Charles Gillies - Chairman of the Board and Managing Partner at Jolimont Capital

Mr. Charles Gillies is a Managing Partner at Jolimont Capital, a leading specialist secondaries private equity fund manager in Australia and New Zealand, which he co-founded in 2003. His focus is working with management teams as an active investor and board member to grow businesses.  Mr. Gillies brings an extensive senior level experience with financing, strategic alliance and marketing expertise. He has been or is a Director of Plantic, Redfern Polymer Optics, Redfern Integrated Optics and Fitness2Live.

Prior to founding Jolimont Capital, Charles Gillies was the Investment Manager for ADI, a technology seed investor. He has also direct experience of start-ups as CEO and founder of an Internet service business in 1999.

Mr. Gillies has a Masters of Business Administration from the Melbourne Business School (he was the HJ Heinz Scholar in 1991), and a Bachelor of Science/Arts from the University of Melbourne.

Mr. Gilles Pepin is the CEO and a shareholder of HumanWare. With his more than 20 years experience, Mr. Pepin has built a solid worldwide reputation in the field of assistive technology and in the arena of visual impairment.

In 1988, Mr. Pepin founded VisuAide, a successful company specialized in high technology products for persons who are blind or visually impaired. VisuAide merged with PDI in 2005 to form HumanWare.

Before founding VisuAide, Mr. Pepin worked for 5 years as a consultant in a telecommunications engineering firm where he accomplished a number of noteworthy computer, telephony and other telecommunications projects. He then joined the Institut Nazareth et Louis-Braille as a technology consultant where he made his first steps in assistive technology.

Mr. Pepin holds a master's degree in digital speech signal processing from the Université de Sherbrooke and completed post-graduate studies (DEA) at the Université de Rennes, France. He also studied management accounting at McGill University in Montreal. He received his engineering degree from the Université de Sherbrooke in 1982.

Yves Boisjoli - Vice President, Business Development, HumanWare

Mr. Yves Boisjoli joined HumanWare (formerly VisuAide) in 1994 as Vice President finance and administration. He is currently Vice President of business development and a shareholder of HumanWare.

Over the past 20 years, Mr. Boisjoli has managed several major corporate financing projects involving government and banking partners as well as several venture capital institutions. He also led a number of deal structuring and merger/acquisition projects including the merger with PDI from New Zealand to create Humanware, now the world leader in the field of visual impairment.

Mr. Boisjoli holds a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from Université de Sherbrooke and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Florida Atlantic University. He has also been a member of the Bar of the Province of Quebec for many years and was a director of Innovatech-Sud.  

Lex McArthur - Managing Partner at Jolimont Capital

Mr. Lex McArthur is a Managing Partner at Jolimont Capital, which he founded with Charles Gillies in 2003. His strengths are in deal structuring, transaction negotiation and business strategies. Mr. McArthur works actively in developing growth with each of his investee companies and in guiding and mentoring the CEOs and senior management. He is also currently a Director of Park Assist and Redfern Optical Components.

Prior to founding Jolimont Capital, Mr. McArthur was CEO of ADI, a technology investor whose shareholders included Babcock & Brown and Ernst & Young. Previously, he was CEO of Emerge CMC Ltd, a joint venture between leading IT vendors including Oracle, NEC, Telstra and four major universities to commercialize online business applications.

Mr. McArthur has a B. Eng (Hons) from the University of Melbourne, a Post Graduate Diploma in Mineral Economics and is a FINSIA Associate. 

Georges Morin - Corporate Director

Currently a partner at Cosmos Capital, Mr. Georges Morin is a founding partner and former Senior Executive of Cossette, the largest Canadian advertising and communications Company. Over a 30-year period at Cossette, Mr. Morin participated in the growth and transformation of this Québec-based advertising agency into an award-winning international advertising group of 1400 employees with offices across Canada, the U.S. and the UK.

Mr. Morin is also a Corporate Director at Immervision, a private company and world leader in panoramic imaging technology, as well as at Canadian Tire's Jumpstart Foundation, a national charitable program that helps financially disadvantaged kids participate in organized sport and recreation.

Active in the community, Georges Morin also holds the positions of Corporate Director and Executive Committee Member of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra (MSO) as well as Chair of the Marketing Committee.

Mr. Morin is a graduate of Laval University Business Administration Faculty (1976), Harvard University's Executive Management Program for Entrepreneurial Companies (1993) as well as the Institute of Corporate Directors (2010).

Michel Côté - Corporate Director

Mr. Michel Côté has a strong expertise in operations management in North America.

During his career he held various senior management positions in the fields of operations (sales, consulting and customer service), logistics (distribution, project management and business processes) and infrastructures (IT, telecommunications and electronic commerce). He worked with companies such as Bell Canada, Emergis, Videotron, Birks and Laser Registration.

His track record shows extensive experience on how to help firms enter a new growth phase and a great expertise regarding strategic planning, business plan review, development and implementation of performance evaluation tools, marketing and market development and optimization/mechanization of business processes.