ROUNDS myVET Group

Rounds

2026

The Three Insiders Who Sit on the Veterinarian's Side of the Table

Why the Profession Cannot Afford to Walk This Road Alone

BY STEVEN L MAY, CERTIFIED VETERINARY JOURNALIST

Rounds

Somewhere in North America tonight, a veterinarian is closing up a hospital she has owned for twenty-eight years. She turns off the surgical lights, walks past kennels she once helped build with her own hands, and locks the back door. For most of her career, her practice has been her identity.

Now, somewhere between fatigue and inflation and a workforce that no longer looks the way it did in 1997, she is beginning to ask the question every clinic owner eventually asks. What is this practice actually worth, and who can I trust to help me sell it?

That question, multiplied across thousands of independent veterinary hospitals, is the reason myVETgroup exists.

A Firm Built on the Other Side of the Story myVETgroup, known throughout the industry as MVG, is a strategic advisory firm dedicated exclusively to the veterinary profession. Headquartered with offices in Canada and the United States, the firm has closed more than $2 billion in transactions and brings over 80 years of combined experience in clinic ownership, private equity, and corporate consolidation [1][2]. But the numbers, impressive as they are, are not the real story. The real story is who built it, and why.

The firm was founded by three men whose careers converged from very different directions. Raj Raheja, the Co-Founder and CEO, spent more than sixteen years inside the world of healthcare and private equity mergers and acquisitions [1]. As CFO of consolidating veterinary and dental platforms in the United States, Raj sat in the rooms where corporate buyers decided what a practice was worth. He oversaw more than $350 million in transactions, grew a dental organization into the fourth largest in the United States, and quadrupled the size of a veterinary platform within three years [1]. He saw, from the inside, how often independent owners arrived at the negotiating table unprepared, outgunned, and underrepresented. He founded MVG, in his own words, with the sole purpose of maximizing value for veterinary owners [1].

Dr. Mark de Wolde, the Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer, came at the same problem from the opposite shore. A 1993 graduate of the Ontario Veterinary College, Dr. de Wolde practiced in Canada, England, and New Zealand before settling in Southern Ontario, where he built five veterinary hospitals over fifteen years and co-founded the Upper Canada Veterinary Group Inc. [1].

He has been a clinic owner, an employer, an operator, and a surgeon. The City of Kingston named him Business Person of the Year, and in 2018 the Ontario Veterinary Medical Association honored him with its prestigious Award of Merit [1][3]. To date he has personally helped facilitate nearly $200 million in private practice transitions to corporate consolidators [1].

Mark de Wolde, DVM, MRCVS Co-Founder, Chief Medical Officer myVETgroup

2026 SLM. All rights reserved.

(1)

Rounds

The third co-founder, Samir Meghji, brings the missing piece. With thirteen years of private equity experience across North America and Europe, including a recent role as an investor with one of the largest veterinary corporate groups on the continent, Samir has spent his career on the buy side of the table [1].

He knows precisely how corporate purchasers model a practice, where they look for risk, and what makes them raise an offer.

Three men. A consolidator's CFO, a working veterinarian, and a private equity buyer. Together they built a firm that, by design, can never be outmaneuvered by the people on the other side of the deal.

The Mission, Stated Plainly MVG's mission is straightforward. The firm exists to empower every veterinary practice to earn and achieve more, to act as an advocate on behalf of the owner, and to enhance value while preserving the legacy the doctor has spent a lifetime building [1]. The vision is equally clear. MVG intends to be the gold standard of veterinary transition advisory in North America, the firm that practice owners across the continent name without hesitation when asked who guided them through the most important transaction of their professional lives.

Why the Veterinary Community Must Use Them Most veterinarians sell a practice exactly once. Corporate consolidators buy hundreds. That asymmetry, more than any other single factor, is the reason an independent advisor is not a luxury for the modern veterinary owner. It is a structural necessity.

The first reason to engage MVG is information. Practice valuation in 2026 is not what it was a decade ago.

Multiples have shifted, buyer behavior has evolved, and the difference between a fair offer and a great offer can run into seven figures on a single transaction. MVG's analysts, led by Senior Financial Analyst Fraser Barton, a Harvard MBA, and Dawson MacDonald, a former BDO Canada mid-market transaction advisor, build valuations that reflect what the market will actually pay today, not what it paid in 2019 [1].

The second reason is leverage. After interviewing four advisory firms, one client of six veterinary practices chose MVG and later wrote that the firm identified the right buyer and secured a sale price and structure far beyond their expectations [2]. Another client, after two years and two brokers without a single offer, met Director of Business Development Dr. Bob Davis at a veterinary conference and signed with MVG; the deal closed [2]. These outcomes are not accidents. They are the product of a team that knows which buyers are active, what they are paying, and how to run a competitive process.

