Paul Spafford

Mr. Spafford joined Wood Gundy as an investment banker in 1976, became a Vice President and Director of the firm in 1982 and Head of Mergers and Acquisitions in 1984. In 1988 WoodGundy was acquired by CIBC and Mr. Spafford continued as Head of M&A and was appointed Vice Chairman of Investment Banking in 1994.

During his career he was involved as a lead M&A advisor on many of Canada’s largest M&A transactions including the take-over defense of Falconbridge, Placer Dome, Equinox Gold and Makenzie Financial, as well as the mergers of Randgold with Barrick, Agrium with Potash Corp. and Suncor with Petro-Canada. He has been involved with numerous capital markets financings, acquisitions and divestitures and has acted as financial advisor to many Boards of Directors, including Bell Canada, Manitoba Tel and Teck, to name only a few.

Mr. Spafford has a BASc in Electrical Engineering from the University of Waterloo where he is a past Governor of the University and has an MBA from IVEY Business School. He is a Director and Vice Chair of the Board of the Canadian Opera Company and a Governor of Crescent School. He retired from CIBC Capital Markets in 2021. He is married to Dr. Jean Davidson a retired Oncology Surgeon and they have two sons.