KEYNOTE: Transactional Liability: Differentiating Deals

Our keynote lunch panel will focus on the emerging use in Canada of Representations and Warranty Insurance, an increasingly hot topic for buyers and sellers in the Canadian middle market and their advisors. With input from insurers, advisors and deal participants, this panel presentation will explore what transactional liability insurance means to all parties involved in the M&A process.

Speakers

Matthew Wiener, Senior Vice President, Aon

Matthew Wiener is the head of the Aon Risk Solutions’ Transaction Liability team for the Southwest region. In this role, Mr. Wiener is responsible for the development and implementation of transactional-based risk solutions, including the deployment of insurance capital for M&A transactions through representations and warranties, litigation, tax and other contingent liabilities insurance. Mr. Wiener is based in Houston and is further supported by a New York-based team of 20 professionals in North America and colleagues in London, Hong Kong, Sydney and Bermuda who focus exclusively on transactional risk transfer. Prior to joining the Aon Team, Matthew was an attorney at Vinson & Elkins LLP, where he specialized in corporate finance and securities law matters, including mergers and acquisitions, private equity, public and private securities offerings, divestitures, and general corporate representation.

Matthew is a graduate of The University of Texas with a BBA in Finance and Georgetown University Law Centre with a Juris Doctorate degree.

James McClary, Partner, Bennett Jones LLP

James McClary advises on private equity transactions, public and private MA, and corporate and securities matters.

James joined Bennett Jones after seven years in New York and London, where he practised corporate law with a leading New York-based law firm. In this role, James worked with a range of U.S., Canadian, European and Asian companies, primarily in the fields of domestic and cross-border public and private MA and private equity transactions, as well as corporate governance and securities offerings.

James is a member of the American Bar Association and the Calgary Bar Association. James served as Co-Editor in Chief of the University of Toronto Faculty of Law Review and was President of the University of Toronto Students' Law Society.

Jon Spencer, Principal, TriWest Capital Partners

Jon Spencer joined TriWest in 2007 and is a Principal in the investment group. Prior to joining TriWest, Jon worked at RBC Capital Markets in the Global Energy Group where he was involved in a number of public equity offerings and mergers and acquisition assignments.

Jon currently serves as a board member for the Calgary Chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth. From 2008 to 2010, Jon served as President for the Calgary Chapter of the Richard Ivey School of Business Alumni Association.

Jon graduated with distinction from the Richard Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario, with an Honors degree in Business Administration.

Mélanie Lessard, AVP & Underwriting Counsel, Liberty International

Mélanie Lessard joined LIU in December 2011 as a Senior Claims Counsel handling complex claims in Specialty Casualty lines.  Since November 2016, Melanie has assumed the position of AVP & Underwriting Counsel and is involved in the development and underwriting of transactional insurance products, mainly Representations & Warranties Insurance.

Prior to joining LIU, Melanie worked at the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) in Ottawa, at Liberty’s Home Office in Boston, and as in-house counsel for a major Canadian transportation company.  Mélanie has her License in Law from University of Ottawa and was admitted to the Quebec Bar in 1997.  She obtained her MBA from UQAM in 2002.  She has 20 years of insurance experience.