John Ruffolo

John is the Founder and Managing Partner of Maverix Private Equity. John’s focus is on guiding the strategy of the firm, Chair of the Investment Committee and is deeply involved with sourcing and leading opportunities, particularly within the technology industry. John is also the Founder of OMERS Ventures. Through John’s leadership as Chief Executive Officer, OMERS Ventures had invested over $500 million of capital in over 40 disruptive technology companies across North America, including growth investments in Shopify, Wattpad, Wave, Hootsuite, Rover, Desire 2 Learn, Hopper, DuckDuckGo, TouchBistro and League. During his tenure at OMERS, John also formed OMERS Platform Investments as its Executive Managing Director. He has led investments in Purpose Financial, PointNorth Capital, District Ventures, Xanadu, OneEleven and ArcTern Ventures. John is also the Co-founder and Vice-Chair of the Council of Canadian Innovators, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping high-growth Canadian technology firms scale up globally. Further, John sits on a number of boards of leading innovative organizations in both the profit and not-for-profit sector.

John’s work has been recognized by numerous organizations. He has been selected as Canada’s Most Powerful Business Person by Canadian Business Magazine and as one of Toronto’s most influential persons by Toronto Life Magazine. John has been awarded with the Outstanding Progress and Achievement Award by the Schulich School of Business, an award for outstanding career achievements in their respective field. In 2018, John was honored with the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic which made him a 5th Class Knight. In 2020, John became a Fellow of the Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario (FCPA).

Fun fact: John and his wife named each of their children after their favorite bottle of wine.