Meet Felicia O’Neil
Assistant Vice President,
Business Development
Private Capital Solutions
at Computershare
1. Tell us about your
company and its focus.
Computershare is a global
financial services company
operating in 21 countries
with over 12,000 employees worldwide. We
have extensive experience offering transfer
agency and corporate trust services as well
employee equity plans, mortgage servicing,
stakeholder communications and other
diversified financial and governance
services for public and private companies.
We work with some of the world’s leading
organizations to maximize their relationships with investors, employees, creditors,
members and customers.
Q2: Tell us about Computershare’s
initiatives and contributions to the
PCMA.
Computershare is committed to the
exempt market and continues to develop
and enhance our Private Capital Solutions
for exempt market dealers (EMDs), dealing
representatives (DRs), private issuers and
investors. We invest time and resources to
ensure that we provide a competitive
solution with high service standards.
We are delighted to support PCMA
industry events that take place throughout
the year. We were Title Sponsor of the
PCMA National Conference for four years
and are currently Lead Partner with the
PCMA. It’s always great to participate and
gain valuable insights from industry
participants and experts.
Q3: What is your company’s focus in
the private markets?
When Computershare entered the private
capital market in 2015, we realized that
demands of the market were developing
faster than the solutions available. Most
notably, there was a gap for a national trust
company committed to the exempt market.
Computershare is the only OSFI-regulated
trust company licensed in all jurisdictions
that is helping EMDs and private issuers
when offering products in all provinces, by
making its registered plan trusteeship
services available to exempt market
investors. We are focused on providing
DRs and EMDs with solutions suited to
their growing demands and changing
needs, in the form of a competitive
offering, with a robust online platform,
enhanced reporting tools and simplified
pricing. We are constantly improving our
online platform with ongoing developments to both the EMD/DR and investor
platforms. We recently launched a new and
improved investor portal offering more
self-serve options for investors.
Q4: Tell us a little about your background and what made you gravitate
toward the exempt markets.
I see two major challenges in the private I
have been in the financial services industry
for over 20 years in various capacities and
have spent the last seven years in the
exempt market in a Business Development
and Marketing capacity, working closely
with EMDs, DRs and private issuers.
The exempt market offers many exciting
opportunities and challenges. Having been
an investor for over 10 years, I have been
fascinated by the growth and evolution of
the industry.
In my previous roles, I received feedback
from DRs and EMDs about changes they
would like from their registered plan
trustee and am fortunate to be able to
implement some of the recommendations
as part of Computershare’s Private Capital
Solutions.
Q5: What are you most passionate about?
I am passionate about travelling and have a
long bucket list of places that I would like to
visit. My goal is to visit two new places each
year; one within North America and one
elsewhere. I am also an advocate for
ongoing education and am currently
enrolled in a mini-MBA program through
McGill University. Continued learning and
personal and professional growth along with
working out and leading a healthy lifestyle
are all important to me.
Q6: With the adage, “Membership has
its Privileges”, please finish this
sentence: Joining the Private Capital
Markets Association of Canada is
imperative because…
The PCMA is a critical voice of the industry,
in an exciting period of growth and evolution in the private market. I am delighted to
be a member of PCMA and part of its
evolution and am looking forward to getting
more involved in various committees and
initiatives over the coming years. Computershare is proud to support the PCMA as
Lead Partner and be involved in this
conversation. We can’t wait to see where this
partnership takes us. PCMA JS
Q
PCMA LEAD PARTNER SPOTLIGHT