GTA Accountants & Finance Network

John Hotson is a speaker, entrepreneur, business strategist and advisor to business owners. Over the past 35 years John has started seven companies, worked with senior business professionals in dozens of industries, and given hundreds of presentations and speeches.

John has over 35 years of experience in Marketing and Communications with Canadian companies. In his role as Director of Marketing for Nortel Networks, he started up and ran a retail business unit for the company in Canada and the US. After building the brand to number one in Canada, John oversaw the sale of the business to a well-known international electronics company.

After leaving Nortel John became a founding partner in one of Canada’s foremost communications firms, specializing in helping clients maximize the value of their business through strategic investor communications. His clients included Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AECL), CIBC, Ontario Hydro, the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC), McDonald’s Canada, the Duke of Edinburgh’s Awards Program, Magna International, Toronto Parks and Trees Foundation and University of Toronto.

John is a founding partner of the Business Transition Alliance (BTA). BTA works hands-on with business owners of private companies to help them develop and implement effective strategies that increase the value, growth and profitability of their business

Anthony and his partners founded Veritas Investment Research in 2000. He is a Fellow Chartered Public Accountant, a Fellow Chartered Accountant, a Certified Public Accountant (Illinois) and a member of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. He is a licenced portfolio manager. Anthony also serves as a member of the Ontario Securities Commission's Continuous Disclosure Advisory Committee since 2006. In 2019, Anthony was appointed to the Board of the Capital Markets Advisory Committee of the International Accounting Standards Board.

Anthony has been very active in accounting standard setting since 2003. He is a former member of the Canadian Accounting Standards Board, the CICA's Emerging Issues Committee, and was the Chair of CPA Canada's Users Advisory Committee.

Anthony began teaching in 1997 as a part-time accounting instructor at York University's Schulich School of Business in the MBA and BBA Programs. He was nominated for the Teaching Excellence Award in 1997 and 2003. Several of Anthony's cases have been published in Cases in Financial Accounting: A Principles Based Approach, First Edition, 2006. While he no longer teaches full courses, he does guest lectures at the undergraduate and graduate levels and runs custom tra1n1ng programs on financial statement analysis and business valuation for the CFA societies in Canada and the U.S., CPA Canada, as well as Canadian and U.S. analysts and portfolio managers.

Anthony is an advocate for investor rights. He is frequent media commentator and public speaker on issues related to financial accounting and disclosure and is considered an industry expert in special situations related to accounting. In 2006, Anthony was awarded the Award of Distinction by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario for his impact and leadership in the accounting profession among those under 40.

David is a business lawyer and a facilitator and the Managing Principal at DSBL Business Law.

David has been working with Business Owners and Family Enterprises for more than 35 years, helping them structure business and shareholder arrangements and guiding them through the succession and estate planning process. David also has an extensive background in advising Business Owners on the sale and purchase of their businesses and in helping them maximize value by positioning their business for a sale.

In addition to his Law degree, David has a Psychology degree and has certification in Family Business Advising, Alternative Dispute Resolution and Mediation and has presented widely on business transition issues.