Lester Fernandes

Lester Fernandes is the CEO of his family office, Segovia Capital Ltd, which invests in early stage technology companies across North America. He is the former CFO of Nuvei Corporation (founded as Paysystems Corporation and later known as Pivotal Payments). Nuvei helps SMB merchants both online and offline process and manage their card payments. From 2001 Lester helped build and expand the startup payments company including attracting capital from Goldman Sachs. Nuvei grew significantly through numerous acquisitions from its headquarters in Canada. In 2017, Lester was actively involved in selling majority control of Nuvei to a Canadian private equity group and in 2020 Nuvei successfully went public valuing the business at more than $5B. Lester’s experience is a unique blend of financial, entrepreneurial, acquisition and strategic expertise helping entrepreneurs build their businesses and taking it to the next level. Lester sits on the boards of a number of technology companies and is an advisor to firms in the artificial intelligence and digital currency space.

In addition to an MBA from McGill University, he has an ALM from Harvard University, a Post Graduate Diploma in Strategy and Innovation from the University of Oxford, and has completed the Advanced Management Program at the Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania and the Advanced Leadership Program at Cambridge University. He is a guest lecturer in strategy at the Faculty of Management, McGill University and a member of the Association of Financial Professionals, the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD) and is an avid supporter of the Kids for Kids Cancer Benefit in support of the Montreal General Hospital.