Professional Profile: Andrew J. Szonyi

Mr. Szonyi is the Executive Vice President of First Nations Equity. He was a Senior Partner/Associate with the Economic Renewal Secretariat and is the Principal of Andrew J. Szonyi & Associates Inc., business consultants. He is active in financial and business management, mergers and acquisitions, strategic planning, corporate governance and reorganization and privatization.

During the past ten years, Mr. Szonyi has served over 100 clients in the private and public sectors and serves on the boards of several public and private corporations. He has initiated and arranged debt and/or equity financing and M&A transactions in excess of $2 billion in Canada and overseas.

He has also been a key player in Native-Corporate partnerships, for example he facilitated the partnership between Zenon Environmental Inc. and Zee-Bih Resource Inc., a First Nations controlled Joint Venture. He was a Director and Treasurer of the Canadian Council of Aboriginal Business - Ontario. 

Mr. Szonyi possesses a broadly based experience in business and education. He worked with the Ontario Development Corporation from 1971 to 1981 as a Senior Consultant and, in this capacity, conducted due diligence and analysis and prepared comprehensive submissions and financing recommendations to the Board of Directors of ODC or Cabinet. He negotiated and closed over 180 deals ranging from $100K to $40 million each. Mr. Szonyi has also founded, owned and operated three businesses and was Manager of Product Development & Business Development of Ethyl Corporation of Canada Limited. 

As an educator, Mr. Szonyi served as Professor of Management and of Engineering at the University of Toronto, Program Director of a CIDA-Management Education Program in China and Professional Development Director of the Association of Canadian Venture Capital Companies.

He was a member of the Science Council of Canada Executive Committee, Premier's Council on Economic Renewal, Task Force on Investment in Ontario, Director of the Ontario Centre of Microelectronics, International Council of Small Business-Ontario, Ontario Center of Environmental Technology Advancement. 

Mr. Szonyi received his undergraduate engineering education in Hungary and earned his M.A.Sc. and Ph.D degrees in Chemical Engineering and his M.B.A. from the University of Toronto.