OUR FIRM
Yorkdale Partners is a full-service investment bank and advisory firm focused on bringing innovative companies to market. We leverage a combination of unique experience across a veteran team of professionals and enterprise technology to deliver long-term value to our clients.
Our experience covers a wide range of international and domestic experience ranging from lower middle market to large scale, complex transactions.
We understand that business decisions can be complex and involve the careful consideration of many issues beyond a fair price. These factors include: varying shareholder interests, legacy issues, buyer matching, cultural/geographic interests, tax implications, and regulatory frameworks.
The Yorkdale team offers a disciplined and value-focused approach to ensure our clients are set up for success beyond the transaction at hand.
Read about our services & solutions
SOLUTIONS
MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS.
CORPORATE RESTRUCTURING.
Yorkdale Partners’ corporate restructuring practice provides the breadth of services needed to navigate through difficult operating and financial challenges a company may face. The Corporate Restructuring team is comprised of senior executives with the experience to deliver immediate leadership, stabilization and value. Corporate Restructuring provides both debtor and creditor oriented advisory services. Our approach is to team with the relevant stakeholders; develop a plan for stabilizing, maximizing or realizing business value; implement action; and help manage outcomes.
COMPANY CREATION
Yorkdale Partners works closely with a few chosen entrepreneurs over
the long term in Tech and unique sectors to build new companies or
accelerate early stage ones. Companies must have products or services with some existing clients. We take a founding equity interest and build out these company from early stage funding through to later stage rounds, corporate development, commercialization, and expansion through to exit via IPO or sale.
Yorkdale Partners provides world class M&A advisory services to lower-middle market business owners and investors pursuing transaction. We are experts in generating shareholder values. Yorkdale Partners has deep relationships with the private equity communities in both Canada and the US, and our reach into the strategic acquirer is extensive. Moreover, Yorkdale Partners offers buy-side advisory services to either corporate acquirers pursuing an M&A growth strategy. We bring to the table a combination of strategic and well developed transaction execution skills and exceptional industry domain expertise to deliver superior valuations, speed to closure, and high probability of success.
We recognize that not all companies require the same level of 3rd party consultation and representation. Please reach out to us to discus your specific needs and how we can best accommodate them.
OUR TEAM
Our team is comprised of a comprehensive group of professionals with diverse experience and domain knowledge to bring our clients top quality service and delivery in our engagements.
OUR PARTNERS.
Tayo Kim
Founder and a Partner of Yorkdale Partners, Toronto
Tayo Kim is an experienced Investment Banker and Technology Entrepreneur. He brings over 25 years of experience in finance and capital markets including experience with numerous start ups, financing, mergers, acquisitions and strategic development opportunities. Mr. Kim was Director of a number of publicly traded companies where he successfully coordinated several financings as well as being involved in corporate development activities. Mr. Kim was previously Founder, CEO and Director of a multi-million dollar public company which he grew from inception to over $50M in market value in less than 3 years.
He has held numerous executive positions and operational positions with particular emphasis on business development, investor relations and finance in public and private companies in the US and Canada. He recently ran his own Investment Banking boutique and has consulted with several public and private companies.
Mr. Kim's roots are in the financial industry as a former successful Financial Adviser with Midland Walwyn, CIBC Wood Gundy and as a Corporate Banker with CIBC.
Paul Kallmes
Partner with Yorkdale Partners, San Francisco/Silicon Valley
Paul brings an extensive array of skills from over 20 years experience in venture capital, business consulting, and the IP management field.
Paul currently heads the Zeitgeist Fund which invests in promising early-stage technology companies and is deeply involved with The Vault, a well known San Francisco based business incubator. He also consults with numerous European companies expanding into the North American market.
Paul has built and managed patent portfolios in a number of traditional manufacturing industries including paper and textiles. He has worked with a range of organizations; consulting firms KPMG and IP Value, high-tech R&D labs, including Rockwell Scientific, and IP marketplace start-ups including Yet2.com.
Paul previously managed the patent portfolio of Nasdaq-listed Color Kinetics and enjoyed considerable success in turning the company’s licensing practice into a profitable and industry-friendly activity. Color Kinetics was subsequently sold for $794 million USD. Following his work at Color Kinetics, he became the IP Strategist at the Lighting Science Group.
In recent years he has been an independent consultant to the LED industry, advising on the development of patent portfolios and products including control chips, power supplies, light drivers and complete fixtures such as LED street lights and therapeutic LED light fixtures. Paul believes that effective IP asset management starts at the beginning of a company’s lifespan and should be applied continuously throughout in order to maximize its value at any given time.
Paul Kallmes earned his BSEE at Northeastern University and an MPA in Risk Assessment of Environmental Health Hazards at the University of Washington.
Languages:
German
Russian
SENIOR ADVISOR
Brian Sun
Senior Advisor & Strategic Consultant with Yorkdale Partners, (New York)
Brian is responsible for strategic and complex, cross border transactions between North America and Asia. He has deep experience in buyside/sellside, joint venture and funding engagements. He covers all of the major Asian buyside opportunities for Yorkdale.
