Meet the pros
Founder and Chief Executive Officer of STS Capital Partners for over two decades until he scaled to the role of Chairman in 2023.
Rob’s purpose and passion is to help entrepreneurial business owners achieve maximum value when the right time comes to sell. Today, Rob has been involved with or led over a thousand M&A transactions, with a total transaction value of over $100B.
In addition to being Chairman and Founder of STS Capital Partners, Rob is also the founding Chairman of Altruvest Charitable Services, a Canadian charity that provides training and tools to improve the performance of local charities so they can give more to their causes.
Rob’s academic accomplishments include a BA with distinction from the University of Toronto (including the RB Day award for best undergraduate political science essay); LL.B from Osgoode Hall Law School at York University; a certificate in Not-For-Profit Management from the University of Toronto and Sheridan College; Arbor Award from the University of Toronto as an international leader in corporate philanthropy; and MSc (Oxon.) from Oxford University’s Saïd Business School in Advanced Strategy.
A proven CEO with over 30 years of leadership experience and an extensive track record demonstrating growth through M&A, Nicholas Kyrzakos adds a truly global perspective to business after having lived in 13 countries on 4 continents throughout his career.
Nicholas previously held c-suite positions around the world. As Group CEO of JJ Transport, Nicholas operated in sub-Saharan Africa and as Regional CEO for Damco, the logistics arm of Maerks Shipping Lines, his territory spanned from Poland and the Czech Republic to Russia and throughout the Middle East including Israel, Iraq, and Jordan. Nicholas was also Global CFO for DHL Aviation, the largest freight airline in the world at that time and Regional CFO of Asia for UPS.
Nicholas received his MBA from the Cal State University system and holds a B.S. in Economics and Accounting.
Diane Gray-Smith is a dynamic executive with over 28 years of expertise and a proven record of financial leadership in buying, building and exiting Global companies and is currently the CFO and CIO at STS Capital Partners.
Diane’s financial leadership has been honed through a notable track record of advising Boards and leading the global finance function through periods of growth across various sectors and change, whether a publicly listed company or a fast-track startups, working to restructure, fundraise, acquisitions, divestments , maximizing enterprise value or an Initial Public Offering.
Prior to STS, Diane was a Global CFO and Chief Growth Officer of Glantus Plc, AIM listed SaaS platform, Global CFO of Marco Polo an innovative and world leading Distributed ledger and Blockchain solution for Trade Finance, and Global CFO of Uphold, a multi asset digital currency trading firm.
With over 20 years of experience in Finance and Business leadership roles, Phillip has traversed industries from Petrochemicals to Transportation, FMCG, Fintech, Ports and Retail.
As CFO of Whites, he is focused on driving growth and profitability of the business both organic and inorganic. From improving information systems to enabling decision making, Phillip’s goal is to leverage data and technology to support the business while driving efficiencies across the company. Although finance comes second nature to him, he brings considerable business acumen to every decision.
Phillip is a qualified Chartered Accountant and holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting & finance.
