Our Team
Yoseph West
Co-Founder & CEO
Relationships are the cornerstones of business success and Yoseph applies this philosophy in each of his roles at Vuru. He's constantly engaging with customers, the entrepreneurial community, and finding new ways of bringing Vuru to the next level.
Yoseph is a successful value investor whose personal returns have substantially outperformed the market over the past few years and he's committed to empowering individual investors to grow their wealth. He holds his LLB Hons. from the University of Durham and for charity, he once convinced complete strangers to provide him with free airfare from Northern England to the Canary Islands (and back).
Cameron Howieson
Co-Founder & CTO
As Development Lead at Vuru, Cameron is constantly trying to find new ways to make the lives of investors easier and complex data simple to understand. He has a degree in Computer Engineering from Queen's University, and a background primarily in PHP, Java, and web front-end technologies. Cameron loves to solve difficult problems, and thoroughly enjoys the creativity and problem solving that is involved working at Vuru.
Cameron is also an avid traveler, and most recently completed a two-week hike through the Himalayas, built a house in Mexico for Habitat for Humanity, and backpacked across Australia.
Advisors
Matthew Leibowitz
Investment Director, BEST Funds
Matthew is an Investment Director at BEST Funds in Toronto. His focus is on origination, vetting, due diligence, negotiation and deal structuring of investments. He is also involved in the firm's mergers and acquisitions process, as well as the assessment of potential investment opportunities and private equity financing agreements. Matthew is responsible for the execution of credit and financial analyses of venture debt investment across technology sectors, as well as the refining of business concepts, selecting appropriate business plans for investment and monitoring the performance of portfolio companies. Matthew is a frequent speaker at various conferences and events relating to Private Equity, Venture Capital and Clean Technology. Matthew is a guest lecturer at both Ryerson University's Rogers School of Business and York University's Schulich School of Business. In addition, Matthew sits on the Board of Directors and Advisory Boards of numerous organizations.
Matthew holds his Masters of Law from The University of Kent and University of Oxford and a Master of Science degree focusing on International Sustainable Development and Investment from the University of New South Wales. Matthew earned an Honours Bachelors of Arts from The University of Toronto majoring in Urban and Economic Geography.
Rahim Allani
Managing Director, Orbixa Capital International
Rahim is currently a Managing Director and Regional Head at Orbixa Capital International, where he works on cross border M&A and financing activities worldwide. Rahim has been involved in international capital markets since 1999, spending time with firms such as Scotiabank, CIBC World Markets, LOM and Indocan Capital. To date, Rahim has worked in several groups across these firms including mergers and acquisitions, corporate banking, investment banking risk and equity research. In his capacities he has covered sectors which include technology, media, telecom, diversifieds and real estate among others. Rahim has an MBA specializing in Finance from McMaster University, as well as an Honours BA from the University of Toronto specializing in Economics and Political Science.
Omar Dhalla
Head of Business Development, Play Taxi Media
Omar currently leads business development for Play Taxi Media (Play), which is rolling out ~2,000 interactive touch screens in taxicabs across Canada. Omar focuses on developing content partnerships, manages media industry relationships, and has expanded Play's taxi footprint across Canada. Omar also spends time advising technology start-ups, and has had extensive experience in management consulting, most recently with McKinsey & Company, where he focused on strategy, new venture development and operations. Omar holds an MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business and a B.Comm (Finance) from the University of British Columbia.