Paul Laufert

Paul Laufert is a Waterloo-region executive, corporate lawyer, and investor whose career spans technology, financial services, and private capital. He earned a BA in History and an LLB in Law from Queen's University (Kingston, Ontario, roughly 1987–1990) and began his career practicing law at McMillan LLP before moving into corporate development and executive roles. He is described on LinkedIn as an "Advisor/Mentor" with a background in corporate and legal leadership.

His defining relationship is with The Descartes Systems Group Inc., the Waterloo logistics-software company that Peter Schwartz took public in 1997. Laufert joined Descartes around 1997 as Executive Vice President of Corporate Development and General Counsel, responsible for executing the company's strategic acquisitions and capital-markets transactions, with responsibilities later extending to corporate communications. That partnership with Schwartz has continued across two decades: Schwartz went on to found Laurence Capital (2004, Waterloo), and Laufert became a Managing Director of the Laurence Group of Companies.

Laurence Capital is a diversified private capital firm that both invests in and founds companies. Two of its founded businesses became Laufert's operating homes: Kognitiv Corporation, a Waterloo-based loyalty/collaborative-commerce platform where he serves as Chief Corporate Officer (alongside Schwartz), and Langhaus Financial, an insurance-backed specialty lender where Laufert served as a director (Langhaus Financial Partners Inc. was incorporated in 2014/2015 and acquired by Montfort Capital in 2024). His email domain (langhausfinancial.com) reflects that role in the Laurence ecosystem.

Across his career he has also held senior operating roles including President & COO of Pharos Life Corporation, President & CEO of Sanden Machine Limited, and Founder/Principal of Rusty Rock Advisors. His stated specialties are strategic planning, mergers & acquisitions, corporate finance, investor relations, corporate governance, general counsel work, and communications — the toolkit of an operator-investor rather than a pure financial backer.

• Invests as an angel / seed-stage backer in the Waterloo Region startup ecosystem, complementing the later-stage focus of Laurence Capital ("later stage companies in which there is strong and talented leadership").
• Sector interests mirror the Laurence Capital portfolio: technology, growth & innovation, financial services, life sciences/diagnostics, and mid-market operating businesses.
• Values strong, proven leadership teams — Laurence's stated philosophy centers on backing "strong and talented leadership," and Laufert's own operating career suggests a bias toward founders who can execute on M&A, capital markets, and governance.
• Comfortable founding and building, not just funding — the Laurence model created Kognitiv and Langhaus from scratch, so he brings hands-on operating, legal, and corporate-development support rather than passive capital.