Independent Executive Advisory & Operating Firm
Empowering Growth
We work with private equity firms, owner-operated businesses, and industrial manufacturers that need leaders who have actually run businesses — and know the difference between driving results and just advising on them.
Who We Are
Encore Strategies is an independent executive advisory and operating firm. We work with private equity firms, owner-operated businesses, and industrial manufacturers at critical inflection points — whether that means deploying a seasoned operator into a leadership gap, driving a growth mandate, or guiding an ownership group through a business transition.
What sets us apart is simple: we have been in the seat. Our mandates are led by John Nesbitt, who has served as President, General Manager, and Co-Founder across multiple industrial platforms spanning steel, aluminum, insulation, and building products. He has built businesses from scratch, run multi-site manufacturing operations across Canada and the US, and successfully exited ventures he created.
We bring an operator's perspective to every engagement — not a consultant's framework. That means we understand what it takes to make payroll, manage a plant floor, close a customer, and build a team that performs under pressure. When we advise, it is grounded in experience. When we lead, we are accountable for results.
Through a network of specialist partners, Encore also supports ownership transition and business succession mandates — bringing that same operator's lens to processes that are too often led exclusively by financial and legal advisors.
What We Do
Encore Strategies deploys experienced operating leadership into complex, high-stakes mandates. We work best where operational clarity and executive credibility are non-negotiable — and where the gap between good advice and real execution actually matters.
Principal — John Nesbitt
John Nesbitt is a trilingual (English/French, functional Spanish) senior executive based in Montréal, with 30 years of full P&L leadership across multi-site manufacturing and distribution businesses in Canada and the United States. His background covers steel tube manufacturing, aluminum tubing manufacturing and value-added aluminum transformation, thermal and mechanical insulation, and building products.
He has a track record of growing and fixing industrial businesses. At Manson Insulation Products, he grew revenue 204% and EBITDA 863% while leading a 25-person North American team. At General Insulation Company, he grew Canadian revenue 115% and profitability 157%. At Alfiniti, revenue grew more than 1,900% and EBITDA more than 2,100% under his leadership, including the acquisition and integration of competitors in the US and Canada. Most recently, as General Manager of Nova Tube, he increased mill throughput 8% and finishing line capacity 18% year over year and cut the accident rate 20%.
He has also built businesses from the ground up. As President and co-founder of Triumph Tube, he took a drawn-aluminum-tube company from concept to commercial production. At Numesh, he led new plant start-ups in Ontario and California and grew the organization to 150 employees. He has been on both sides of M&A: identifying and evaluating acquisitions, integrating them, optimizing enterprise value and preparing companies for sale.
Since 2007, John has run Encore Strategies Inc. alongside his operating roles — an independent advisory practice working with owners, boards, and PE sponsors on growth, optimization, M&A, and transition. It has kept him close to the people and the deals across Canadian industrial manufacturing and construction materials.
John is available immediately for CEO, President, COO, or Chief Growth Officer roles, and is also open to fractional or interim executive mandates, board seats, and advisory work where there’s a genuine fit. He’s focused on industrial manufacturing, construction materials, distribution and PE-backed operating environments. He’s based in Montréal and has led distributed teams across Canada and into the US throughout his career.
Our Network
Encore Strategies operates as a principal-led firm. Where a mandate benefits from additional depth or specialized expertise, our team of associates is composed of seasoned entrepreneurs with hands-on experience leading and scaling businesses across a wide range of industries. This real-world perspective enables us to bring practical insight — not just theory — to every engagement. We understand the complexities of day-to-day operations, from managing workflows and teams to navigating financial and operational challenges with agility and precision.
Encore draws on this carefully selected network of senior associates — each independently accomplished, and each held to the same standards of operating experience and professional accountability that define Encore's own work. Beyond operational expertise, our associates are skilled strategic thinkers who partner closely with clients to identify opportunities for growth, streamline processes, and drive sustainable performance improvements. We take a holistic approach to business optimization — evaluating current practices, uncovering inefficiencies, and implementing tailored solutions that enhance productivity, reduce costs, and strengthen organizational effectiveness.
By combining entrepreneurial experience with disciplined execution, our team delivers actionable strategies that not only improve efficiency but also position businesses for long-term success in an increasingly competitive landscape.
Our network includes a senior advisor whose career spans public accounting, restructuring and business turnaround advisory, operational management, and M&A transaction support. With foundational experience at a leading restructuring firm, followed by decades of independent consulting and operating leadership across manufacturing, distribution, import, and retail sectors, this associate brings a rare combination of financial rigour and hands-on operational credibility. Specific areas of expertise include enterprise valuation, pro forma financial analysis, diagnostic operational reviews, crisis and liquidity management, and understanding of the business sale process.
Amongst our associates is one of Canada's most experienced executive search advisors, with more than 35 years of practice and over 1,000 successfully completed mandates spanning President, CEO, CFO, COO, and other C-suite roles across a wide range of industries. This associate specializes in serving private equity firms and mid-market, owner-led businesses — bringing a deeply established network across North America and Europe that reaches leaders who are not actively in the market. Beyond search, this associate brings a founder's perspective: having started, scaled, and sold a successful business, they understand firsthand the talent and leadership decisions that define outcomes at every stage of a company's growth and transition. Areas of expertise include executive search, succession planning, leadership transition, capital sourcing and workforce strategy.
Retained within our associate network is a senior advisor with more than a decade of progressive operating leadership in distribution and specialty foodservice — culminating in the role of President — and who now works independently with SME owners and leadership teams on strategic planning, marketing, succession, and exit readiness. This associate brings the credibility of someone who has managed growth, operations, and organizational change from the inside, combined with practical advisory experience guiding owners through the decisions that define what their business becomes next.
Retained within our associate network is a senior advisor with more than 30 years of specialized practice in Canadian R&D tax incentive programs — including SR&ED, IRAP, and provincial grant programs — and a track record of over $200 million in successfully claimed credits across a broad range of industries. With deep bilingual fluency in both the technical and financial dimensions of qualifying R&D activity, this associate works closely with clients' technical and finance teams to identify eligible work, build defensible claims, and maximize recovery. Areas of expertise include SR&ED claim preparation and CRA audit support, IRAP and government grant strategy, R&D program design, and the intersection of innovation incentives with broader business financing and growth strategy.
Industry Focus
Exit Advisory & M&A
Most business sale processes are run exclusively by financial and legal advisors. Encore Strategies brings something different — an operator's perspective on value, readiness, and fit. We work with ownership groups who want to approach a transaction from a position of strength, not just compliance.
Every business owner will exit eventually. The question is whether it happens on their terms.
Whether you are actively considering a sale, beginning to think about succession, or simply want to understand what your business is worth and how to maximize that value — Encore Strategies offers a confidential, no-obligation conversation.
Get in Touch
Whether you are a PE firm with a portfolio leadership gap, a family business owner planning a transition or exit, or an executive search firm with a mandate in play — Encore Strategies brings operating experience, not just a résumé.