2026 SLM. All rights reserved.

(2)

Rounds

The third reason is protection. Practice transitions involve due diligence, lease assignments, employment agreements, working capital adjustments, and purchase price holdbacks. Each of those clauses carries the potential to quietly erode the value an owner thought they had negotiated. MVG's six-phase framework, Investigate and Evaluate, Plan and Prepare, Market and Negotiate, Due Diligence Support, Advise and Close, and Post-Transition Support, is designed to catch what tired owners and overworked attorneys can miss [4]. Strategic partnerships with MLT Aikins, one of Western Canada's leading full-service law firms with more than 300 lawyers, and Baker Tilly Canada extend that protection into the legal and tax layers of every deal [5][6].

The fourth reason is the one veterinarians rarely talk about. Legacy. A practice is not a spreadsheet. It is a team that has trusted the owner for years, a community of clients who chose this hospital over the one down the road, and a name on a sign that means something. MVG, built and led by people who have stood in those exam rooms themselves, treats that legacy as part of the deliverable. They preserve it because they understand it.

The veterinarian closing up tonight will retire eventually. The question is not whether she will sell.

The question is whether she will sell alone, or with a team whose entire purpose is to make sure the work of her career is worth what it should be. That is the case for myVETgroup, and it is the case the veterinary profession is increasingly choosing to accept.

2026 SLM. All rights reserved.

(3)

Rounds

References [1] myVETgroup. About Us: Experts in Veterinary Practice Sales, 80+ Years in the making. https://myvetgroup.com/about/ (accessed May 12, 2026).

[2] myVETgroup. Home: Maximize Your Value. https://myvetgroup.com/ (accessed May 12, 2026).

[3] Ontario Veterinary Medical Association. OVMA Award Recipients (2018 Award of Merit: Mark de Wolde, DVM). https://www.ovma.org/getmedia/b4d721b9-e4d2-4c10-9d51-a8c02d6cbdb1/OVMA-AwardWinner-History.pdf (accessed May 12, 2026).

[4] myVETgroup. Buy and Sell Side Veterinary Practice Solutions. https://myvetgroup.com/veterinarypractice-solutions/ (accessed May 12, 2026).

[5] myVETgroup. Strategic Partners. https://myvetgroup.com/strategic-partners/ (accessed May 12, 2026).

[6] Lexpert. MLT Aikins LLP firm profile. https://www.lexpert.ca/law-firms/mlt-aikins-llp-363 (accessed May 12, 2026).

[7] myVETgroup. Meet Your Veterinary Transition Team. https://myvetgroup.com/our-team/ (accessed May 12, 2026).

2026 SLM. All rights reserved.

(4)

Rounds

Meet the Pack

Meet the Pack

Mark de Wolde, DVM, MRCVS

Tom Wheeler

Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer

Director of Business Development

Email: mark.dewolde@myvetgroup.com

Email: tom.wheeler@myvetgroup.com

Phone: +1 (613) 572-1570

Phone: +1 (540) 537-8118

Raj Raheja, BBA, MPAcc, CPA-CA

Dr. Leon Freeland

Co-Founder and CEO

Director of Business Development

Email: raj.raheja@myvetgroup.com

Email: leon.freeland@myvetgroup.com

Phone: +1 (425) 698-5238

Phone: +1 (317) 679-8838

Samir Meghji, Ivey HBA

Brittany Conover

Co-Founder and Chief Financial Analyst

Director of Business Development

Email: samir.meghji@myvetgroup.com

Email: brittany.conover@myvetgroup.com

Matt Friesen

Fraser Barton, MBA

Director of Business Development

Senior Financial Analyst and Transitions Lead

Email: matt.friesen@myvetgroup.com

Email: fraser.barton@myvetgroup.com

Phone: +1 (647) 383-9100 Michael Young

Dawson MacDonald

Director of Business Development

Senior Analyst

Email: michael.young@myvetgroup.com

Email: dawson.macdonald@myvetgroup.com

Phone: +1 (416) 616-9969

Phone: +1 (289) 887-5464

Dr. Robert (Bob) Davis

Natasha Raey

Director of Business Development

Client Service Manager

Email: bob.davis@myvetgroup.com

Email: natasha.raey@myvetgroup.com

Phone: +1 (508) 561-7119

Phone: +1 (778) 730-2436

General Inquiries Email: info@myvetgroup.com USA: +1 (425) 698-5238 Canada: +1 (613) 572-1570 Website: myvetgroup.com

2026 SLM. All rights reserved.

(5)

(6)