Leadership

Courtenay is a transformative, strategic leader, across a broad range of industries, in corporate strategy, restructuring, change management, financial transformation, M&A negotiation and leadership. Courtenay is active in the areas of venture capital and private equity and is an accomplished board member across numerous for profit and not for profit boards.

Courtenay is the former Executive Chair of FCF Capital, a Canadian publicly listed investment company. Upon joining in 2013, Courtenay undertook a massive restructuring and turnaround that resulted in a staggering increase in market capitalization from approx. $7 million to over $100 million, plus a return of capital of $12.5 million, in under 2.5 years. It was the #1 performing stock on the TSXV in 2014.

Courtenay is the former President & CEO of Salida Capital. During her tenure from 2008 to 2013, Salida was one of Canada’s most recognized and established investment firms, winning numerous prestigious global performance and industry awards. While at Salida, Courtenay led a landmark negotiation and 100% recovery, after winning 8 successful lawsuits, of US$350 million of client assets frozen in the 2008 bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers. Courtenay is also the former CEO of SCM Securities, a Canadian investment dealer, and a former SVP at Tricycle Asset Management, a $1 billion+ asset Canadian investment firm. Courtenay spent her early years in technology, notably as head of Dell Canada’s e-commerce business. There she founded and grew that business to $250 million in 3 years, 50% of the Dell Canada’s revenue, and the largest e-commerce business in Canada.

In 2010, while at Salida Capital, Courtenay established a partnership with the William J. Clinton Foundation focused on sustainable agriculture in Africa. Courtenay brought FBSciences into the partnership and FBS Technologies were provided for field trials in Malawi, and over a three-year period, yields on soybeans and maize saw average increases of 34% and 21% respectively. These yields translated to a 75% increase in the average annual income of a typical farmer in Malawi. In 2013, Courtenay visited numerous countries in Africa with former President Clinton and Chelsea Clinton, including touring their transformative agricultural projects with farmers in Malawi.

Courtenay was recognized by Ernst & Young as one of the top 50 Global Leading Woman in Hedge Funds in 2011.

Courtenay is an avid and accomplished public speaker. She has appeared on BNN, CNBC, Bloomberg Television as an industry leader and has done one-on-one speaking engagements with notable world and business leaders such as Warren Buffet, Richard Branson and former President Bill Clinton.

Danny is recognized and respected globally as a leading portfolio manager in the alternative investment industry and has over 25 years of investment management experience. He was the founder and Chief Investment Officer of Salida Capital, where he guided the investment strategy since the firm’s inception in 2001 until 2014, during which time his flagship fund was ranked the 4th best performing fund in the world. Danny began his investment career in equities research at Richardson Greenshields in 1993. He later joined First Marathon in 1995 as an equities analyst before joining the firm’s merger arbitrage group where he was responsible for trading liability positions and co-running the firm’s merger arbitrage book. He also covered hedge funds on a global basis, both from a sales and trading perspective. Prior to founding Salida Capital, Danny joined Banfield Capital Management in 1998 as a portfolio manager and trader. He played an integral role in that firm’s successful track record including building the firm’s research and trading group, establishing their U.S. merger arbitrage business and managing the firm’s long/short portfolio from its inception in 1998.

Art Froehlich, past President and managing partner of AdFarm and is currently Strategic Advisor and Board member at AdFarm, one of North America’s largest agriculture and food marketing and communications companies. Over the last 30 years, Art has held senior executive positions with Hoechst Canada Inc (Bayer), Alberta Pool (Viterra), and Westcan Malting (RAHR). He continues to work with Canadian food and agricultural companies in developing international markets for their products. Art sits on many corporate boards including: AG-West Bio Sciences, RR46, AVAC Ltd. (past chair), ABIC Foundation, JEH Enterprises, POS Bio Sciences, Richardson International Limited and the Board of Governors of Olds College. Art is a past Board Chair of the Alberta Agricultural Research Institute, Genome Alberta, University of Alberta Faculty of Agriculture Industry Advisory Board, Alberta Innovates Bio Solutions, Prince Rupert Grain, ATB Financial, the Canadian Agricultural Policy Research Institute, the Malting Barley Research Institute, Western Grain Elevator Association, and the Canadian 4-H council. He was inducted into the BioIndustrial Hall of Fame in 2012 and received an Honorary Degree from Olds College in 2014. In addition to his business activities, Art is involved with a number of charitable organizations and is Chair of the Board of the Shamba International Partnership.

Dr. Duncan is the former CEO of FBSciences. Prior to joining FBS, Dr. Duncan was the CEO of Pasteuria Bioscience, where he led the company through its first successful EPA registration and commercial launch of a biological nematicide for use on turf grass; and, most recently completed an exclusive technology partnership with Syngenta. In his role as CEO for Chlorogen, Dr. Dave helped raise $10M in two series of financing for the young biopharmaceutical company that developed and manufactured proteins for human therapy. Dr. Dave also served in various roles, including product development (US & Canada); marketing; government and regulatory affairs; and as both a commercial development and business unit executive during his 22 years at Monsanto Company. He was credited for helping the company transition from a traditional agricultural chemical company into the world’s leading producer of agricultural biotechnology products. Dr. Dave received a B.S. degree in biology from Indiana State University and both an M.S. in agronomy/turf grass management and a Ph.D. in herbicide physiology from Michigan State University. Dr. Dave serves on the boards and committees of several organizations.