Corporate

Tracy Hughes

Capital Markets

Board Members

Michel Pepin, CPA, CA

President and CFO

Mr. Pepin brings over 35 years of global/multinational experience in several industries as Board member and special advisor for several organizations, working with public companies, private equity (PE) and family-owned businesses. He has led teams in domestic and global organizations spearheading M&A deals and interacted
with capital markets, strategic corporate development, financial management, overseeing finances, compliance/regulatory and operational functions. His experience includes IT, human resources, real estate, procurement, legal and insurance. Michel has successfully improved processes, created significant positive cash flows and maximizing return on investment.

Michel is a is a Chartered Accountant and Certified Public Accountant, also having completed several specialized university courses.

Paul Gaynor

Chair of the Board

Mr. Paul Gaynor founded Market Focus Direct (“MFD”) in 1991 and grew its operations until it was acquired by Ciscom in 2021. As a visionary entrepreneur, Mr. Gaynor established himself as a pillar of the industry and a trail blazer. His avant-garde ideas have become standard fare in several instances.

Paul has been Chair and Board Member of several associations pioneering new technology and continued advancement in the industry. MFD developed its own proprietary technology (IP) which contributed to establishing its market leadership through deep analytics and foresights.

Paul was appointed to the Board on September 1, 2021.

Tracy Hughes

Capital Markets

Tracy Hughes is the Founder, CEO, and Director of InvestorNews Inc., the publisher of InvestorNews.com, which is an independent source of market news that receives over 120 million hits annually. Further to its role as an online Publisher, InvestorNews has been providing digital media services in the capital markets for 2 dozen years. Well known for hosting some of the largest critical mineral events in the world, Tracy is the Co-Founder and Executive Director for the Critical Minerals Institute (CMI), which is focused on critical minerals for a decarbonized economy.

Tracy’s past business experience includes being the co-founder of a FTSE recognized rare earths indices company REE Stocks PLC, and a principal partner in a boutique investment banking firm Weslosky & Cowans Ltd. that held an Exempt Market Dealers license for 8 years. This same firm was the catalyst for the business television series DealFlow she was the Host and Executive Producer for, which had distribution in 294 million households worldwide, including CNBC and WealthTV, now known as AWE.

In the early nineties, Tracy started in PR for television and then quickly evolved into the music industry. Her last role in the music industry was in the late nineties as the VP of Marketing, Canada, for Red Ant Entertainment, a NYSE listed company at the time, which Tracy credits this as her first real introduction to the public markets.

Tracy received her BA in Political Science from the University of Tennessee in 1988 and is a well-known speaker, investment market interview host and columnist. She sits on the Board of Directors for Panther Metals PLC (LSE: PALM) and Ciscom Corp. (CSE: CISC | OTCQB: CISCF).

Eric Klein, CPA, CA, CBV, ICD.D

Mr. Klein of Toronto, Ontario is a Director, a Chartered Professional Accountant, Chartered Business Valuator and member of the Institute of Corporate Directors. Mr. Klein has over 35 years of both professional and corporate management experience. He focuses on mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, financings and strategic advisory as well as joint ventures for primarily mid-sized Canadian corporations. His experience as both a corporate executive and an advisor lead to unique and holistic results. As a member of the Institute of Corporate Directors, he serves on both public and private company boards.

Currently, Mr. Klein is the President of Klein Advisory Services Inc. Prior to that he held the position of Executive Vice President, Corporate Development of Dundee Corporation from 2016 to 2018. From 1992 to 2016, Mr. Klein served as the lead partner of Klein Farber Corporate Finance Inc., a financial services advisory firm that is a member of the Farber Financial Group. Over the years, he has served as an advisor, executive and independent board member to various public and private corporations, quasi-government organizations, private individuals and family groups.

Mr. Klein holds a graduate diploma in Public Accounting and a B.Comm. degree from McGill University in Montreal. He was appointed to the Board on August 16, 2021.

David Mathews

Mr. Mathews is the President and Managing Director of PMG/MFD. As a senior executive, Dave will be leading the operations, performance and growth strategy of the advertising and marketing technology segment within Ciscom.  Dave has a long tenure of building, combining and developing the agency business since he founded Stratafly, in partnership with Prospect Media in 2006. Then merging the two agencies in 2014 as the new Prospect Media Group and taking sole ownership of PMG in 2019.  He is based in Toronto. 

He brings over 25 years as a leader in the marketing industry, leading growth strategy initiatives across multiple media and agency roles.  He led the transformation of PMG into a retail focused, data-driven, integrated media agency— from print to digital to omni-channel.  His passion is to deliver actionable consumer insights, combined with integrated media strategy to create successful client experiences focused on performance.

Dave has served on multiple boards within the marketing industry such as the RAC Board, the RCC Marketing Committee, as well as for the charitable organization Youth Without Shelter.  He is the founding partner of Cover Me Urban in 2010, an annual fundraising event that supports YWS, raising over significant funding for the shelter since inception. He has a B.Sc. from UofT, leveraging his experience as the Advertising Director for the campus radio station, as his foray into Marketing.

Stephen Lautens, JD

Stephen Lautens has extensive experience as a senior executive in communications, business development and investor relations roles. He has been a key member of management during the growth and successful sale of public and private corporations. Stephen left his private law practice to become Vice President – Business Development of The Workflow Automation Corporation (“WFA”), a software company with middleware solutions for banks, government, major corporations, and other software vendors. WFA was sold BEA Systems/Oracle. Stephen was also one of the founders of Internet Incubation Inc., a technology incubator for innovative startups.

In 2005, Stephen joined Inter-Citic Minerals, a TSX-listed gold exploration company with a major project in China, as its Vice President – Corporate Communications. Inter-Citic was then sold to Western Mining Group Co. Ltd. (PRC) for $260 million. Stephen then joined as Vice-President, Corporate Affairs, Angkor Resources Corp, a TSXV-listed oil and gas exploration company operating in Cambodia.

Stephen has been a Governor of Canada’s National Newspaper Awards for over 15 years and in 2010 founded a Canadian registered charity that supports, among other causes, microfinance for women entrepreneurs in the developing world. He has been honoured with the Freedom of the City of London (UK) and the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. He has served as president of the Toronto Press Club, the National Club, and the Lawyers Club.

Angel V. Valov

Angel V. Valov is a finance professional with extensive experience in all aspects of institutional money management. He is an accredited, high net worth investor and proprietary trading specialist with intricate knowledge of the North American capital markets. Since 2014, he has managed and invested in equity distributed across several trading strategies and thematic investment ideas (in addition to accredited investments) and supported by proprietary technology infrastructure.

Mr. Valov has worked as Risk Manager at Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. where he supported portfolio managers in areas of portfolio composition, portfolio liquidity, risk attribution/diversification/concentration and hedging. Previously, he worked as Manager, Risk Analytics, Global Risk Management for the Scotiabank and Analyst, Model Risk and Vetting for the Bank of Montreal. Over the years, Angel has served on a number of corporate boards, including a TSXV-listed technology company. He holds a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics and an MSc in Statistics and is the author of numerous scholarly publications on mathematical modeling and recipient of several academic awards.