Darren Gottlieb – Managing Partner
Darren co-founded Vantage Asset Management with Mark Tredgett in 2009. Prior to co-founding the company, Darren successfully managed Vantage’s investment strategy for 4½ years at Royal Capital Management, a boutique investment company based in Toronto.
Prior to Vantage and Royal Capital Management, Darren was a member of the Alternative Strategies Group at TD Bank – more commonly known as TD Proprietary Trading. The Alternative Strategies Group was responsible for managing a portion of the bank’s internal capital. While at TD, Darren focused on long/short investment strategies and also published a number of investment opinions broadly distributed to the bank’s institutional clientele.
Darren started his professional career in the late 1990’s in the investment banking groups at two firms, BMO Nesbitt Burns and Research Capital. Darren’s focus during his investment banking years was on mergers and acquisitions and raising capital for mid-sized Canadian companies across a variety of industries.
Darren holds an MBA and LLB from the Schulich School of Business and Osgoode Hall Law School.
Darren is an active skier and tennis player and an avid follower of Middle Eastern geopolitical affairs. He brings discipline, experience and leadership as head of Vantage’s investment team – however, nobody at Vantage is inclined to follow his self-proclaimed “fashion forward” dress code. Darren lives in Toronto with his wife, Sara, and two boys, Koby and Cooper.
Mark Tredgett – Managing Partner
Mark Tredgett co-founded Vantage Asset Management with Darren Gottlieb in 2009. Prior to Vantage, Mark was Managing Director of a boutique alternative investment manager based in Toronto – JCM. Prior to this role, Mark managed the institutional hedge fund team at National Bank Financial (NBF), the wholly-owned investment banking subsidiary of the National Bank of Canada. While at NBF, Mark headed a team responsible for building the bank’s institutional equity business with alternative investment managers in North America.
Mark’s capital markets career began in 1998 in London, England where he spent six years working within the institutional equity divisions of Credit-Suisse First Boston and Robertson Stephens as a Vice President of Equities.
Mark holds a degree in Economics from the University of Western Ontario (1991) and a Masters degree from the London School of Economics (1998).
Mark is an avid sports fan and former competitive squash and tennis player. He was a member of the University of Western Ontario squash team during his undergraduate years. Mark has lost a half step (or more) since his university days, however, he manages to stay reasonably active chasing his four children around the west end of Toronto where he lives with his wife and family.
Francis Lau – Portfolio Manager
Francis Lau is a member of Vantage’s investment team and responsible for multiple aspects of the firm’s research process, including: idea generation, industry analysis, security analysis and financial modelling.
Prior to joining Vantage in 2010, Francis worked at BMO Capital Markets as an investment banker. Prior to this role, Francis was an investment analyst with Jaguar Financial, a Toronto-based merchant bank. Francis brings a diverse background and unique skill set which complements Vantage’s investment team.
Francis is a graduate of the University of Waterloo with a Bachelor’s in Mathematics and a double major in Computer Science and Economics. Francis is also a CFA Charterholder and is currently a Director of the Toronto CFA Society’s Mentorship Committee.
Francis represents a small subset of the global population who can function effectively with little-to-no sleep – a character trait which is particularly useful during earnings season.
Dale O’Connor – Chief Operating Officer
Dale O’Connor is the Chief Operating Officer for Vantage Asset Management. In this role, Dale is responsible for all operational and compliance-related functions at the firm – ensuring a seamless operating environment for Vantage’s investors, financial counterparties, vendors and employees.
Prior to joining Vantage in 2017, Dale was the Chief Compliance Officer (CCO) at Sprucegrove Investment Management Ltd., one of Canada’s largest independent investment managers. During Dale’s eight years at Sprucegrove he headed up a number senior initiatives related to the firm’s operations, financial reporting and compliance. Before Sprucegrove, Dale worked for seven years in the financial institutions audit practice and corporate finance group at KPMG.
Dale holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree in finance from Concordia University and an MBA from Wilfrid Laurier University. Dale is a CPA-CA and a CFA Charterholder.
Depending on the season, Dale can often be spotted on the weekends with his wife and two daughters enjoying the Canadian outdoors, including, biking, the skating rink or the pool.
Clarke Markle – Director
Clarke Markle is responsible for the operational functions and related processes at Vantage. He is involved in counterparty management, non-portfolio strategy, business development and client management.
Prior to joining Vantage in 2013, Clarke was a key member of the manager research team at BNY Mellon Wealth Management where he was directly involved in constructing investment portfolios for high net worth and institutional clients that, in aggregate, exceeded $5.0 billion. Prior to joining BNY, Clarke worked at RogersCasey Canada and was responsible for structuring fund-of-fund products for the firm’s institutional clients.
Clarke holds MBA and HBA degrees from the Richard Ivey School of Business and is also a CFA Charterholder and a member of the Toronto CFA Society.
In addition to his impressive educational and professional credentials, Clarke is an accomplished baseball player – winning three provincial championships for the University of Western Ontario Mustangs. Clarke remains active in Toronto’s senior baseball circuit – still waiting for his call up to play centre field in the big leagues.
Max Mausner – Senior Analyst
Max Mausner is a member of Vantage’s investment team and supports multiple aspects of the firm’s research process, including: idea generation, industry analysis, security analysis and financial modelling.
Prior to joining Vantage in 2014, Max worked at TD Securities as an investment banker in the Media, Communications and Technology Group and in the Equity Capital Markets Group.
Max graduated with First Class Honours from the Queen’s School of Business Commerce Program and is a CFA Charterholder. He served as an Analyst and Portfolio Manager for the Queen’s University Investment Counsel (QUIC) and remains involved as an Alumni Mentor for current Counsel Members.
Max is an active athlete, with a particular interest in running, cycling and racquet sports. He is a former nationally ranked badminton player; but unfortunately, as we like to remind Max, badminton doesn’t count!
Mike Yerashotis – Senior Analyst
Mike Yerashotis is a Senior Analyst on Vantage’s investment team. In this capacity, Mike is involved in all aspects of the firm’s research process, including idea generation, company analysis, industry analysis and financial modelling.
Prior to joining Vantage, Mike was a Senior Special Situations Analyst and Head of Accounting Research at Veritas Investment Research – one of Canada’s leading independent equity research companies. Mike is a former corporate auditor with Ernst & Young, forensic accountant, and periodic lecturer at the Schulich School of Business, at York University.
Mike graduated on the Dean’s Honour List from the Schulich School of Business and holds the CPA, CA and Chartered Business Valuator designations.
Mike is a basketball enthusiast and enjoys reading about geopolitical issues.