Brian Hanson

Mr. Hanson has been a trusted advisor to leading global corporations, financial sponsors and families for over 25 years including Weston/Loblaws, Dollarama, Canadian Tire, Whistler, Bauer, CPP, OMERS, James Richardson & Sons, Verizon, Sprint, Bain Capital and Fortress. He has advised on over $250 billion in announced transactions globally. Mr. Hanson has worked extensively in North America, Europe and Asia and has been responsible for building the operations of several leading financial advisory and private equity companies. Prior to Verus, as Vice Chairman of CIBC World Markets, Mr. Hanson was responsible for senior client relationships across a number of industries and served as an advisor to many of Canada’s most prominent companies, financial sponsors, families and leading global corporations. He was also a member of the Investment Committee which evaluated and approved CIBC private equity investments. Prior to joining CIBC, Mr. Hanson was responsible for leading and managing investments in North America and building the investment activities in Canada for ATV Capital, a $1.5 billion private equity firm based in Boston, MA and Palo Alto, CA. At UBS, Mr. Hanson was Co-Founder and Co-Head of the Mergers and Acquisitions Group in New York. He was responsible for building the group from 5 to 60 professionals ultimately generating annual revenues of $350 million and achieving the largest improvement in market share of any investment bank. He advised on the largest announced transaction in history at the time. Mr. Hanson was a founding member of Gleacher & Co., an independent advisory and merchant banking firm formed by Eric Gleacher, former Morgan Stanley Global Head of Mergers and Acquisitions. Gleacher & Co. was one of the first independent advisory firms to be established and its leading position was recognized when it was acquired by NatWest for $135 million. Prior to this he worked at Morgan Stanley in New York and Nomura Securities in Toronto and Tokyo. Mr. Hanson was profiled as one of “23 of Wall Street’s finest” by Investment Dealer’s Digest and in other publications and news services including the Globe & Mail, Wall St. Journal, New York Times, Financial Times, Bloomberg, Associated Press and Financial Post. Mr. Hanson earned his MBA from Stanford University with Distinction as an Arjay Miller Scholar. He also graduated from Western University’s Richard Ivey School of Business where he was nominated for a Rhodes Scholarship. Mr. Hanson was inducted into the Western University Hockey Wall of Honour in 2014.