Three times a year, once per season, excluding summer
Dates and venues
June 2, 2026 – 3:30 PM – EY, Montreal
October 20, 2026 – 3:30 PM – Scotiabank, Montreal
February 23, 2027 – 3:30 PM – Dentons, Montreal
Program Summary
Organized by the M&A Club, the largest network of mergers and acquisitions professionals in Canada, this series of events is designed to connect business owners with industry experts, supporting them in their strategic thinking and transaction projects.
What You Will Learn
We cover the entire exit planning journey—no shortcuts:
- Preparing the business for a transfer or sale in the short, medium, or long term
- Understanding what truly creates value (and what destroys it) before a transaction
- Identifying your real strategic options as a business leader
- Structuring the business and the transaction to maximize net after-tax proceeds
- Understanding how transactions are actually executed in today’s market
- Managing critical legal issues from the letter of intent through to closing
- Turning liquidity into long-term financial security for you and your family
Objective: move from “I’ll think about it someday” to “I’m ready—and in control.”
Who Should Attend
This session is not intended for “curious” entrepreneurs or early-stage startups.
It is designed for business leaders who:
- Have built a meaningful company
- Know that a transfer, sale, or capital restructuring will be part of their trajectory
- Want to avoid going through a poorly prepared transaction
Whether you’re considering a transition in 6 months or 6 years, the question is not if you need to prepare—but when… and how.
And how to integrate artificial intelligence into the process of planning a successful exit.
Our speakers
All instructors are seasoned practitioners with extensive experience advising boards of directors and executives on complex M&A transactions and business exit planning.
Having started his career in law at BCF, he later moved into entrepreneurship, acquiring and managing several businesses over more than 20 years. He then advised numerous business leaders on growth strategies, acquisitions, and business sales.
Since taking the lead at the Club, he has launched the expansion of new chapters across Canada and is preparing for international growth, while developing a range of new services.
Ugo also served as president of the Junior Chamber of Commerce of Montreal (2000), founded Business Volunteers (2005), and currently chairs the board of the Volunteer Bureau of Montreal.
Serial entrepreneur in the AI space, he sold his most recent company, Gazelle.ai, to KKR before joining Inovia Capital as an Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR). It was there that Optionality was born—after recognizing that many entrepreneurs only discover the true value of their business and their available options when it is almost too late. He is now building a new generation platform for SMEs: an AI- and data-powered “neo-investment bank” focused on private companies. Optionality helps leaders understand the value of their business, grow it, and identify potential buyers years before a transaction. It also equips advisors with the tools and insights needed to support entrepreneurs earlier and drive better outcomes. All of this is driven by a single mission: to give entrepreneurs clarity, leverage, and real options for the most important transaction of their lives. He began his career at Bell, working across strategy, sales, marketing, and M&A. He later contributed to a special project with McKinsey & Company, where they developed a predictive market segmentation model based on algorithms—work that earned him the BCE Ovation Award. In 2009, he became a partner at ROI Research on Investment, a firm specializing in business development and foreign direct investment—where the initial idea behind Gazelle first took shape.
At the forefront of the Strategy and Transactions division at EY, Yasser Waly brings deep expertise in mergers and acquisitions, combined with a strong background in corporate finance, to guide complex transactions. His team focuses on delivering tailored advisory services, building strong partnerships, and driving strategic growth across Québec and Canada. With a commitment to excellence shaped by years of leadership in finance, Yasser’s role centers on advancing innovative solutions and navigating complex financial environments. At EY, the priority is to create value for clients and partners through disciplined business development strategies and a sharp understanding of the evolving corporate finance landscape.
Marc-André Nantais
Marc-André Nantais
Wealth management and estate planning expert, Scotia Jarislowsky Fraser
Marc-André Nantais joined Jarislowsky Fraser in 2018. As a registered portfolio manager, he focuses on managing and developing relationships with high-net-worth individuals and families.
Marc-André has 17 years of experience in the industry. He previously worked at Connor Clark & Lunn as Vice President, Private Wealth Management. Earlier in his career, he held institutional sales roles at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Toronto and New York, as well as at Goldman Sachs in New York.
He is highly involved in the community, serving on the boards of Fondation Montréal Inc. and the Musée d’art de Joliette. He also co-chaired the Duathlon Urbain 2019 organized by the Cercle des jeunes leaders of Hôpital Sainte-Justine, and is a former president and current board member of Jeunes Canadiens en Finance.
A passionate cyclist, he has participated in the Cyclo-défi Enbridge contre le cancer for the past two years.
Kosta Kostic is a partner in the Corporate Law Group in the Montreal office. With over 20 years of experience in business law, his practice focuses primarily on mergers and acquisitions (M&A), private equity, corporate finance, and securities law.
Kosta regularly advises issuers and securities dealers on both public and private offerings of debt and equity securities. He also acts as lead counsel in mergers and acquisitions, reorganizations, and restructurings for both public and private companies.
He has represented companies across various industries in connection with their initial public offerings, follow-on financings, and listings—whether direct or through special programs—on the Toronto Stock Exchange, the TSX Venture Exchange, and the Canadian Securities Exchange.
Kosta also advises clients on takeover bids, going-private transactions, reverse takeovers, and proxy contests.
Agenda / Curriculum
Presented by Ugo Dionne Bottom line: if you’re here, it means you’ve built a business with real value—but regardless of your talent for building a company, you likely have little to no experience in the process of selling one
Maximizing net proceeds, not just price Presented by Marc-André Nantais
Presented by Yasser Wally
From Letter of Intent to Closing
Presented by Joel Cabelli
- Role of M&A lawyers at each stage
- Confidentiality and information management
- Letters of intent: binding clauses and loss of leverage
- Legal due diligence and data room preparation
- Purchase agreement, indemnities, and risk allocation
- R&W insurance
- Common legal pitfalls
Closed-door discussions, led by experts, among executives.
Topics to choose from:
- Value and valuation levers
- Exit planning and buyer mapping
- Taxation, trusts, and wealth structuring
- M&A process and transaction terms
- (LOI, earn-outs, rollover, retention, risk management)
Pricing &
Private Group Options
- Pricing for public sessions to be confirmed
- Private or in-house sessions available upon request
- Customized delivery available for organizations, holding companies, or governance groups
Contact
