Talvest Fund Management Inc. - Guy J. Paquette

Life's Long. Be Ready.

The mutual fund industry has undergone major consolidation over the past few years. Some players have literally "grown overnight" to reach up to $45B in assets under management. In this context, branding has been a significant, albeit costly, competitive tool. Also, significant regulatory changes were introduced regarding mutual fund sales practices and in February 2000, as to new disclosure requirements in the preparation of simplified prospectuses.

The Company: Founded in 1985, Talvest Fund Management Inc. is one of Canada's fastest growing mutual fund companies, with more than $4 billion in assets under management for approximately 300,000 investors. Talvest's parent company TAL Global Asset Management Inc. is a leading Canadian-based global investment manager, which manages approximately $58 billion in assets. Talvest distributes a family of 48 Canadian and international mutual funds, including two labour-sponsored funds and nine segregated funds, through the Synchrony and Partnership Series Funds. The Funds are distributed through brokers, mutual fund dealers, financial planners and life insurance agents. Talvest is represented nationally with offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Montreal and Halifax. Talvest has 255 employees, while TAL has 350 employees.

Title: Vice-President, Legal Affairs

Age: 43

Principal Outside Counsel: Talvest is focused on a Canadian clientele and consequently retains Canadian counsel, with only occasional use of international firms. The Company relies on Borden Ladner Gervais LLP's Toronto office as well as on Ogilvy Renault in Montreal. Stikeman Elliott is primary counsel for TAL Global Asset Management.

Guy believes that law firms should play an increasing role as business partners, notably in accepting greater business risks (as opposed to legal risks) in the advice they offer. He also considers that law firms should set up multi-disciplinary teams that have a new balance of skills and experience. Companies like TAL and Talvest expect practical solutions to business issues.

The Law Department: Demand over the next two years will increase on the regulatory front, especially in terms of compliance. Talvest's law and compliance department is being built from the ground up, in the wake of recent regulation of the mutual fund industry, to directly support the company's rapid growth. Guy's experience and TAL's national and global presence have solidified his views favoring decentralized law departments. He believes that properly positioning corporate counsel with major users of legal services within the organization and being a member of the company's executive team, involves lawyers earlier in the business decisions and provides greater value in risk management. The challenge in organizing legal services is to strike the right balance between critical mass and specialization both within the company and with law firms.

As Talvest continues to grow, it will have to introduce standards in work product, operating protocols, the selection and pricing of outside counsel, and prevent isolation between the groups of lawyers that populate TAL's divisions and subsidiaries.

Transactions: While they are not formal M&A type transactions, Talvest develops numerous business relationships to broaden its product distribution. As such, Talvest has agreements with major players in the financial industry. Maritime Life, Manulife and Fiducie Desjardins are prime examples of the Company's business development opportunities. Another division of TAL Global Asset Management, TAL Institutional Management, recently acquired the management and distribution rights for the CIBC Mellon family of eight pooled funds, now marketed as Centaur Funds, representing $580 million in managed assets for some 140 corporate clients.

Legal Risk Management: This is a highly regulated industry that seldom experiences litigation. It does, however, require sophisticated risk management processes for which compliance is a significant component.

Management Challenge: Guy heads up teams of multi-disciplinary professionals to achieve growth and increased efficiencies. Acting as its legal officer and project manager in the development of a more comprehensive compliance program, Guy takes more frequent initiative on legal / business issues, and in introducing risk management skills to members of the company in various business processes.

Style: Guy sees himself as a business person trained as a lawyer. Now approaching 20 years of practice, primarily as in-house counsel, he believes that speed counts, but not at the cost of quality. He is a fully integrated member of the executive team reporting directly to Talvest President Murray G. Douglas. In light of his professional and executive backgrounds in the manufacturing, high-tech and banking sectors, Guy brings a wealth of experience to his position.

Career: Graduating with an L.L.B. from l'Université de Sherbrooke, he spent two years in private practice in Montreal before beginning his corporate counsel career at Zellers Inc. From there he joined General Motors of Canada Limited's Quebec-based law department and stayed four years as regional legal counsel. In 1989, he moved to the communications and printing sectors, first as legal counsel with Quebecor Inc., and then as Quebecor Printing's Director of Legal Affairs and Assistant Secretary. After close to eight years, Guy accepted the position of V.P., General Counsel and Corporate Secretary with Canadian Marconi Company, a publicly traded company and one of Canada's foremost exporters of advanced electronics systems. In 1999, he moved to the financial services sector initially as a consultant to the National Bank's Corporate Secretarial department, and then joined Talvest in June 2000.

Family: Married to Julie, a lawyer and V.P. Human Resources for Quebecor Media. They have two children - Catherine, 8, and Geneviève, 7.

Reading: Financial newspapers and usually has more than one book on the go. Among his favorite authors are Jeffrey Archer, Peter Mayle, Daniel Pennac and Robert Ludlum. He is currently reading Henri Kaufman's latest novel "On Money and Markets", "Le Monde de Sophie" by Jostein Gaarder, as well as Robert Ludlum's "The Prometheus Deception".

Relaxing: Enjoys mountain biking, downhill skiing, reading and spending time with his family. Guy strongly believes in community work and is extensively involved in a charitable organization known as "The Portage Foundation".

Richard G. Stock, M.A., FCIS, C.ADM., CMC, is a partner with Catalyst Consulting.