Gil Michel-Garcia

Gil Michel-Garcia

GIL MICHEL-GARCIA —

Québec, Canada

— Gil is one of the leading experts in Canada and Mexico on cross-border equity crowdfunding, and private cross-border debt and equity financings by non-U.S. companies and foundations.

In 2013, as CEO of WAFU, the Canadian the maker of the award winning WAFU Japanese-style dressings and mayos, Gil completed the first ever simultaneous cross border accredited investor equity crowdfunding offering by a Canadian company in the U.S. and Canada. Since then, Gil has advocated for the legalization of equity crowdfunding in Canada and the development of a local Quebec crowdfunding industry, first as co-founder and Chairman of Financement Participatif en Capital Quebec (a Not-for-Profit Corporation dedicated to the promotion of equity crowdfunding in Quebec).

As special outside legal counsel to Grupo Mexico, one of the largest Mexican conglomerates and the fourth largest copper mining company in the world, Gil has provided transaction management and support in connection with: (i) cross-border financing transactions, (ii) venture and private equity transactions, (iii) project finance transactions, and (iv) corporate restructurings in the US and Latin America.

A strong advocate for the environment, Gil co-founded and is the executive director of the Mayan Rainforest Trusts, an affiliation of Not-for-Profit Foundations in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., the E.U. and Mexico, which raises tax deductible donations internationally in order to preserve the Mayan Rainforest, which is the second largest remaining Rainforest in the Americas after the Amazon. The goal of the Mayan Rainforest Trusts is to purchase, preserve and or regenerate at least 1,000,000 acres of virgin Rainforest in the Mayan Peninsula by 2020. read more...