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When the decisions are complex, the stakes are high, and the consequences matter. We build your advisory panel from high-performing, former CEOs with relevant, hard-earned experience. We move quickly, offer clear insights and perspective, and step back when the job is done.
No theory. No up-sell. Just lived experience and practical insights when it matters most.
LEAP Strategy Partners connects today’s CEOs with tailored panels of high-performing, former CEOs who’ve led through exactly what they’re facing—offering discreet, actionable insights at the highest level for your most critical decisions.
The Problem
CEOs often face moments they can’t fully share with their executive team, board, coach, or investors. The stakes are high, the weight is theirs alone, and there’s no playbook that truly fits.
The Insight
Real leadership perspective doesn’t come from books or theory—it comes from those who’ve sat in the chair, made the calls, and faced the consequences.
The Solution
LEAP assembles confidential advisory panels of former CEOs—hand-picked for relevance to your challenge, your industry, and your stage of growth. You don’t get generic advice or recycled frameworks. You get the kind of hard-earned perspective only those who’ve been in the job can offer.
A CEO facing a high-stakes decision.
You need clarity — not more noise.
You want perspective outside of your board, your team, or your coach.
You need a solution, not a complicated engagement.
Former CEOs who’ve made the tough calls.
We bring proven experience across industries, challenges, and geographies.
We work confidentially, move fast, and speak your language.
We help you get to the right decision—then get out of your way.
We start with a confidential discovery conversation and then match you with three former CEOs who’ve led through your exact decision or situation. Sessions are facilitated, focused, and entirely discreet. The result? Clarity and confidence—not complexity.
Proven CEO expertise in making the decisions that matter.
No recycled frameworks. No strategy without experience.
No PowerPoint. No up-sell.
One flat fee. No ticking clock.
Designed to be fast, focused, and temporary—not another indefinite engagement.
Executive clarity. Strategic alignment. Real-world experience—from CEOs, not consultants.
“I’ve used consultants for decades, and I was cynical about LEAP; but this is extremely different. Hard-hitting advice from people who had sat in the chair.”
We create situation-specific panels of former CEOs who’ve faced what you’re facing. Each brings a different lens: strategic, operational, and contextual.
Whether you’re preparing for growth, navigating a transition, or managing through uncertainty—your LEAP Panel is designed for your unique challenge.
Led corporate mergers, acquisitions, and exits. Managed volatile and complex investor relations and dynamics. Identified and evaluated M&A opportunities in dynamic health care markets (Insception Lifebank Cord Blood Program, Imagia).
Large-scale capital raises ($1B in syndicated financing, IPOs (LSE, NASDAQ, TSX)), investor relations, both buy-side and sell-side advisor and investor of 30-plus M&A transactions ($1M to $1B). Expertise in preparing companies for public offerings, navigating regulatory requirements, and engaging with investors.
Lewis Rose
Former CEO
President & Chair
CryptoLogic
Maple Leaf Foods
Alliance Atlantis Com.
Capital raises, securing funding from diverse sources, and managing investor relations during high-stakes events such as governance disputes and shareholder control challenges. Over $60M raised across venture-backed companies, with board-level expertise in M&A, IPO readiness, and scaling ventures to $100M+ valuations.
Peter Suma
Former CEO
Applied Brain Research
Mirsee Robotics
PCAs, PharmaTrust
SRG Software
Led Mercer’s U.S. and Canada regions with over 5,000 employees and revenues of $2.5B to $3B. CEO of Foresters Financial (Canada, U.S., UK). Expertise in managing cross-border complexities, scale, and industry ranges in consulting and financial services. Extensive multinational leadership experience with large teams.
Louis Gagnon
Former CEO
Mercer
Foresters Financial
Expert in global mega-projects and public-private strategic delivery at extreme scale (budgets exceeding $500M). Multi-national initiatives, government-backed across various sectors, including sports, culture, and economic development. High public visibility, regulatory layers, and stakeholder complexities.
Jason Harborow
Former CEO, Director
Tamkeen (Abu Dhabi)
PA Consulting Group
The Royal Commission for AIUIa
CEO of a major publicly traded financial institution, is as significant and complex as it gets in terms of governance, scrutiny, and shareholder engagement. Led strategic transformation. Strong insight into board dynamics and regulatory frameworks.
