Peter Beck is a well-known financial expert and President of
SwiftTrade Inc., Canada's leading proprietary trading firm.
A European-trained chef, Mr. Beck immigrated to Canada in 1979
and set up a number of successful businesses, including a coffee
shop, a water bottling company, a pet food delivery service, and
ITN Corporation, the first legally operating long distance company
in Canada. In 1998, he founded SwiftTrade, which was #7 on
Profit Magazine's "10 Hottest Startups in Canada" for
2001, and was named #2 on the "Top 100 Fastest Growing Businesses
in Canada" for 2004, also by Profit, with an astounding
five-year growth rate of almost 9000%.
Mr. Beck has been featured in media across the country,
including The Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, CTV
News, ROB TV, and Canadian Business. He regularly appears on
television to offer commentary on the markets, writes articles for
financial publications across the country, and is the co-author of
Hedge Funds for Canadians: New Investment Strategies for Winning
in Any Market (John Wiley & Sons).
Simon Romano is a partner at Stikeman Elliott LLP, a
440-lawyer firm with an international reputation in all areas of
business law, most notably securities, tax, banking, corporate
finance, M&A, securitizations and derivatives, commercial
litigation, competition law, commercial real estate,
labour/employment and pension law, environmental law, intellectual
property and related fields. Mr. Romano practices principally in
the area of securities, M&A and finance, as well as acting for
private equity funds, income trusts, and alternative trading
systems.
Mr. Romano has practiced in both Toronto and New York, and was
formerly a clerk at the Supreme Court of Canada. During 1995 and
1996, he was Special Counsel to the Ontario Securities Commission,
where he dealt with take-over bids as well as other projects. He
has written a number of articles, is a frequent speaker at
seminars, and was a member of the Ontario Securities
Commission's Securities Advisory Committee.
He is particularly active in the area of income trusts, having
advised the Livingston International Income Fund and the SIR
Royalty Income Fund, among others. He has been recognized by
Lexpert/American Lawyer as one of Canada's top 500 lawyers,
and by Chambers Global as one of the world's leading
lawyers.
