The founding partners of Lowell Douglas were both Canadian Chartered Accountants with decades of experience in audit and advisory services.
Barry Munholland is the only remaining founding partner and he specializes in field audits as well as advisory services for borrowers and lenders. In addition to Mr. Munholland, the firm employs four senior field examiners and two staff field examiners.
Our full-time staff of five people represents a total of more than 70 years of ABL audit experience.
Our Team
Mr. Barry Munholland B.Sc., B.Comm., MBA, CPA CA
Mr. Munholland is a Chartered Accountant (Ontario) with over 30 years of experience in the financial markets. Returning from a four-year volunteer experience as a secondary school teacher in Zambia, he earned his professional accounting designation at Thorne Riddell (now KPMG). He then moved into the banking sector and joined Bank of Montreal in Corporate and Government Banking. Expanding his banking experience, he accepted a position in the Treasury Division where he focused his attention on risk management using financial derivatives.
His success in banking led to an offer to join Manulife Financial where he was asked to set up and manage a new financial risk management desk. The resultant program was so successful, that Manulife expanded it to include additional areas of risk management and invited Mr. Munholland to participate in a special task force mandated to reconfigure the Company’s asset liability management programs. This led to his recruitment to Deutsche Bank Canada where he was made Senior Vice President and Treasurer. He was also asked to serve on the Board of Directors for Deutsche Morgan Grenfell Canada. During his tenure, Deutsche Bank grew to be the second largest foreign bank in Canada generating a consolidated profit that exceeded that of the US operations.
Turning his attention to the hedge fund industry, Mr. Munholland established his own fund, which traded in currencies and related derivatives. Achieving a modest level of success, the fund was sold to a private group in Chicago, which allowed Mr. Munholland to accept an offer to become CEO of Bermuda Commercial Bank in Hamilton, Bermuda. While in Bermuda, he served on the Board of Directors of the Bermuda Stock Exchange and was a member of a select committee organized by the Bermuda Monetary Authority to re-write the Bank Act to comply with the Basel standards on prudence and risk management.
Returning to Canada, Mr. Munholland managed his own consulting firm while operating as a partner in Cahill International. Cahill centered on large, international deals while his own firm focused on turn-around situations as well as financial management and risk management problems for small and medium size clients. This experience turned his attention toward the Asset Based Lending industry as a source of funding for some of his clients. His audit and risk management knowledge allowed him to gain a level of expertise that led him to form Lowell Douglas Limited in partnership with Mr. Steve Ryan.
Mr. Munholland holds a B.Sc. in zoology and psychology from McGill University, a B.Comm. and MBA in accounting and finance from the University of Windsor and a CA designation. He is a member in good standing of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario and the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants.Mr. Michael Wilson
Mr. Wilson is an accountant and financial planner with over 20 years of experience in the financial markets. After completing his Bachelor of Commerce degree at Laurentian University, he started his working career as a staff accountant at Clarkson Gordon (now Ernst & Young). Having honed his accounting skills to a high level of proficiency, he moved to England where he provided private consulting services to clients such as British Gas, Schlumberger, and Chase Manhattan Securities.
Returning to Canada, Mr. Wilson joined Revenue Canada where he worked as an Auditor in the Goods and Services Division and where he completed the Canadian Securities Course while working full time. In addition to regular tax audits, he assumed responsibility for the development of audit programs that were used to investigate the underground economy in the construction and restaurant industries.
Having developed a strong interest in financial planning services, Mr. Wilson added to his knowledge base by taking industry-approved courses in Financial Planning and Wealth Management Techniques. He then established his own professional services firm to provide financial planning, corporate and personal tax planning and investment strategy services to clients in the greater Toronto area. While developing his client base, Mr. Wilson was asked to provide support services to an ABL audit firm from the US that carried out field examinations in Canada.
His professional background and history of achievement generated an inducement to join Lowell Douglas Limited as one of the Company’s first staff members. Mr. Wilson has proven himself to be particularly adept at asset based lending audits and has also demonstrated an exceptional talent in relationship and dispute management.Ms. Rachelle Banzon BA
Ms. Banzon progressively moved to Audit Director in CIBC Internal Audit within the Personal and Small Business Banking division. Her duties included the planning, execution, reporting and wrap up of various audits and assisted in the establishment of integrated audits (end-to-end review of a banking product). Her skills allowed her to accept additional responsibility for managing direct reports within the audit group, interacting with regulatory bodies and bank Executives.
Her talents were recognized by Equitable Bank where she was hired as Director, Internal Audit. Here she led the planning, execution and reporting activities for regulatory focused audits and operational engagements. Part of her mandate was to assist in the development and completion of the annual audit plan which was reviewed and approved at the Board level. In her positions, Ms. Banzon developed strong relationships with her staff, auditees, and business partners.
The Covid pandemic moved Ms. Banzon to establish her own private business outside the audit field. She and her partner developed the new business to the point where it could run efficiently with less of her time. As a result, she turned back to the audit field where she joined Lowell Douglas Limited.
