Canaccord capital Inc. chairman and CEO Peter Brown has ushered in a new lineup of senior management that reaffirms the Vancouver-based dealer’s ambitions to become a global player.

Paul Reynolds, who heads up the company’s London operations, has been named president and CEO-elect, while Mark Maybank, head of Canaccord’s global research division in Toronto, has been appointed chief operating officer. The executive shuffle follows the news that Michael Greenwood is stepping down as the company’s director, president and COO.

Although Brown will relinquish his title of CEO come August 2007, he has no intentions of giving up his chairman’s post, leaving Canaccord’s top three executives divided by thousands of kilometres — Brown in Vancouver, Reynolds in Britain and Maybank in Toronto.

The scattered corporate structure is no accident. Rather, it is a deliberate move by Canaccord to establish itself as a global brand. Canadian-born Reynolds has been at the company’s helm in London for seven years and says he will go wherever the position takes him.

“We are not out there saying we are a Canadian company. We are really trying to build a global business here, and we have senior management in every geographical area. We think that is very important,” says Reynolds, who joined Canaccord as a broker 23 years ago and then moved through institutional sales and investment banking before landing in Britain.

The decentralized corporate structure brings with it the challenge of operating 34 offices across nine time zones, but it is a small price to pay for doing business in two of the world’s biggest foreign markets.

“We believe that there is a significant role for a global dealer focused on small- to mid-cap growth equities, So, our goal is to bring strong international and Canadian ideas to our Canadian private client base,” says Maybank, who first joined the company in November 2001 as director of Canadian research following stints at Yorkton Securities Inc. and Deloitte & Touche LLP.

BUSINESS AS USUAL

As his first move as COO, Maybank passed on his duties as head of Canadian research to Canaccord trust analyst Bruce McDonald as of Oct. 1. He will eventually hand over his role as global head of research.

In the meantime, it is business as usual. “We are going to continue to evolve in the same direction in which we always have been going,” he says.

That direction has seen the independent Canadian brokerage steadily carving out a niche for itself abroad, where it is scooping up underwriting business in small- and mid-cap growth plays.

In August 2005, Canaccord broadened its offering with the acquisition of Boston-based investment bank Adams Harkness Financial Group Inc., which has subsequently been rebranded Canaccord Adams. The purchase beefed up Canaccord’s expertise in technology and health care, rounding out its strong, albeit very Canada-centric presence in resources and income trusts.

Reynolds remains mum on any future acquisitions, but concedes that the company “would definitely be looking at China for opportunities that are synergistic to our business plan.”

The firm’s global business strategy is being rewarded. Its revenue for the first quarter of fiscal 2007 ended June 30, 2006, was $201.1 million, up 108% from the same period a year earlier. Net income jumped to $25.9 million, up from $11.1 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2006.

“It’s all about our clients making money, and if they are forced into buying Canadian-only ideas, they might not be getting the best investment,” Reynolds says. “We can bring them very strong British, European, and U.S. growth ideas to help their portfolios’ performance. We can give our clients the best in class instead of the best in Canada.”

In doing so, the company hopes to fend off competitors such as GMP Capital Trust, the Canadian Big Six banks, JP Morgan Cazenove in Britain and Piper Jaffray Cos. in the U.S.

Being a relatively small dealer in an industry of giants has its advantages, particularly when it comes to trying to outmanoeuvre the banks.

“We have a very active strategy in Britain that the banks are trying to copy,” Maybank says. “We have a strong energy franchise that the banks are slowly trying to copy, and we have a U.S. strategy that the banks have tried to copy and were not successful in doing so.”

@page_break@Maybank will not rule out the speculation that the company may follow the lead of GMP and convert to an income trust, but says that, for now, the firm’s growth is best accommodated by its current corporate structure.

One-third of Canaccord’s revenue comes from outside Canada, and that figure is growing at a rapid pace.

“We do much more international business than most Canadians think we do,” he says.

Here in Canada, the brokerage is aiming to shake off its image as a West Coast company by opening new advisor offices across the country. A new branch recently opened in London, Ont., and several more are in the works for Eastern Canada.

NO GROWTH TARGETS

With 435 brokers, the firm has walked away from specific growth targets for its advisory base and, instead, it is focused on growing assets under administration. That is not to say that management isn’t looking to add new advisors if it is the right fit, but Canaccord won’t do it at the firm’s expense.

Across the Atlantic, the company’s 90 employees are gearing up to move to a bigger office in November — they have outgrown their current locale — which is a sure sign of growth to come.

In the meantime, Maybank and Reynolds will not have to steer the company on their own. Greenwood, who has been at the helm for 14 years, has entered into a one-year consulting arrangement with the firm to ensure a smooth succession. IE