Peter Cavelti

Peter Christian Cavelti was born on April 10, 1948 in Herisau, Switzerland, the eldest of four children. He lived in various parts of the world before settling in Canada. Cavelti is the author of several books on financial and socio-political topics, as well as a highly acclaimed social study and a novel. As a financial executive and entrepreneur he was responsible for banking operations, built an internationally active currency and commodity trading operation, ran an investment management firm, and co-founded a gold mining company. He is devoted to his family, passionate about adventure travel, and deeply engaged in philanthropic activities.
Financial Career
After completing his compulsory army service in Switzerland, Cavelti emigrated to South Africa, then Canada, where he settled in 1972. He went to work for Deak & Company, part of the world’s largest foreign exchange network, where he quickly rose to the management ranks. When he left Deak three years later, he was in charge of the company’s Toronto operations. In 1976, he was recruited by Guardian Trust, an established Montreal-based bank, with the mandate to build a presence outside Quebec and expand the company’s foreign exchange and precious metals presence. Monetary history fascinated Cavelti, causing him to start writing about the subjects. His articles and essays were widely quoted and a series of internationally published books followed. By the time he left the organization ten years later, he was President and CEO of Guardian Trust International, with responsibility for an internationally active trading operation, one of Canada’s largest gold investment programs and two of its preeminent gold mutual funds. Vigorously opposing a takeover of the company, Peter left Guardian in 1985 to form Cavelti & Associates Ltd. and its subsidiary Capital Management Ltd., taking with him key investment management mandates. Soon after, Cavelti Capital was recruited to manage New York-based Blanchard Precious Metals Fund, one of the world’s largest gold funds.
Peter Cavelti was a regular speaker at investment conferences around the globe and served on corporate boards in Canada, the United States and Switzerland. He was also active in the public sector, most notably as an advisor to the Government of Canada, whom he assisted with the conception and marketing of the Gold Maple Leaf program, and the Province of Ontario, for whom he chaired the Commodity Futures Advisory Board of the Ontario Securities Commission.

Throughout the first decade of the 2000s, he gradually withdrew from his public functions in order to focus on creative pursuits, including his writing, and to have more time for his family.
Author
Cavelti has several internationally published books and hundreds of published papers to his credit. His early writing centered on investment and socio-economic topics. In 1997, his critically acclaimed social study of colonialism, Tuiavii’s Way: A South Sea Chief’s Comments on Western Society, was published, followed by A Dangerous Remedy, a novel. He is currently working on a retrospective and another novel.
Peter was a Contributing Editor and columnist with The Money Letter, Personal Finance and Physicians Monthly, Market Report and Perspectives. His investment commentaries were widely quoted in the Canadian, UK and U.S. financial press.
Philanthropy
Cavelti has been a long-time supporter of and advisor to Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders. He also works closely with Canadian charity rating service Charity Intelligence. Through the Cavelti Family Foundation, Peter and his family have also been long time champions of Toronto-based after school program , a division of the Toronto Foundation for Student Success.
Family
Peter and his wife Caroline were married in 1987. Their daughter Melissa Cavelti and husband John Stout live in Toronto with their two daughters Alexandra and Abigail. Caroline’s and Peter’s younger daughter, Krista, died tragically in 2007; she left a son, then 3 year-old Cameron. The Cavelti family spends considerable time together—in Toronto, where they all live; at the family cottage in Georgian Bay; and in the Colorado mountains, where Peter, a former ski instructor, seeks out challenging terrain with his three grandchildren.
Published Works
* Tuiavii's Way: A South Sea Chief's Comments on Western Society (1997, 1999, 2007 and 2020) . Legacy Editions, Toronto; Crown English Reading/Sanseido Publishing, Tokyo.
* A Dangerous Remedy (2004) . Legacy Editions, Toronto; screenplay by Laurie King-Smith (2005).
* New Profits in Gold, Silver, Strategic Metals: The Complete Investment Guide (1984) . McGraw-Hill, New York.
* Gold, Silver, Strategic Metals: The Complete Investment Guide (1983). Maximus Press / McClelland and Stewart, Toronto.
* New Profits in Gold and the Precious and Strategic Metals Markets (1983). Hume Publishing Company, Toronto.
* How to Invest in Gold (1979, 1981) . Maximus Press / McClelland and Stewart, Toronto.
* How to Invest in Gold (1979) . Follett Publishing Company, Chicago.
* Perspectives: A Monthly Publication Benefiting Charity (1999 - 2006). Cavelti & Associates Ltd., Toronto.
* Quarterly Commentary (2006 - 2020). Cavelti & Associates Ltd., Toronto.
Appointments and Distinctions
* 1982 Co-founded the Dynamic-Guardian Gold Fund, a Canadian mutual fund, with Ned Goodman. Co-managed fund with Pierre Lassonde.
* 1983 Co-founded BGR Precious Metals Inc., as a closed-end investment fund, along with of Beutel Goodman & Company Ltd. of Toronto and N.M. Rothschild & Sons Ltd. of London (Rothschild & Co.). Joined as Director and Member of the Executive Committee. Co-managed fund with Pierre Lassonde and Kjield Thygesen. Later helped convert BGR Precious Metals Inc. into Dundee Precious Metals Inc., an internationally active mining company with production, development and exploration assets in Canada, Bulgaria, Serbia, Armenia and Namibia. Director and Chairman of the Corporate Governance Committee.
* 1983 Appointed by Ontario Premier William Davis to serve on the Commodity Futures Advisory Board of the Ontario Securities Commission.
* 1985 Appointed Chairman of the Commodity Futures Advisory Board of the Ontario Securities Commission by Ontario Premier David Peterson.
* 1987-1998 Appointed Advisor to the Blanchard Precious Metals Fund and Co-Advisor to the Blanchard Strategic Allocation Fund, both of New York.
* 1991 Featured in Brian Milner’s The Hidden Establishment: The Inside Story of Canada’s International Business Elite (Viking Books, published by Penguin Group).
* 1999-2010 Cavelti’s social study, Tuiavii’s Way: A South Sea Chief’s Comments on Western Society, is accepted by key university libraries, including Harvard, Princeton and Northwestern.
References/Notes and references

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