VP / SVP, Corporate Development & Strategy
Location: Toronto or Vancouver
Reports to the Co-CEOs
The Company
Founded in 2010, Canada Drives operates a variety of market-leading consumer finance brands across Canada, the US and the UK. The company helps consumers facing all types of credit situations gain access to various products including automotive financing, personal loans, credit cards, mortgages and credit building solutions through a convenient online application.
Canada Drives has over 500 employees and works with over 1 million consumers every year.
Canada Drives is one of the fastest-growing companies in Canada with a history of high margins, profitability, capital efficiency and outsized returns on invested capital. The disruptive business has a dominant position in the Canadian used car market and is poised for break-out growth with the addition of key new products.
The Role
Canada Drives is looking for a natural leader to join the Executive Team in a new role to accelerate our many growth opportunities. With over 100,000 monthly consumer loan applications in Canada, the VP/SVP of Corporate Development & Strategy will work closely with the rest of the Executive team and analytics department to identify opportunities and help develop go-to-market strategies for new financial products.
The ideal candidate will have a broad knowledge of consumer lending products in Canada and leverage this knowledge to make recommendations on which products to pursue. Through their experience and knowledge of the capital markets and connections therein, this individual will assess, recommend and secure the optimal financing structures for new and existing products.
In addition to accelerating organic growth, this person will use their industry knowledge and contacts to identify and recommend M&A opportunities when appropriate.
This position will also be responsible for competitive analysis, industry landscape trends and other assessments as required.
Primary Responsibilities
- Partner with the Executive team in the development of new products
- Work with the relevant teams to understand our customer base and current financial product offerings and make recommendations for new financial products based on your indications from capital markets
- Advise on the go-to-market and growth strategies for new products
- Secure the optimal financing structures for new and existing products
- Lead and own all aspects of the M&A process, including the identification of targets, the execution of transactions and, if needed, the planning and management of post-merger integration
- Conduct target strategic fit analysis and build deal pitch book and business case
- Conduct financial and operating due diligence and build valuation models
- Support transactions, including deal structuring, negotiation and documentation
- Manage multiple opportunities simultaneously
- Responsible for relationships with strategic partners
- Interview and gather data and conduct internal and external market research
- Establish analytical frameworks to identify, prioritize, structure and solve complex business problems
- Perform quantitative and qualitative analysis including external market sizing
- Be in constant communication with, and the company’s primary connection to the capital markets
Required Skills and Experience
- Possess a vast network and industry knowledge
- Naturally create strong working relationships
- Demonstrable experience of supporting group strategy, business cases with workable financial insight
- Desire to provide innovative and creative thinking to problems, solutions and business opportunities
- Self-motivator with the ability to work independently
- Excellent communicator, both oral and written
- Strong financial modeling skills
- 5+ years of experience in investment banking or relevant business development
- We will ask for demonstrable experience on specific M&A transactions, and debt and equity raises.