Sierra Consultants was founded in 2023 by Sherif El Maghraby after a stint at Grant Thornton in the Management Consulting practice. During this short period, Sherif learned how the consulting business was led and how to bring value to clients of the firm.
Sierra organizes what we do into four areas: Management, Marketing, Finance, and Design. Every engagement we take on falls into one or more of these.
This covers business plans, product launches, strategy, and day-to-day business logistics, the area where most small and medium-sized businesses need the most help. Think employee relations, sales coaching, pitch crafting, systems implementation: the work that frees up an entrepreneur's time and helps their business grow.
When a business is launching a product, a subsidiary, or a new line of service, we start by building the business case to test whether the idea is viable. From there, we can determine whether a full business plan is warranted, including market study, positioning, logo, and promotional material. Our engagements can be as targeted or as all-inclusive as you need, up to and including turnkey management, which keeps the client's financial exposure in check.
We're not an accounting firm. What we offer is comprehensive treasury management consulting for clients who want an objective perspective on their cash operations. This kind of advice is usually only available through banks and financial institutions, since they also sell access to the infrastructure that treasury and cash management require.
This is also the one area where we work with individuals, not just businesses: financial literacy. Study after study shows the financial literacy of Canadians is concerning, and often alarming. There's a real knowledge gap around what banking products can actually do and we believe closing that gap can help a lot of Canadians make better long-term decisions.
Good design goes unnoticed by most people. Bad design is obvious to everyone. That's the philosophy behind every piece we create for clients. Design is more than nice colours and a clean layout; it directs the eye where you want it to go and can convey a complex idea in a single frame, without words. From functional corporate documentation to logo and brand identity work, we've helped many clients express who they are and what they do.
Sherif El Maghraby has led two professional lives, with almost nothing in common between them. He started out as a professional musician, for which you can find footage of his many performances around the country as a guitar player.
Around age 23, in search of stability, he got an entry-level position at the BMO Financial Group. From there he went on to lead multiple successful projects and countless positive client interactions, garnering a reputation for being a staunch customer advocate- which translated directly into everything he did for the bank.
This advocacy yielded him consistent success in every one of his roles throughout his career at BMO. At age 27, he got his start in Treasury Management, where he was implementing treasury management products for BMO for its Corporate Finance and Capital Markets sector clients.
By age 29, he was one of the top-ranked Associates in the country. He was mentored by his Vice-President Pierre Fontebasso, who solidified his existing foundation of customer advocacy for several years, and was considered a shoe-in for the eventual VP role. Upon Pierre Fontebasso’s retirement, Sherif was offered a Director role at Grant Thornton, for whom he worked for about a year before parting ways and starting Sierra Consultants.
His mission was to help his clients in a measurable, valuable way. He believes his banking background and expert knowledge are critical to this mission.
On a personal note, Sherif enjoys spending time with his young family. In his own time, Sherif still plays and records guitar and practices a variety of martial arts, including Muay Thai, Jiu-Jitsu, and Freestyle Wrestling. He is also a car fanatic (or a petrolhead in the UK), whether it be for Formula 1, GT, or Sim Racing.