Tom Teahen
Former CEO
WSIB (Workplace Safety and Insurance Board)
Over 25 years, took a niche mutual to over $1B in assets; led it through multiple downturns and difficult cycles, created new business lines, and reshaped the organization's relevance to its members. A serious long-game operator; scaling with integrity and foresight.
Robert Underwood
Former CEO
AFBS (Actra Fraternal Benefit Society)
3x founder with over 20 years of active operational leadership in the same industry. Not a hired gun—built real systems, evolved the model, and led through multiple cycles. Achieved explosive growth and national recognition (PROFIT 500) while owning strategy, execution, and operations. Focused on long-term value creation and successful founder exits.
Ryan Atkinson
Former CEO
CORE
Direqlink
Redwood Global
Operational growth architect with over fifteen years of experience as a real estate service innovator. Rebuilding operational infrastructure, undertaking large-scale efforts, and strategically transforming the market and business model. Navigating through multiple economic cycles and crises.
Dan Steward
Former CEO
Pillar to Post
A serial scaler with extensive retail transformation and significant funding experience. Led Duane Reade’s growth and sale to Walgreens for $1.1B, led marketing and launched new formats at Walgreens, and expanded RadioShack internationally. Led the reinvention of Massage Envy in expanded wellness categories, including professional skincare and Stretch. Led Shoppers Drug Mart’s marketing and merchandising initiatives, including store design, format expansion, and development of beauty and food initiatives, resulting in an IPO.
As CEO of Laurentian Bank, Rania digitized operations, drove growth, expanded the bank’s footprint beyond Quebec, and demonstrated strong leadership in a highly regulated industry—showing both strategic agility and operational discipline.
Co-founded Panasas (secured $10.5M funding) and, as CEO of the Vector Institute, significantly scaled a cutting-edge AI research organization from 20 employees to over 150, raising $292M. Possesses expertise in startup fundraising and large-scale infrastructure growth.
Expertise licensing products in over 14 countries-regulatory hurdles and local market adaptation both legal and cultural. Cross-border expansion, navigating IP laws, supply chains and operations in ethical landscapes.
International background: UK, Europe, and the Middle East (Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar). Expertise in emerging markets, navigating international regulatory compliance (public and private sectors), building cross-border operations, infrastructure, and relationships.
A serial growth agent leveraging investing, business development, and corporate strategy experience gained across North America, Europe, and Asia to grow corporate assets into globally competitive, industry-leading organizations—scaling a small vaccine company into the world’s largest, 2X transforming corporate equity assets into high performing portfolios, once creating the global industry's largest Corporate Venture Fund and the second time transforming Canada's largest venture investor.
Paul Kirkconnell
Former President & Chair
Aventis Capital
Sanofi Pasteur
DRI Capital
Extensive expertise in post-merger integrations (PMI) and transformation efforts, large-scale M&A integrations (TELUS, Williams Communications), and driving the turnaround at Dundee 360, Sotheby’s International, and CBRE. A strong record of restructuring, PMI, and delivering ROI—skills that are highly valued for private equity growth.
High-level strategic and narrative positioning expertise to prepare CEOs for PE outcomes. Strength in investor alignment, deal readiness, and understanding the acquirer’s mindset. Think of John as a strategic transaction whisperer rather than a transformation operator—he provides insights into the organizational and human factors that cause deals to succeed or fail.
John Prunier
Co-Founder & Partner
Petsky Prunier
Canaccord Genuity
Winterberry Group
Multiple direct private equity roles, including a “buy & build” partnership at Harvey & Company. Successfully turned around and sold Coinamatic Group to a PE‐backed buyer. Led transformations at PE- or investor‐controlled companies (Nova Capital Mgt., Fairfax). Proven track record as a CEO under PE ownership and in meeting investor targets.
David navigated Sherritt through a period of financial turbulence by eliminating approximately $3.5 billion in debt obligations, which included resolving the company's involvement in the Ambatovy Joint Venture. Sherritt shifted its focus to core operations, particularly the Moa Joint Venture in Cuba.
CEO of a major publicly traded financial institution, is as significant and complex as it gets in terms of governance, scrutiny, and shareholder engagement. Led strategic transformation. Strong insight into board dynamics and regulatory frameworks.
Extensive leadership experience in public companies across multiple sectors. Deep involvement in governance, including audit, compensation, and governance committees, as well as compliance, shareholder relations, and financial reporting. Multiple appointments to public boards.
