Rod Charko

Rod is currently a Partner at nextCapitalAdvisors, a Private Equity Advisory practice, assisting Early Stage firms with financing, turnaround and exit, as well as Institutional Private Equity GP/LP’s on fund raising, fund management and due diligence.

Rod has advised a number of institutional fund managers including BDC Venture Capital, AVAC Ltd, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, the Kirchner Private Capital Group and Pengrowth Management. He was also the principal industry advisor to the Alberta Government in the structuring and creation of the Alberta Enterprise Corp, Fund of Funds.

He has assisted these Venture Funds with a range of direct and in-direct investee company engagements. Hands-on assignments involved due diligence, senior management, financings, work-ups, turn-arounds, company sales, re-org’s and business planning.

As CEO, Rod executed the workup and sale of Cevena Bioproducts, as well as the financing, as CFO, of Monteris Medical. He was part of the executive team that spun ICEsoft Technologies out of WindRiver Systems.

Rod was also an executive at telecom startup, MetroNet Communications, the first Canadian CLEC. He was responsible for all product management and marketing of MetroNets Data Service portfolio. Metronet went public on the Nasdaq and TSE in 1997.

Between ICEsoft and MetroNet, Rod was an Investment Director with BDC Venture Capital, responsible for Telecom, Semiconductor and IT investments across Canada.

Rod’s background provides him with rich operational and leadership experience in service and manufacturing firms, as well as demonstrated hands-on abilities in sales, marketing, technology management, manufacturing, operations, budgeting, financing, governance and strategic planning.

He has working relationships with the top tier Venture Capital funds, institutional capital, legal & accounting deal-makers and entrepreneurs across Canada.