West Face Capital

West Face Capital

West Face Capital was founded in 2006 by Greg Boland, a former investment banker who built the firm into a prominent Canadian alternative asset manager known for shareholder activism and special situations investing. The firm deploys capital across distressed debt, private equity, and real estate, often taking concentrated positions where it can influence corporate direction. The firm's strategy spans buyouts, special situations, activist public-equity campaigns, and select credit opportunities. West Face has been involved in some of Canada's most notable corporate contests, including a high-profile proxy fight at Canadian Pacific Railway in 2012, which resulted in a board overhaul led by Bill Ackman's Pershing Square and brought Hunter Harrison in as CEO. The firm also held a significant activist stake in Maple Leaf Foods and pushed for operational changes at the food processor. Its geographic focus is primarily Canada, though it has evaluated and held select positions in the United States. Boland runs a lean operation that partners with co-investors on larger transactions and occasionally participates in club deals. The firm has maintained a low profile on headcount and total assets under management, with no public disclosures of aggregate deployment figures. Its real estate arm acquired interests in Canadian commercial properties, including a stake in Toronto's Fairmont Royal York hotel in partnership with KingSett Capital (per Bloomberg, 2014). West Face operates with a structural mandate uncommon among Canadian alternative managers: a multi-strategy platform that blurs the line between private equity firm and activist hedge fund. Boland's willingness to wage public proxy fights while also negotiating private buyouts creates a distinct posture — the firm can unsettle a boardroom one quarter and court the same directors as limited partners the next.