Your Team
At LionRise, our team brings over 40 years of executive leadership experience in corporate finance and banking. We go beyond transactional advisory—acting as true partners to our clients, combining institutional expertise with a highly tailored, relationship-driven approach.
Tell us your objectives — we’ll structure the capital.
Ajay Dhir, Co-Founder
Ajay is a seasoned real estate and commercial banking professional with over 23 years of senior banking and lending experience across Canada, complemented by more than a decade in brokerage structuring complex real estate and commercial financing transactions.
He is Co-Founder of LionRise Capital, a platform focused on aligning capital with high-quality real estate opportunities through both in-house capital and strategic partnerships.
Previously, Ajay was a founding principal of Fit Capital Solutions, where he helped scale the firm from a three-person startup to a team of over ten professionals, advising on a broad range of real estate, commercial, and cash flow lending transactions. Following the firm’s growth and success, he exited to focus on LionRise Capital.
Prior to this, Ajay spent over 12 years in executive roles with Schedule 1 banks, managing real estate portfolios in excess of $1 billion and leading teams responsible for performance, growth, and risk management.
His expertise spans land acquisition, construction financing, and term debt across multi-family, commercial, and residential asset classes. He is known for structuring disciplined, flexible financing solutions that enable execution and unlock value in complex transactions.
At LionRise Capital, Ajay takes an active, aligned approach—deploying capital alongside borrowers and partners, with a focus on disciplined underwriting and long-term value creation.
Ajay holds a Bachelor of Management (Finance) from the University of Lethbridge and an MBA from the Haskayne School of Business.
George Varghese, Co-Founder
George brings over 21 years of experience in Schedule 1 commercial banking, real estate lending, and brokerage finance, having held senior roles across both lending and advisory functions.
He specializes in the origination, structuring, and execution of complex debt and equity transactions, with a focus on land development, construction financing, and term financing across commercial, industrial, and residential asset classes.
In addition to real estate, George has extensive experience in commercial cash flow lending, having structured and underwritten financing solutions across a wide range of industries, including operating lines of credit, term loans, acquisition financing, and growth capital.
George combines deep institutional lending expertise with a strong network of bank, private, and institutional capital relationships, enabling him to deliver tailored financing solutions across the capital stack. His approach is pragmatic and execution-focused, ensuring transactions are structured efficiently and closed with certainty.
Clients rely on George for his ability to navigate complex financing environments, align capital with business objectives, and provide clear, strategic guidance throughout the process.
