Cerro Verde Advisory — When it absolutely has to work
We know what it feels like to make the decisions that matter most — with incomplete information, real stakes, and no safety net. That experience is what we bring to every engagement. We combine the financial fluency of seasoned CFOs with the strategic perspective of leaders who have run organizations.
Most advisory firms study businesses like yours. We’ve run them.
How we work
Every client comes to us differently — some need a partner through an acquisition, some need a model that makes the case to their stakeholders, some just need a fresh perspective before a decision that can’t be undone.
We meet you where you are: we shape the engagement around what you actually need, staying close to the decision, present through the execution, and invested in the outcome for the long term.
Our expertise includes
- Strategic alternatives, transaction advisory and turnaround support
- Interim and fractional executive leadership — CFO / CRO
- Financial modelling and corporate forecasting
- Debtor advisory and debt restructuring
- Valuation analysis and value creation
- Product, segment and margin profitability analysis
- Sale readiness and exit planning
- M&A Support
A typical client
- Management is evaluating the reasons for declining financial performance and is concerned about covenant breaches or losing lender support.
- The business is growing quickly without a financial forecast — and management isn’t sure they can take on a large opportunity without running out of cash.
- The owner is considering an acquisition and needs help valuing the target, navigating due diligence, and structuring the deal.
- The business needs organizational structure, but the owner isn’t sure what role to hire next or how to begin delegating decisions.
- Management needs to compile, present, and negotiate a credible plan with their bank or investors — and needs an experienced voice in the room to do it.
The people you actually work with
Darren Brisebois
Darren was born and raised in Calgary by a family of entrepreneurs. He currently resides there with his wife and their two young children. He has a passion for business, trading stocks, sports (hockey and golf in particular), travelling, and spending time with his family.
Prior to founding Cerro Verde Advisory in 2017, Darren spent the first chapter of his career in banking with CIBC, Roynat Capital and RBC. He transitioned to consulting roles with Stawowski McGill (Fractional CFO) and later Welsh Valuation (Business Valuation) before joining OGEN, a cannabis start-up as President. These experiences provided him with foundational knowledge and best practices in strategy, finance, operations, and change management, as well as an entrepreneurial mindset to ‘get things done’.
Darren is a Chartered Professional Accountant and has completed the Chartered Business Valuator coursework. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce in Entrepreneurship from Royal Roads University. He also holds certificates in Strategic Change Management and Brand Building, both from Northwestern University, and has completed the Private Equity and Venture Capital Program from Columbia University.
Dave Cohen
Dave brings close to two decades of transaction and operating experience to Cerro Verde. He spent the first chapter of his career at EY in Calgary, working in accounting and auditing, then business valuations, and finishing as Vice President in the M&A Lead Advisory group, where he advised owners of mid-market businesses on buy-side and sell-side M&A, and debt financing. Across his ten-year tenure at EY, he worked with clients spanning oilfield services, utilities, agriculture, engineering, construction, retail and entertainment sectors.
In 2018, Dave crossed to the operator’s side of the table joining Landmark Cinemas, first as CFO and then President, leading 45 cinemas with more than 1,800 employees and over $300 million in revenue — with responsibility for operations, finance, marketing, HR and corporate development.
Dave is a Chartered Professional Accountant and a Chartered Business Valuator. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce in Accounting from the University of Calgary and an Executive MBA from the Smith School of Business at Queen’s University.
Lyndsay Brisebois
Lyndsay was born and raised in Calgary, where she lives with her husband and their two children. She has a passion for travel, fitness, nutrition, cooking, and gardening.
Lyndsay began her career at EY in audit, where her clients included TransAlta and Talisman Energy, among other oil and gas companies. She then moved into industry working at both Superior Plus and Marathon Oil, before joining Canadian Natural Resources Limited (CNRL) in 2017. Through these roles, she has developed a thorough understanding of accounting standards (ASPE and IFRS), financial processes and internal controls.
During her nine years at CNRL, she worked across a range of reporting functions including oil sands accounting, budgeting and forecasting, and external financial reporting. She played a key role in complex accounting and transactional matters, including acquisitions, derivative accounting, and decommissioning liabilities. She also worked closely with various business units across the company and led teams responsible for communicating financial results to senior executives, key decision-makers, and external shareholders.
Lyndsay is a Chartered Professional Accountant. She holds a Bachelor of Commerce in Accounting from the University of Calgary.
What our partners say about us
Cerro Verde has been our trusted advisor and CFO for the last 10 years. They have been instrumental to our success and growth.
Through continual financial forecasting and advisory we have been able to make informed decisions when it matters most. Cerro Verde’s ability to get banking deals done in a pinch has been outstanding. We will continue to utilize their services for the duration of our business journey.
I highly recommend their services and can’t say enough good things about them.
Cerro Verde takes the time to understand the numbers, and more importantly, understand the business and the decisions that are required to achieve its goals. They provided accurate information that helped a client improve divisional revenues and provided guidance for transitioning out of a division that was not as profitable.
With their diverse background in banking, accounting and business, they are like a swiss army knife in providing financial leadership.
In my role as corporate legal counsel, I’ve had the opportunity to work directly with Cerro Verde on a significant number of different business engagements over the last 10+ years.
Cerro Verde is a consummate professional practice and consistently delivers high-quality and timely financial services advice to their clients. In the context of M&A deals and restructuring transactions, they are also shrewd negotiators who advocate hard for their clients to obtain successful outcomes in difficult situations.
What’s best is that Cerro Verde is able to achieve success for their clients while at all times remaining approachable, pragmatic and pleasure to work with. They are undoubtedly a high-valued asset to any business looking to add financial horsepower to their team.
The most important factor for me in seeking a financial advisor was trust— trust that I would receive high quality advice, and trust that my interests would be safeguarded. Cerro Verde earned that trust by genuinely caring about the success of my business and consistently grounding their recommendations in unwavering ethics.
We had the opportunity to work directly with Cerro Verde during a critical period when we needed financial leadership. They quickly identified key areas for improvement and developed actionable strategies to drive results.
Professional, insightful, and a pleasure to work with—Cerro Verde is an asset to any growth-focused business looking to strengthen its financial foundation, and beyond that, they are simply a great team to have on your side.
Bradbosh has been working with Cerro Verde for several years now and during that time our company has changed in ways that is now unrecognizable from when we started. When we first started working with Cerro Verde, we made all of our decisions by gut reactions and instinct and now make better informed decisions based on how matters affect our profitability and cash flows.
Cerro Verde has also been completely instrumental as our lead negotiator with banking institutions, negotiating our lines of credit and mortgages at the best rates and favorable terms possible. I cannot say enough about how working with Cerro Verde has helped us evolve as a company and I consider working with them as one of the best decisions we have ever made.
Contact
Ready to get to work? Contact Cerro Verde Advisory — Calgary, Alberta.