Greg Levi has been terminated as president and CEO of Blue Heron Financial Corp. (formerly University Avenue Financial Corp.). The firm has appointed Jay Richardson as interim president and CEO.

Richardson is a chartered accountant and a managing director of Merchant Capital Group, a publicly owned merchant bank.

“I look forward to seeing Blue Heron attract the growth in assets which the quality of its platform deserves, and then to hiring a permanent CEO to carry continued profitable growth into the future,” said Richardson.

Richardson is a career specialist in transitional executive management in turnaround situations, having previously served as a partner of Clarkson Gordon, Arthur Young (Singapore) and KPMG (U.K.). More recently, he served as CEO of Plaintree Systems Inc.

Merchant Capital has entered into a binding agreement with Trancorp Inc., the owner of approximately $1.4-million of debt due by @rgentum Management and Research Corp., the wholly owned subsidiary of Blue Heron, and convertible into common shares of Blue Heron.

The agreement calls for the consideration for the debt to be $1 million in cash and notes of Merchant Capital at closing, Dec. 15, and $400,000 worth of Blue Heron common shares within 90 days of closing.

As this debt constitutes substantially all of the secured indebtedness of Blue Heron and has matured and is subject to enforcement, it constitutes a financial interest in Blue Heron that provides Merchant Capital a controlling role in the reorganization, restructuring and recapitalization of Blue Heron.

Blue Heron has approximately $55 million of assets under management and administration, distributed among 20 mutual funds.

“We think this represents a significant advance both in our strategy of being a significant participant in the financial services industry and in the process of turning Blue Heron into a profitable and growing organization,” said Scott Sinclair, CEO of Merchant Capital. “We look forward to completing this transaction and establishing a platform for the significant growth of Blue Heron.”

Richardson is a career specialist in transitional executive management in turnaround situations, having previously served as a partner of Clarkson Gordon, Arthur Young (Singapore) and KPMG (U.K.).

More recently, he served as CEO of Plaintree Systems Inc. “I look forward to seeing Blue Heron attract the growth in assets which the quality of its platform deserves, and then to hiring a permanent CEO to carry continued profitable growth into the future,” said Richardson.

“This will undoubtedly require several months to bring to fruition but should cause no disruption to the investors in the funds of BHC and all other stakeholders should benefit from the financial perspective that Merchant Capital brings to this situation.”