Brian brings over 15 years experience in major cross border advisory and is responsible for Asia Pacific coverage. Brian was formerly Managing Director, M&A at Fosun (New York), a major Chinese conglomerate covering the financial services and technology sectors. Prior to this, he was Executive Director of M&A Advisory for China Merchants Bank (New York), where he covered industrials, healthcare, diversified and financial services sectors.
Brian was also, Senior Vice President for Lazard Ltd where he advised on major cross border transaction between North American and EU Corporations with Chinese counter parties in the diversified industries sector.
Brian was also, Director at AES (Hong Kong), one of the largest alternative energy companies where he originated and executed a number of major M&A transactions.
Brian has his MBA in Finance from Duke University and is a graduate of Beijing Foreign Studies Universities with a BA in International Commerce. He is also a Chartered Financial Analyst, CFA since 2008.
Mandarin
Cantonese
Languages:
SENIOR ADVISOR
OUR ANALYSTS.
Keelan Paliani
Associate with Yorkdale Partners, Toronto
Keelan is a recent graduate of the Honors Business Administration (HBA) program at Ivey Business School. As a recipient of the Yeandle Family HBA Award and Scotiabank HBA2 In-Program Award, he has demonstrated the importance of both academic and community engagement.
As Vice President of Finance for the HBA Association, Keelan’s primary responsibilities included managing the $244,000 annual budget and allocating funds to student-run initiatives and events. In addition, he has been a committed Researcher on the Western Investment Club throughout university, by engaging in stock pitches and value investing educationals on a weekly basis. Moreover, he has continued to deepen his knowledge and understanding of the financial industry through the completion of the Canadian Securities Course.
Keelan has also been fortunate enough to gain experience in a professional setting, as a Summer Advisor at Investors Group, and in an entrepreneurial capacity as the Co-Founder and Chief Financial Officer of HereHap, a social media event-based start-up.
Being an avid traveller, Keelan always enjoys taking time to explore new cities and cultures, as well as, visiting family in Dublin and Rome.
Richie Yang
Analyst with Yorkdale Partners, Vancouver
Richie Yang is a second year financial economics major at Western University who plans on attending the Honors Business Administration (HBA) program at Ivey Business School this upcoming year.
Richie developed a strong interest for finance and investing early on in university and has been actively involved in the Western Investment Club (WIC) as a researcher for the NR, CRG, and REHG teams. He has worked on stock pitches for WIC’s investment portfolio, presented key industry events to the researcher teams, and attended weekly researcher meetings to improve his investing knowledge. In addition, he has been a frequent competitor at consulting case competitions and placed 2nd at the 2019 annual Western Global China Connection case competition.
Richie gained the valuable experience of working in the financial services industry as a transfers administrator at Aviso Wealth. Richie recently completed the Canadian Securities Course.
In his free time, Richie likes to follow the Ultimate Fighting Championship and has an interest in martial arts. He is a member of the Western Judo Club and seeks to learn Brazilian Jiu Jitsu sometime in the near future. He also likes to go on hikes around scenic trails in Vancouver
Tom Richards
Tom has 25 years in senior management roles in multiple manufacturing organizations. He has undertaken leadership roles in Operations, Sales, Marketing and Strategic planning. Tom has M&A experience with SMEs and has worked for early stage tech companies as an employee, board member and advisor and has raised multiple $MM for acquisitions and business development. He has an excellent record of generating superior returns for investors.
Tom was President of E Craftsmen Corporation and Power Vector for 10 years and joined LumaStream as Chief Operating Officer in 2011. He has developed new sales channels and markets in North America and Europe and has taken the lead for strategic sourcing initiatives in Asia. Channel development experience includes OEM, wholesale hardware, and wholesale electrical. He has been the catalyst for key strategic initiatives including partnerships, acquisitions and outsourcing, and has a history of consistently generating revenue growth and profit.
OUR ADVISORY BOARD.
Professor Knud B. Jensen
Knud is a professor in the Department of Entrepreneurship and Strategy at Ted Rogers School of Business Management at Ryerson University. He specializes in growing companies, and is an author and co-author of several books, chapters in books, and papers and articles.
With two colleagues, he spent two years on a project, "Growing Ontario Firms," sponsored by the Ontario Government. He is currently working on a project developing a business model for small and medium professional service organizations for sustainable growth, and writing a chapter on decision making to create value for a book. He has worked with both the Ontario and Federal Governments as a consultant in the area of growing small and medium companies.
As a mentor, advisor, board member, and consultant, Knud has helped many companies grow and become successful.
Sang-Ho Kim
Sang-Ho Kim is an electrical engineer by profession. He has many years of experience as an engineer in major manufacturing companies. He has also held various management positions throughout his career in project managing large scale projects; eCommerce management; building effective teams for marketing/technical; and managing public companies. He has worked for: Schneider Electric, ABB (Asea Brown Boveri) and Canada Wire.
