Wes Hall is a living embodiment of the Canadian dream.

The chairman and founder of WeShall Investments Inc a private equity firm with a diverse portfolio of companies supporting mostly BIPOC entrepreneurs Wes comes from humble beginnings in rural Jamaica.

He grew up in a plantation workers shack as one of several children supported by his grandmother. Despite these challenges, his grandmother instilled in him the value of hard work, ambition and industriousness. In 1985, Wes immigrated to Canada and set about to become the businessman you see today. He worked any and every job you can imagine, and put himself through night school.

Dressed daily in a suit, Wes started as a mail clerk at a leading law firm in Toronto. His curiosity, intelligence and ability to spot opportunities and climb his way up the corporate ladder. This drive allowed him to turn a $100,000 loan from the bank into his first business, Kingsdale Advisors, which went on to become Canadas most preeminent shareholder advisory firm.

Wes expertise was invaluable on complicated disputes between major corporate players, including Xstrata PLCs $18 billion US takeover of Falconbridge in 2006 and the $19-billion merger between Suncor and Petro-Canada in 2009.

A staunch philanthropist, Wes is deeply committed to community upliftment. He founded the ambitious and highly successful BlackNorth Initiative to help end systemic anti-Black racism in Canada. He has instructed Black Entrepreneurship & Leadership at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, a first-of-its-kind course in North America.

Wes is the vice-chair of the Board of Governors at Huron University College, a member of the Capital Markets Modernization Taskforce, and sits on the board of directors for SickKids Foundation, TIFF and Pathways to Education Canada. In 2021, the Ontario Chamber of Commerce awarded him the Lifetime Achievement Award. The Canadian Chamber of Commerce awarded him the Canadian Business Leader of 2022.

Wes other accomplishments include penning a bestselling memoir, No Bootstraps When Youre Barefoot. He lives with his wife of 30+ years and their five children in Toronto.