James Freeman

James Freeman joined ole in February as Senior Analyst, Acquisitions and though his work and educational background has been in finance, James has long desired a career that combined that practical element of his life with his love of music and the indie rock scene.

"It came together through a recruiter," says James, who is actually a songwriter and plays drums and guitar in a local rock band. "I saw the posting which mentioned that the position was in the media and entertainment sector. When I found out it was in the music industry and what company it was, I was definitely very excited. I thought it would be a great fit in terms of my skills and my interests and being able to apply them to something that I'm really passionate about."

James has a solid background in the financial sector. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce Honours Degree from Queen's University and is an MBA graduate from the Schulich School of Business at York University. He also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation.

"I started my career in the financial sector, but had dreams about pursuing a career in the music industry.  After about two years in finance, I tried to get a record label job at BMG and at Universal, but it was pretty competitive, so I decided to stay focused on finance for the time being.  To have this opportunity come around eight years later is pretty exciting."

James was a Senior Analyst in the Commercial Mortgage Investments department at Canada Life before becoming an Associate at the Fortress Investment Group. He was briefly a Senior Analyst in the real estate industry at Blackwood Partners Inc. before joining ole.

"I'm on the acquisitions team, so I help to value the different properties that come in, like music catalogues that are for sale, and apply financial concepts to them to come up with their value," James explains. "A lot of that is based on the historical trends.  We go through song by song and project the performance going forward considering what it has done in the past, and then figure out how much it is worth."

« back