Proven track record (Xerox) of taking over troubled, underperforming divisions and delivering performance across global regions and industries. Operated successfully through near-bankruptcy, HR crises, macroeconomic disruptions, and currency collapses.
The breadth, depth, and frequency of crisis leadership in high-profile brands distinguish Joe from other leaders. He led major retail brands through high-stakes transformations, including bankruptcy, strategic pivots, and full business overhauls.
Operational crisis navigator. Took over the helm months before General Motors filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy—a seismic event for any automotive-related business. Navigating communications breakdowns, employee morale and operational logistics. Working closely with shareholders and executives to stabilize and emerge stronger post-crisis.
Has led complex infrastructure projects that involve AI, HPC systems, and academic expansion. Possesses strong cross-sector experience in technology, academia, and research operations, along with deep architectural and leadership expertise. Rapidly scaled the Vector Institute and Panasas, which includes petabytes of installed distributed storage along with a significant GPU cluster comprising over 1000 GPUs.
Garth Gibson
Former CEO, President, Co-founder
Vector Institute
Panasas Inc
Achieved 30% CAGR in consecutive companies. Scaled one from $8M to $120M in just over 6 years, and another from start-up to 1500 employees. Expertise in combined organic and acquisition-based growth. Deep understanding of teams, leadership, and the CFO/HR structure necessary to manage rapid growth.
Kerry Shapansky
Former CEO, President,
Board Member
Pareto
Maritz
Blue North Strategies
Proven ability to build or refresh operational systems for scalability. Successfully grew, restructured, and transformed Duane Reade (new store programs), Walgreens (front-end profitability, loyalty initiatives), and contributed to the expansion of Massage Envy through a combination of organic growth through core business initiatives and new business products and services, including professional skincare.
Extensive industry knowledge in Food & Beverage, Retail, and CPG within high-growth, consumer-facing environments (Starbucks, lululemon, SmartSweets). Mastery of end-to-end operational scaling (procurement, team and culture, real estate, and product). Expertise in emerging brand growth and food innovation in modern consumer markets.
Automotive financing expertise at the highest level. Led Daimler, Mercedes-Benz, and Chrysler financial services across international markets, including Germany, Mexico, Canada, the US, and Australia. Overseeing portfolios ranging from $300M to $6B while navigating complex international business and economic environments.
Juergen Rochert
Former CEO, President
Mercedes-Benz and
Daimler Chrysler Financial
Deep insurance and risk management sector expertise. Lynn successfully navigates between hard and soft markets, financial crisis and complex regulatory regimes. Insurance Business Canada’s CEO of the Year. Serves on industry and non-profit boards, including the Global Risk Institute.
Scaled and succession-planned a 5,000-person, multi-country business; rotates through roles (CEO Canada → President US & Canada) while maintaining a fresh bench of strong leaders. Offers a global, process-driven perspective on keeping pipelines full.
Demonstrated “day one” decisiveness—installed four new C-suite leaders in a single month, maintains a living Rolodex of inside and outside successors, and ties pipeline planning to future skills mapping. Provides a playbook every CEO can borrow for rapid, low-risk renewal.
Ran a 25-year growth story and still orchestrated his own successful exit: mentored his CFO for a decade, backfilled every retiring department lead ahead of time, and wasn’t afraid to “hire for jobs that don’t exist yet.” A masterclass in long-horizon continuity.
CEO of Thresh, developing AI-driven platforms for financial and scientific analysis. Co-founder and former Co-CEO of Applied Brain Research, a leader in neuromorphic and edge-AI, with clients including Intel, DARPA, and Google. Deep experience creating and commercializing emerging technologies across finance, pharma, and robotics.
A healthcare-tech CEO who has merged two genomics/AI health‑tech firms, built an enterprise SaaS diagnostics platform, and serves as an AI 2030 advisor. She combines depth in medtech and biotech with proven strategy and M&A execution, transforming oncology diagnostics through AI platforms, CRMs, ERPs, and fintech APIs.
As CEO of the Vector Institute—Canada’s flagship AI research hub—he has personally guided over 200 enterprises in AI adoption. His decades of groundbreaking work in distributed systems and storage make him a deep-tech and AI operator who speaks both board-level strategy and PhD-level architecture.
“Understanding why smart people see the answer differently is of tremendous value, and that’s why we use a Panel approach.”
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