Board Members

Deborah Robinson is the founder and President of Bay Street HR, an outsourced human resources service provider to small and mid-sized financial and professional service firms. Prior to founding Bay Street HR, Ms. Robinson was Executive Director at CIBC World Markets, where she oversaw human resources for Global Investment Banking. She also held senior HR positions at Fidelity Investments and American Express in Boston and New York City. Ms. Robinson sits on the board and is the Chair of the Governance and Compensation Committee of Global Crossing Airlines Group Inc. (NEO: JET), serves as a director of Timbercreek Financial Corp. (TSX: TF), and is a director and co-founder of Best Buddies Charitable Foundation. From 2014-2017 she was a director, member of the Human Resources and Compensation committee and member of the Corporate Governance, Risk, and Strategy Committee of VIA Rail Canada Inc. Ms. Robinson holds a Bachelor’s degree and is also a graduate of the Directors Education Program of the Institute of Corporate Directors and holds the ICD.D designation.

Marilyn Brophy is a retired senior investment executive and former Managing Director, Head of Equity Research at CIBC Asset Management, where she served for eight years.  Prior to joining CIBC, Ms. Brophy was the Director, Equity Research at UBS Global Asset Management (Canada) Co. for approximately seven years.  Ms. Brophy is an accomplished business leader with substantial experience in multiple disciplines including investment management, equity capital markets, company strategic analysis, risk assessment and the development of organizational capability.  Most recently, she acted as a builder and leader of one of Canada’s largest buy-side equity research teams.  Alongside this role, she also co-managed approximately C$5 billion of equity assets on behalf of institutional and retail investors.  Ms. Brophy holds a Master of Business Administration from Queen’s University, Master of Arts – Economics from McMaster University, Bachelor of Arts – BA, Honours – Economics from Queen’s University, Chartered Director designation from The Directors College, and the Chartered Financial Analyst designation from the CFA Institute.  Ms. Brophy currently serves as a Board Member of ivari Canada, and as a Trustee for Queen’s University’s Endowment Investment Committee.

Steven Scott is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of StorageVault Canada Inc. (TSXV:SVI) and an owner and Chief Executive Officer of The Access Group of Companies. He has over 22 years of experience in the ownership, acquisition, development and Management of self storage, residential and commercial real estate in Canada. Mr. Scott serves as the Chair of Parkit (CVE: PKT) and as director and Treasurer of the Canadian Self Storage Association (CSSA). He holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree and the CPA and CA designations.     

Elijio V. Serrano was appointed to the Board in August, 2022.  He serves as Chair of the HR&C Committee and is a member of the Audit Committee and the G&N Committee.  Mr. Serrano is the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of TETRA Technologies Inc. (NYSE: TTI), a geographically diversified industrial and oil and gas services company headquartered in The Woodlands, Texas.  Prior to joining TETRA Technologies Inc., Mr. Serrano served as Chief Financial Officer of UniversalPegasus International, a global project management, engineering and construction management company, from October 2009 through July 2012.  Prior to his time with UniversalPegasus, he held numerous leadership positions at Paradigm BV, EGL, and Schlumberger. Mr. Serrano also served as Director, Chairman of the Audit Committee, and as a member of the Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee of Tesco Corporation until its acquisition by Nabors in December 2017.  Mr. Serrano received his Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Accounting and Finance from the University of Texas at El Paso. Mr. Serrano was a certified public accountant in the State of Texas from 1986 until March 2002.

John A. Nies was appointed to the Board in August, 2022.  He serves as Chair of the Investment Committee and is a member of the Audit Committee.  Mr. Nies is the Managing Partner at JMH Capital Partners, LLC, a private equity firm based in Boston, Massachusetts.  Prior to joining JMH Capital Partners, LLC, Mr. Nies was a Managing Director–Operations at Parthenon Capital where he was responsible for deal evaluation, due diligence, and the successful development of portfolio companies, including MedAssets and Kenexa. Following its IPO, Mr. Nies was a director of Kenexa (NYSE: KNXA), where he served as its Lead Independent Director, as well as a member of its audit and governance committees, prior to its acquisition by IBM in 2012.  Before joining Parthenon Capital, Mr. Nies was a founding member and Managing Director of The Parthenon Group, a Management consulting firm founded in 1991. While in consulting, Mr. Nies’ area of expertise was competitive strategy development, including performance assessment, M&A, operations improvement, and acquisition integration.  Mr. Nies earned a Bachelor of Arts from Dartmouth College, summa cum laude, and a Masters of Business Administration, with distinction, from Harvard Business School.

Maggie MacDougall is the founder of Crescent Capital Partners Ltd., a boutique financial advisory firm serving mid-market and small cap companies in need of innovative corporate finance and capital markets solutions. Prior to founding Crescent Capital Partners, Ms. MacDougall was the Vice Chairman, Head of Research at Stifel Nicolaus Canada Inc., where she built and managed a high-performance team while implementing a structured approach to technology and processes improvements, advancing the Canadian institutional ranking from #12 to #9 overall and from #3 to #1 small cap in less than three years. She also played a leading role in the integration of the Canadian equities business with the Global organization, architecting strategy and cooperation agreements foundational to Stifel Financials expanded Canadian and Global Capital Markets operations. She has over 19 years of experience in financial services and has been repeatedly ranked as a TopGun Analyst in the Brendan Wood International’s Worldwide Equity Capital Markets Performance Canadian Equities Report. Prior to joining Stifel, Ms. MacDougall was a Senior Partner at an independent investment dealer, a role she held for 11 years after spending 3 years as part of the award-winning Focus + team at Goodman and Company Investment Council, which is today known as 1832.

J. Bradley Green has served as the Chief Executive Officer and a Director of PLC since June 22, 2020.  Prior to that time, Mr. Green served as President of the Company from May 2018 through March 31, 2020 wherein he was appointed the Interim Chief Executive Officer.  Mr. Green has over 16 years of experience in the funeral and cemetery profession.  Before, Mr. Green served as a founder, owner and the Chief Executive Officer of Signature. Prior to founding Signature, he was the Executive Vice President and General Counsel of another publicly traded funeral and cemetery industry consolidator.  During that time, he was responsible for many corporate functions, including acquisitions.  In addition to his industry experience, Mr. Green is a licensed attorney with an extensive legal background, including work at two international law firms and serving as the General Counsel for a large, international transportation company.

Jay D. Dodds has been Chief Operating Officer of PLC since May 2018. Mr. Dodds was appointed President and Chief Operating Officer and as a Director of the Company on June 22, 2020.  Mr. Dodds has over 40 years of experience in the funeral and cemetery profession.  He holds a funeral director’s and embalmer’s license in both Texas and New Mexico.  In addition, he is a certified cremation operator. Mr. Dodds served as founder, owner and President/Chief Operations Officer of Signature.  Prior to founding Signature, he was the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of another U.S. publicly traded deathcare company where he served in a senior operations leadership role for 17 years.  Over his career, he has directly managed funeral and cemetery businesses in every region of the U.S.  Mr. Dodds currently serves as Past President of the International Cemetery Cremation and Funeral Association (ICCFA), Trustee Emeritus for the Funeral Service Foundation, Trustee Emeritus for the ICCFA Educational Foundation and as a board member of the Pierce Mortuary Colleges.