Former Kingsdale COO launches spin-free comms firm

Riyaz Lalani has joined Bayfield Strategy, a new corporate communications company looking to apply a specialized approach to M&A, proxy contests, litigation, and restructurings. After three years as chief operating officer at Kingsdale Shareholder Services, he has taken on the position of CEO at the newly launched Bayfield.

‘Bayfield will act as an informed adviser to its clients, and we reject the facile notion that there are templates or rules of thumb for financial or crisis communications,’ says Lalani in an official release, adding that ‘financial communication tends to require candid, data-driven and direct responses to the issues at hand’ rather than ‘issue-avoidance and spin.’

In a bid to become Canada’s top financial communications company, the new venture seeks to bring together experts in creative digital design, journalism, media, public policy, employee engagement and finance, he continues in the release.

‘While at [Kingsdale] I was involved in more than 60 proxy contests, dozens of high-profile M&A transactions, contested restructurings and several confidential board-level engagements,’ says Lalani, who has previously sat on the board of two public companies and is a current director of Difference Capital Funding, experience that gives him ‘an insider’s perspective of board dynamics, pressures and responsibilities’.

Prior to working at Kingsdale, Lalani spent more than 10 years at an asset manager based in New York and Toronto, heading its research and operational efforts.

In addition to Lalani, the Bayfield team includes Shane Barnes as creative director and three consultants.