Bio

Joel joined Blair Franklin at the start of the firm’s history in 2003, returning to his independent investment banking roots. Joel’s career in M&A began in 1986 with Lancaster Financial, a newly-formed employee-owned independent merchant bank, following six years in corporate banking and capital markets in Toronto and Chicago with Continental Illinois Bank (now Bank of America). While at Lancaster, he acted as advisor to boards, special committees, management teams, shareholders and stakeholder groups on a broad range of M&A and restructuring transactions, and in 1990 he was appointed a partner of the firm. In 1995, Lancaster was acquired by TD Securities, the investment banking arm of TD Bank Financial Group, and Joel became Managing Director and Head of the Mergers and Acquisitions Group, with responsibility for all financial advisory services at TD Securities, including public takeovers, mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, takeover defense assignments, valuations and fairness opinions. Joel holds a BA degree from the University of Toronto and an MBA degree from York University.