Dec 5, 2018
Paolo was born in Hamilton, Ontario and has lived there for most of his life except for a period in which he lived in Ottawa to earn his Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Ottawa. After school, he stayed in the nation’s capital for a few years longer to pursue his Chartered Accountant (CA) designation by commencing employment with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). During his tenure at PwC, he moved back to Hamilton, along with a brief stint in the Windsor, Ontario office.
After five years at PwC, Paolo decided to join his family’s business, Salerno Dairy Products. Established by his grandfather in 1962, the company had been a fixture in his family and in the community. Salerno was a private, medium-sized business that employed approximately 180 people and manufactured Italian specialty cheeses. Paolo had officially performed his duties as the controller of the organization, but also wore many other hats as these family-owned businesses may require.
During his tenure with Salerno, Paolo was also able to obtain his MBA from the Richard Ivey Business School (Western University). He was with Salerno for 11 years until they sold to another dairy company, Gay Lea Foods. Paolo remained on with Gay Lea for another 18 months post-sale, in a finance and ERP integration role.
Recognizing that he was not providing enough value in his new role, Paolo decided to leave Gay Lea to change his career path. The sale of the company had given him the opportunity to carve out a new role in his professional career. He continues to provide his expertise to small to medium sized businesses in a part-time, CFO consulting role because he understands the challenges that these companies face on a day to day basis. However, Paolo seeks to develop a family office to manage and govern his family’s assets. After the sale of the company, the family had lacked the administration piece to maintain a strategic focus on deploying the capital after the liquidity event. The family had charged Veritage Family Office to help develop a Family Wealth Constitution. By undergoing this process, the Fidanza family had fostered a means to communicate and govern the direction of the financial wealth.
After all the hardships endured by going through the above process, Paolo intends to serve others by sharing his experiences with other families that succumb to the same challenges. He continues to do so by forging a network of other families and individuals that have sizeable wealth derived from family owned businesses. Paolo currently works at Brownlow Partners Advisors, where he collaborates with the firm’s clients, along with his own, to provide a comprehensive family office solution.
Paolo is also very active in the community. As a father, he had volunteered and participated in his children’s many extra-curricular activities. Currently, he sits as the Finance Chair on the board of the Catholic Youth Organization and is the Vice-President of the Hamilton-Halton Chapter of the Canadian Italian Business Professionals Association.
As mentioned, Paolo currently resides in Stoney Creek, and is married with two children. He enjoys spending time with my family, and partakes in other personal interests such as running, cycling, hockey and golf.