THE TEAM
PIYUSH KUNNAPALLIL
President
Piyush is the President of Nova Vida GP Inc and also serves as CEO of Ti Foods (owned by Nova Vida GP Inc). He was a Director at Samsung Electronics where he managed the TV business for 8 years & led the e-commerce operation for consumer electronics division for 2 years. He brings on board more than 14 years’ experience managing & building multi-million dollar businesses. He has intimate knowledge of B2B & Ecommerce industries and has solid grounding in sales, marketing and P&L leadership. Piyush is an INSEAD MBA who has lived in 5 countries & now aims to leverage his skills at managing teams & leading businesses to build a great company in Canada.
MARIO NIGRO
Investor & Advisor
Mario Nigro is a partner in the M&A, Private Equity & Venture Capital Group of Stikeman Elliott. His practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, financings and complex corporate reorganizations, and general business law. He has worked on a variety of Canadian private equity fund transactions including buyouts, leveraged buyouts, and secondaries. Mario also routinely advises owner operators who are looking at selling their businesses. Mario has significant experience across all industries and has represented some of the leading food, retail, services, technology, and manufacturing businesses in Canada including a leading provider of outsourced office and workplace solutions. He works with a number of fast-growing technology companies through their acquisitions, dispositions, financings and growth capital transactions.
JON PIURKO
Investor & Advisor
Jonathan Piurko is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of the Sage Capital Group of Companies. He sits on several boards of directors for Sage’s portfolio companies & is active in the sourcing, selection and management of Sage’s investments. Prior to co-founding Sage Capital, Mr. Piurko held a variety of senior level positions in the legal industry, capital markets and the investment and finance industry. He started his career as a lawyer at Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP in Toronto where his practice focused on M&A. He then moved on to Northwater Capital Management Inc., where he spent 14 years as Managing Director of the firm’s private equity and venture capital investment funds. Mr. Piurko then founded and launched Monarch Bridge Financial Inc., a capital markets advisory business, focused on succession planning and advising retiring business owners in respect of their capital raising options and succession plans.
GLEN SILVESTRI
Investor & Advisor
Glen Silvestri is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of the Sage Capital Group of Companies. He sits on the boards of directors for several of Sage’s portfolio companies and is active in the sourcing, selection and management of Sage’s investments. Prior to co-founding Sage Capital, Mr. Silvestri held a number of senior positions in capital markets and in the investment and finance industry. He is a CA and started his career at PWC before moving into private equity at Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. Mr. Silvestri was with OTPP for 13 years and was head of TMT as well as Chair of the Investment Committee for private capital investments. He left OTPP and joined Imperial Capital Partners as Head of Business and Consumer Services, where he was involved in a number of small and mid-market PE investments, some involving Search Fund exits.