Toronto, January 21, 2021 – RF Capital Group Inc. (“RF Capital” or the “Company”) (TSX: RCG) today announced that Nathalie Bernier has been appointed as an independent member to the Company’s board of directors (the “Board”), effective immediately.
Ms. Bernier brings extensive experience and expertise in the areas of transformation and implementation of innovative growth strategies as well as strong financial, governance and risk acumen acquired over a distinguished career that spans more than 30 years at global multi-services professional firms and one of Canada’s largest pension investment managers.
– Strengthens Board representation in key francophone market
– The Board now comprised of eight directors (including two female directors), six of whom are independent
Most recently, Ms. Bernier was Senior Vice President, Strategic and Business Planning and Chief Financial Officer for The Public Sector Pension Investment Board (“PSP”) until her retirement in 2019. At PSP, she led the transformation of that firm’s five-year strategy, which resulted in a 50% increase in net assets under management from $112 billion in 2015 to $168 billion in 2019. She also led PSP’s global expansion establishing offices in London, New York and Hong Kong.
Prior to this role, Ms. Bernier spent nearly 30 years as an Audit and Advisory Partner at Andersen and KPMG from 1986 to 2015, including serving as the Canadian industry leader in Technology, Media and Telecommunications from 2003 to 2007. She was responsible for directing several audits of large complex multinational public corporations. At KPMG, Ms. Bernier concluded several M&A transactions from initiation to integration. The most significant acquisition, a game changer, was KPMG’s acquisition of Secor, at the time Canada’s largest independent strategy consulting firm. Ms. Bernier was the first female Managing Partner to lead a Region (Quebec) at KPMG and was a member of KPMG’s Canadian leadership team.
Don Wright, the Company’s Chairperson, said: “We are pleased that Nathalie chose to join our Board. Her extensive experience and operational transformation and strategy implementation pedigree complements the expertise of our current board members as we focus on significant value creation opportunities, including those in Quebec.”
Commenting further, Mr. Wright said: “Nathalie’s appointment also allows us to deliver on our commitment to identify and recruit independent qualified director nominees that satisfy both the Company’s skills and experience requirements as well as its stated diversity objectives.”
Among her many business accomplishments, Ms. Bernier was named Canada’s CFO of the Year by the Financial Executive Institute in 2018, Canada Business Review’s 2015 Top Woman in Business, the Association of Quebec Women in Finance Leadership award in 2014 and one of Canada’s Most Powerful Women Top 100 in the professionals award category in 2011. Ms. Bernier also serves on the board of Canada Enterprise Emergency Funding Corporation (Chair of the Audit Committee) and Centraide of Greater Montreal Foundation (Chair of Audit and Investment Committee).
Ms. Bernier holds a Bachelor of Commerce from McGill University and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Professional Accountants of Quebec (Ordre des comptables agréés du Québec).
ABOUT RF CAPITAL GROUP INC.
RF Capital Group Inc. (RF Capital) currently operates through two business segments: Wealth Management and Operations Clearing; and a Corporate segment. Wealth Management consists of RF Capital’s wholly owned subsidiary Richardson Wealth. Richardson Wealth is one of the largest independent wealth management firms in Canada with $30.3 billion in assets under administration (as at December 31, 2020) and 19 offices across the country. The firm’s growing roster of Advisor teams (162 as at December 31, 2020) focus exclusively on providing strategic wealth advice and innovative investment solutions customized for each high net worth or ultra-high net worth client family, entrepreneur or business owner. Operations Clearing, through RF Securities Clearing LP (formerly GMP Securities L.P.), provides carrying broker services to Richardson Wealth and other third parties, including trade execution, clearing, settlement, custody, and certain other middle- and back-office services, and other expenses associated with providing such services. RF Capital is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol “RCG”. For further information, please visit our corporate website at www.rfcapgroup.com.
For Further Information Please Contact:
RF Capital Group Inc.
Rocco Colella, Managing Director, Investor Relations
Tel: (416) 941-0894;
[email protected]