Valerie C. Mann*

Valerie carries on a transactional (mergers and acquisitions / corporate finance) and advisory practice. She is also the Chair of the firm’s Technology and Competition Law groups and Co-Chair of the firm’s Mergers and Acquisitions practice group. After obtaining an honours bachelor of commerce degree, Valerie worked in marketing management with a large US based consumer packaged goods company, prior to obtaining her law degree.

She has been involved in transactions for private and public companies including mergers and acquisitions, financings and corporate reorganizations as well as licensing, strategic alliances and joint ventures.

Valerie’s practice includes acting for entrepreneurs and early-stage companies through to public companies as well as for those who finance technology ventures including venture capital companies. Clients in the technology sector include hardware manufacturers, software developers, e-commerce companies, new media ventures and biotechnology companies as well as venture capital companies.

As part of her mergers and acquisitions practice Valerie has significant expertise in competition law matters, particularly with respect to pre-merger requirements, including negotiations and agreements with regulatory authorities.

Recognition and Ranking

• Practical Law Company Which Lawyer: recommended for corporate law and mergers & acquisitions
• Best Lawyers in Canada: recognized for technology law
• Named by the Women’s Executive Network as one of Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100™

Professional Activities

• Association for Corporate Growth, Director
• CanWIT, BC Chapter, Director - Finance
• Canadian IT Law Association, Director (2004-2008) and Co-Chair Private Equity Sub-Committee
• Vancouver Board of Trade, Member – Economic Development Committee
• B.C. Law Society’s Bar Admission Program, regular guest lecturer on corporate and commercial law
• Wired Woman Society, Director and Secretary
• Institute of Corporate Directors, Member
• Clean Energy and Technology Blog, Contributor

Bar Admissions

• British Columbia (1992)

Education

• Queen’s University (B.Comm (Hons)., 1986)
• Osgoode Hall Law School (J.D., 1991)
• Registered Trade Mark Agent (1996)

In addition to acting as counsel to clients engaged in the technology, manufacturing, forestry, and financial management industries, Valerie's recent experience includes advising:

• Ballast Nedam N.V., a publicly traded Dutch infrastructure and construction company in its sale of Kicking Horse Mountain Resort to Resorts of the Canadian Rockies Inc.
• Management, in a buy-out of a collection services business backed by a BC based private equity firm
• Temenos Group AP in its acquisition of Primisyn, a business intelligence software company
• Institutional investors in a joint takeover of a publicly traded timberlands company
• Dialogic Corporation in its acquisition of Veraz Networks, Inc.
• Taleo Corporation in its acquisition of Cytiva Software Inc.
• An institutional investor in a $100 million private placement in a forestry company
• An alternative energy company in its financing and acquisition activities
• A US based public clean energy company in a strategic acquisition in Western Canada
• A resort company in its financing activities in Canada and the United States and its operational activities in Canada
• A private equity fund in acquisitions of manufacturing businesses in Western Canada
• A large publicly traded European construction company in its BC-based activities in the resort industry
• A food products manufacturer and brand company in its strategic acquisitions in North America and internationally
• Institutional investors in a $1.0 billion forestry acquisition
• A newsprint and directory company in its acquisition of a recycled paper facility
• A pension fund in a series of acquisitions in the hotel industry
• A BC public company in its $1.2 billion acquisition of a newsprint and directory manufacturing business
• A venture capital fund in the formation of a new $235 million venture capital fund which invests in technology companies
• Numerous investments by venture capital investors in early-stage technology companies
• A large forestry company in the outsourcing of information systems and other non-core functions

In addition, Valerie’s experience includes:

• Private placement financings for non-reporting technology companies
• Numerous licensing agreements on behalf of technology developers and customers of technology
• Corporate and technology law advice including clinical trial agreements and material transfer agreements to a publicly-traded biotechnology company
• Business formation, structuring and early-stage financings for several technology companies involved in wireless applications, software development and new media
• Numerous pre-merger notification applications and other competition advice in respect of transactions in the forestry, mining, manufacturing and real estate sectors

Valerie has written and presented on various topics related to venture capital financing, technology licensing, outsourcing, e-commerce, mergers and acquisitions, and competition law.

Speaking engagements include: