Colin Kelleher

President
Kelleher Financial Inc.
Judge: Ontario's Next Top Young Entrepreneur Start-up Pitch

Colin Kelleher is a corporate executive with more than 28 years of experience at the senior level, in both privately held and publicly traded companies, including The Helyar Group and The Altus Group. In 2004/05, Colin was pivotal in the merger of these two entities, plus one other company, in one of the most complex public real estate deals in Canada. As co-lead, Colin planned, directed and managed the merger, transforming the three separate real estate consulting boutiques into the single largest, most comprehensive real estate consulting firm in North America with over 300 staff. Subsequently, again as co-lead, Colin took the new entity public, completing the conversion of the three firms into an industry powerhouse.

Prior to the merger, Colin was a partner and Chief Financial Officer of The Helyar Group, a leader in development cost management consulting. After the merger, Colin took a lead role creating synergies and true value out of the merged companies' diverse, complementary strengths.

Colin retired from The Altus Group in April 2008 and embarked on a new phase of his career dedicated to the funding and development of clean-tech companies. His first clean-tech deal, an equity position in Echologics Engineering Inc., a Canadian technology company that uses acoustic sound waves to detect underground water pipe leakage, closed in October 2009. He is at the discussion stage on one other potential clean-tech opportunity and is working with a US group to consolidate a number of energy saving focussed companies and import the technologies to Canada.

A LEED-certified professional (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), Colin, whilst at Altus (and formerly Helyar) played a lead role in some of North America's largest real estate development projects, applying his sustainable building expertise at both the planning and construction stages.

A member of the global Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, Colin holds a Bachelor of Science in Surveying from Trinity College and a Diploma in Construction Economics from Bolton Street College of Technology, both of Dublin, Ireland.

Colin is a contributing author to A Litigator's Guide to Expert Witnesses, by Freiman and Berenblut. He is the author of papers on environmentally contaminated real estate and a regular speaker on pricing and market demographics. He has delivered numerous presentations to real estate firms, government agencies, including Infrastructure Ontario, Ontario Realty Corporation, Ontario Finance Authority, Canada Mortgage & Housing Corporation and financial institutions including all the major Canadian banks. He has been a regular guest lecturer at the University Of Waterloo Faculty Of Architecture and The University of Toronto's Planning program on real estate cost/risk dynamics.