Mr. Brian Munholland CPA, CGA
Mr. Brian Munholland is a seasoned executive with over 30 years of management experience across a number of industries. After obtaining degrees in Economics (B.A.) and Finance (B. Comm.), he accepted his first full-time position with the Bank of Montreal where he completed their in-house training program in record time while simultaneously completing the qualification requirements for his CGA designation.
Shortly thereafter, he accepted an opportunity to join Pillsbury Canada Ltd., immediately following their acquisition of Green Giant and he was charged with consolidating the two accounting departments and all related systems under the scrutiny of the federal government’s Foreign Investment Review Agency (FIRA). Following his promotion to Assistant Controller of the Burger King Division and then Treasurer of Pillsbury Canada, he was recruited by Pepsi-Cola Canada Ltd.
While he was rising to become Director of Finance and Treasurer at Pepsico Canada, he was involved in a number of unique projects that included selling North American Van Lines and Wilson Sporting Goods, acquiring 15 store locations from a defunct restaurant chain and establishing them as the first Pizza Huts in Canada, acquiring the non-US global 7-Up franchise and then redistributing the goodwill in a tax effective manner. He was also involved in setting up a number of non-resident owned investment corporations which later contributed to the Canadian government changing the tax laws related to these vehicles (NRO’s) and negotiating with the Federal Government Excise department to get the import duties on all concentrate reduced to zero.
After declining repeated offers to move offshore, he set up his own contract management company where he has also been involved in several other diverse businesses. He took an equity position and assumed the CFO role in a technology start-up that was ultimately sold to a publicly traded company after winning several growth and profitability awards. For several years Mr. Brian Munholland was the President of the largest RESP distributor in Canada – a position that required him to be registered by the Security Commissions in all ten Canadian provinces. He has acted as a principal in an oil & gas start-up venture and as a consultant to an RFID application development company and two not for profit organizations.
This broad base of senior management experience coupled with an impressive accounting background has made Mr. Munholland ideally suited to ABL auditing and since he was recruited by Lowell Douglas, he has shown himself to be an excellent auditor and communicator in the field.Mr. Brian Langley
Mr. Langley has 15 years of accounting experience gathered primarily in manufacturing environments. Through training and experience, he has developed advanced skills in Microsoft Access, Excel and other databases.
After completing the Business Administration Program at Mohawk College, Mr. Langley accepted positions with Monroe Systems and Dictaphone Canada where he worked in various position involving invoicing, service dispatch, shipping management, and collections. His next move took him to Wilkinson Office Equipment where he implemented a new computer network and integrated the Company’s accounting software. In the position he also supported sales staff by providing hardware and software solutions for corporate clients.
Mr. Langley next moved to the position of Store Manager at JMG Compushoppe in Hamilton Ontario where he supervised a staff of 5 people. Looking for more professional development and an opportunity to expand his knowledge base, he accepted the position of Cost Analyst at Pacific Westeel Racking in Burlington Ontario. In this position, he assumed a variety of responsibilities including cost accounting, progress billing, project costing, invoicing, cash application and payroll. As he demonstrated his adaptability, he was assigned to develop and maintain customized software packages for order entry/manufacturing, the measurement of labour and material variance and specialized job costing. Simultaneously, he provided support for 30 personnel on a Novell network for several programs including Microsoft Office, AutoCAD 14 and Borland Paradox.
His next move was to Fisher & Ludlow in Burlington Ontario where Mr. Langley assumed the position of Senior Accountant. His already significant knowledge and experience base allowed him to take on a wide array of responsibilities including banking, financial statement management, statistical reporting, credit analysis and inventory management. In addition to these roles, he also became part of the ISO Internal Audit team which oversaw quality control and was pivotal in the successful application for entry into the US Customs C-TPAT Program (Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism). He also worked with the IT manager to develop application software for the Accounting department including web based applications for job costing, WIP costing, freight variance analysis and credit and collections reporting. Given his senior management position and his ethical standards, Mr. Langley was also a cheque signing officer of the Company.
In 2013, Mr. Langley was recruited to join Lowell Douglas Limited and a Fired Examiner. Since joining Lowell Douglas, he has successfully applied his accumulated business knowledge to rise to a Senior Field Examiner position.
Mr. Juan Mathison BA
Transitioning into the tax domain, he joined H&R Block as a tax professional, where he effectively interacted with clients, ensuring accurate tax returns. This role paved the way for his tenure at Sagen (formerly Genworth), a prominent private default mortgage insurer, where he served as a Claims Specialist. In this capacity, he carried responsibility for assessing risk and designing and implementing procedures to mitigate losses. The experience in credit risk management allowed him to join PriceWaterhouse Coopers (PwC) as an Assurance Specialist. At PwC, he conducted audits of various financial statements of different clients, identifying and mitigating risks while also assuming a leadership role in training new team members.
Driven by an avid pursuit of knowledge and fresh experiences, Mr. Mathison joined Lowell Douglas Limited as a Field Examiner bringing a wealth of expertise and a strong work ethic to his role.