VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Feb. 20, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Working Opportunity Fund (EVCC) Ltd. (the “Fund”) today announced that, in connection with the transition of the Fund’s manager to PenderFund Capital Management Ltd. (“Pender”), the Board has approved the appointment of Maria Pacella as President, Chief Executive Officer and a director of the Fund and Gina Jones as Chief Financial Officer of the Fund, effective March 1, 2019. As the Fund continues its transition of management, the Fund and Pender have amended the new management agreement to designate March 1, 2019 as the effective date on which Pender will assume management of the Fund’s Venture Series and Commercialization Series.
Maria Pacella, CFA is Senior Vice President, Private Equity and Portfolio Manager with Pender. Maria has been investing in emerging growth companies, with a focus on technology businesses since 2001. She spent 11 years with the Fund’s initial manager, during which time she invested in multiple early-stage ventures and served on a number of boards, mostly in the areas of enterprise software, e-commerce and health-tech. As a result of this experience, certain common investments in the Fund’s portfolio and Pender’s management of the Pender Growth Fund, Ms. Pacella and the rest of the investment team of Pender have significant experience with a number of the portfolio companies of both the Venture Series and the Commercialization Series. Ms. Pacella is currently a director on the boards of Clarius Mobile Health and BasicGov Systems and an observer on the board of Tantalus Systems. She is also on the SFU Beedie School of Business Advisory Board. She holds a BBA from Simon Fraser University, is a CFA charterholder and an active member and a past President of CFA Society Vancouver.
Gina Jones joined Pender as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Compliance Officer in June 2017. In June 2018, she became Pender’s Chief Financial Officer. Previously, Ms. Jones was the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of an independent brokerage firm in Vancouver, as well as the CFO of its US parent. Prior to that, Ms. Jones was CFO at two Vancouver investment dealers. Ms. Jones holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from UBC, articled with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, and is a CPA, CA and CF, a Chartered Professional Accountant with Corporate Finance specialty designation. She holds the ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors.
Cindy Oliver, Chair of the Fund commented: “We are pleased to have Maria and Gina appointed officers of the Fund as well as Maria as a director. We welcome the experience and expertise they, and the rest of the Pender team, bring to the Fund as we continue to reduce daily operating costs and work towards a reorganization, which we believe will provide potential liquidity to shareholders."
Maria Pacella remarked: “As company builders and long-term investors, we are looking forward to working with the Board of the Fund to maximize the value of the underlying investments in the Fund and to help enhance liquidity for the existing shareholders of the Fund over time.”
Forward Looking Statements: This press release contains forward looking statements which primarily relate to the ability to announce future plans to reduce costs and enhance liquidity. All forward looking statements are based on the Fund's current beliefs and assumptions which are subject to numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, events or developments to be materially different from any future results, events or developments expressed or implied by such forward looking statements. Such factors include delays in obtaining third party information and/or any required regulatory and/or shareholder approval, obtaining opinions from professional advisors, and the Board of Directors of the Fund reaching decisions based on that information and opinions. There can be no guarantee that these required approvals will be received and/or that the Fund completes a reorganization as previously described or otherwise. Given these uncertainties, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. Neither the Fund nor its manager assumes any obligation to update any forward-looking statements made in this release.