Our People

Mr. Izumi is a successful businessman, entrepreneur, and a well-respected member of the community. After graduating from Guelph University, Wayne began his career as a Product Manager for Niagara Chemical in 1977. In 1984, he became President of Stoller Canada Ltd. and in 1987 was instrumental in a management buyout of this Houston-based company. As president and principle shareholder, he developed the Canadian company into a major provider of secondary and micronutrient products in the Canadian Agricultural market.  Competitive fishing is his #1 recreational sport and it’s no surprise that he’s won dozens of fishing tournaments over the last two decades. Wayne Izumi a back-to-back winner of the Canadian Open, in 1992 and 1993 as well as win the first Ontario Place Open in 2004. On the business side, Izumi Outdoors Inc. is a 30 year-old multi-media company which produces the Bob Izumi Real Fishing Show and magazine of which he is also President. He and his brother Bob started the nonprofit organization Fishing Forever in 2000 that has raised over 1.7 million for both fishing conservation projects in Ontario and the Kids, Cops and Canadian Tire Fishing Days Program.  Wayne’s specialty is business start-ups and maintenance of long-term contracts and relationships. His sense of social responsibility is apparent with his support of many charities. His extensive knowledge on a wide range of topics combined with natural enthusiasm and entrepreneurial drive makes Wayne a professional speaker who is constantly in demand. 

Mr Smith has over 20 years’ experience in finance acting as principal of a private boutique investment firm. Involvements have spanned a variety of sectors, such as commercial, corporate and asset based lending, venture capital, merchant banking and real estate investing including direct involvement in energy development, management and business workouts. He has been actively involved in a full range of growth and liquidity issues for investment LPs including building management teams, arranging syndicates for first round and follow-on investments, building boards, initiating exit strategies, and completing public offerings and divestitures. Mr Smith has been involved in, structuring and managing numerous projects with total equity and debt financing in excess of $5 billion. These activities resulted in working with individual private investors, advisors, institutional partners and lenders. Mr Smith is or has been a Director of numerous public and private Boards and is CEO and founder of TerraGenex Inc.

Mr. Perpick’s career in foodservice and hospitality began as one of the four founding partners of Casey’s Roadhouse in Sudbury in 1980.

In 1982 the partners created Yesac Creative Food and began franchising Casey’s Roadhouse Restaurants which has led to over 40 years of franchising. Yesac became a multi brand company with Casey’s Restaurants, Pat and Mario’s restaurants, and East side Mario’s Restaurants. 

In 1989 Yesac Creative Foods was sold to Claridge Investments and became Prime Restaurants. 

In 1993 Pepsico U.S. purchased all the trade marks of Prime Restaurants. Prime Restaurants maintained the rights to Canada through a licensing agreement. It was at this time that Mr. Perpick became Executive Vice President of Prime Restaurants. 

In 2000 a management buyout was led by John Rothschild to buy back the shares and trademarks. Mr. Perpick became President and Chief Operating Officer. This was followed by a conversion to Income Trust Fund. 

In 2011 Fairfax Financial purchased majority interest of Prime restaurants and privatized. In 2013 Fairfax bought controlling interest in Cara Restaurants and merged Prime Restaurants with Cara to eventually become Recipe unlimited. 

It was at this time that Mr. Perpick joined Fairfax Financial focusing on new business development. 

Mr. Perpick’s successes in the hospitality industry have been acknowledged by his peers with various awards and recognitions. 

Mr. Perpick currently sits on a number of boards including Izumi aquaculture.

Mr. Michael G. Burrows has been the Chief Executive Officer of Maple Lodge Farms Ltd. since September 2008. Mr. Burrows served as the Chief Executive Officer and President of ED Smith Income Trust and E.D. Smith & Sons, Limited. until December 18, 2006. He served as the Chief Executive Officer and President of ED Smith Income Fund until December 18, 2006. Mr. Burrows served as the Chief Executive Officer and President of EDS Holdings Inc., General Partner of Ed Smith Income Fund. He joined E.D. Smith in September 2002 and has 25 years of business experience, mostly in consumer packaged goods. From 1995 to 2002, Mr. Burrows served as the President and Chief Operating Officer of Janes Family Foods Ltd. Prior thereto, he held senior management positions at Mattel Canada Inc. (Mattel Fisher Price Inc.) and Nabisco Brands Ltd. Mr. Burrows began his career in brand management at The Procter & Gamble Inc. He served as President of Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of Canada. He serves on the Board of Directors of Food & Consumer Products of Canada. He serves as Trustee of E.D. Smith Operating Trust. He served as Director of E.D. Smith GP Inc. until December 18, 2006. He served as Trustee of Ed Smith Income Fund from 2005 to December 18, 2006. Mr. Burrows earned a Masters of Business Administration degree from Queen’s University and a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Carleton University.

Mr. Greenwood is the principal of CEO Global Network.  Jim brings outstanding business and leadership experience to this position after a successful career with Gordon Food Services. After 28 years running his own food distribution company in 1996, Jim merged his business with Gordon Food Service. They were partners in the Ontario market for 10 years and Jim then sold his shares to them. Jim stayed with GFS taking on increasingly responsibility in their Canadian business. In November of 2011 when he retired he was responsible for their national distribution business in Canada.

Mr. Smith has over 42 years in food service industry.    Starting at the ground level as family member in family run business.  Randy worked his way through all levels of food distribution from warehouse worker, truck driver, sales rep, sales manager, beverage division manager, VP street sales, VP national accounts to director of national accounts.  Randy served as VP Sales for Gordon Food Service and was responsible for operations of Intercity Packers.

Gerry McGuire joined Izumi Aquaculture in October 2021 to help with the growth of the company, bringing 25 years’ experience of working with companies to the Izumi team.   

For the last 20 years Gerry has worked at Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited where he held various senior roles, most recently as Managing Director of Fairventures.    In this role, he was involved in the identification, acquisition and divestiture of private equity and venture investments as well as overseeing the growth of new business areas.  His experience includes advising companies on mergers and acquisitions, capital structuring and management succession.      Gerry was actively involved at the board level with companies such as Peak Achievement Athletics, Rawlings Baseball, Toys R Us, The Keg, Team Snap and Dream Payments among others.  

Gerry is a CPA, CA and has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Western Ontario and a Diploma in Accounting from Wilfrid Laurier University.