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Portland Investment Counsel
Portland Investment Counsel was founded in Burlington, Ontario in 2012 as a specialized investment manager. It operates as part of the Portland Holdings group...
Portland Investment Counsel
Portland Investment Counsel was founded in Burlington, Ontario in 2012 as a specialized investment manager. It operates as part of the Portland Holdings group of companies, a conglomerate with interests across financial services, real estate, and other sectors. The firm's CIO, Dragos Berbecel, leads the investment team alongside portfolio managers Dragos Stefanescu and Kyle Ostrander. Portland Investment Counsel was created to make private and alternative investments — historically reserved for institutions and the affluent — accessible to a wider set of wealth-seeking clients through pooled funds and managed accounts. The firm's strategy centers on co-investment alongside Portland Holdings. It deploys capital across four broad verticals: private equity, private debt, hedge fund strategies, and sustainable investing. The public-facing product shelf includes private equity and private debt mutual funds, separated managed account mandates, and alternative-asset pooled vehicles. The firm targets long-term, buy-and-hold positions in high-quality businesses operating in durable growth industries. Its value proposition rests on three explicit promises to investors: capital preservation, reasonable growth, and tax minimization via deferred compounding. The portfolio management operation serves clients through a direct discretionary mandate channel and an exempt market dealer function, with sales coverage spanning the Greater Toronto Area, Eastern and Northern Ontario. Portland Investment Counsel is defined architecturally by its embedded relationship with Portland Holdings. Rather than sourcing from a blank slate, the firm accesses a pipeline of proprietary private deals originated or vetted by its affiliated group. This structure gives retail-eligible mutual fund investors a line of sight into co-investment opportunities that resemble a direct family office allocation model. The CIO, Dragos Berbecel, holds both the investment decision-making authority and the dealer-supervision responsibilities, collapsing the typical separation between asset origination and distribution into a single chain of accountability.
General information
Firm type
Bank / Wealth / Trust
Year founded
2012
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
Canada
City
Burlington
Corporate office
1375 Kerns Road Suite 100, Burlington, ON, Canada
Principals
Dragos Berbecel
Chief Investment Officer and Portfolio Manager
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at Portland Investment Counsel?
Dragos Berbecel is the Chief Investment Officer and Portfolio Manager. He is supported by a compact team that includes portfolio managers Dragos Stefanescu and Kyle Ostrander. Berbecel also holds supervisor responsibilities within the exempt market dealer function, meaning investment origination and distribution oversight are unified under one lead.
What is the relationship between Portland Investment Counsel and Portland Holdings?
Portland Investment Counsel was created to offer external investors the ability to co-invest alongside the Portland Holdings group of companies. By structuring pooled funds and managed accounts, the firm gives retail-eligible clients access to private equity, private debt, and alternative investments that Portland Holdings originates or vets, effectively mirroring a family office co-investment structure in a regulated mutual fund format.
Does Portland Investment Counsel participate in fund commitments or only direct deals?
The firm operates primarily through its own pooled funds and separately managed accounts that invest directly into private and alternative assets. Rather than allocating to third-party funds, Portland Investment Counsel sources co-investment opportunities from the affiliated Portland Holdings group, deploying capital into operating businesses, private credit instruments, and hedge-fund-style alternative strategies.
Which sectors does Portland Investment Counsel explicitly target?
The firm organizes its investment products into private equity, private debt, sustainable investing, and alternative asset/hedge fund mandates. Within those verticals, Portland seeks high-quality businesses in what management describes as strong, long-term growth industries. Public disclosures do not name sector exclusions, but the overall philosophy emphasizes durable, non-speculative assets that support capital preservation and tax-efficient compounding.
How does Portland Investment Counsel handle distribution and client access?
The firm maintains a direct sales and relationship-management team with coverage concentrated in Ontario. Senior Directors Jack Aquino and Eric Valderrama lead outreach across the Greater Toronto Area and Eastern/Northern Ontario. Investors route transactions through a dedicated client services desk, with separate fax and processing lines for Portland's PTL and PLD fund families.
What is Portland Investment Counsel's stated investment philosophy?
The firm's philosophy rests on three pillars: preserving capital over the long term, growing capital at a reasonable rate, and minimizing taxes. The team targets buy-and-hold positions in high-quality businesses and aims to insulate investors from what it calls 'the noise of the markets' — emotional and algorithmic trading dynamics. This long-term orientation is codified in the firm's commitment to fair-value transparency and investor-aligned time horizons.
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