traffic control & safety services, pavement maintenance & striping

Why work with me

• M&A exposure from the client side: years covering owner-led and public companies through acquisitions and strategic reviews, and financing the resulting transactions
• A capital provider's view of the finance function: I know what lenders and investors look for, and how gaps in reporting, forecasting, and controls show up in financing terms and M&A outcomes
• Capital structure first: I start with the arrangements already in place, and sometimes the right answer is better bank terms rather than dilution
• Deep relationships with banks, private capital, and institutional investors, built over a 15-year finance career, to bring in when it makes sense
• Hands-on and long-term: a single senior point of contact, close to the business, with continuity for employees and customers as a priority
• Sector fluency from years spent financing and analyzing businesses in these sectors, not learning the industry from scratch