Our team

Better people make better lending

We lend billions of dollars to commercial real estate projects every year. But it’s not just capital that distinguishes us. It’s the empowered nature of our workforce. Our advisors are experienced experts whose sole focus is to deliver financing strategies that enable you to achieve greater success.

Our Better Lending culture – three decades in the making – is built on the skill that comes from pure mortgage lending. Because we start from a position of knowledge about you, your project, and your market, we can design solutions that are fit for your purpose. And because accountability is in our nature, we meet our commitments.

Better by design, better by nature, better for you in every corner of the country.

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Team Jesic

Risk mitigation. Fresh perspectives. Local knowledge.

Damir joined First National in 2009 as an Analyst. In 2012, he moved into origination and started Team Jesic in 2017. In 2011, Mark Jewells joined First National in Residential Underwriting. Moving to Commercial was his ultimate goal. Damir became a mentor to him and asked him to join the team in 2019. Mark has since progressed to Senior Director and Team Lead. Their backgrounds vary yet align at the same time. Damir moved to Canada when he was 17, learning the value of perseverance from that experience. He played professional soccer, which taught him the value of teamwork, discipline and seeing the big picture. Mark spent six years in the army reserves where he developed a methodical, detailed and structured way of thinking. While their origin stories may differ, both have lived in The Prairies and Western markets they serve. Both are passionate real estate owners who understand what it means to have skin in the game. Together with their two Analysts Kyle Taylor and Peter Hantho, they bring fresh perspectives underscored by empathy, deep experience, local knowledge, a commitment to collaboration, rigour and efficiency. As the industry and economy continue to evolve, they stress the importance of de-risking by underwriting properly and packaging deals based on precedents. Well versed in the CMHC programs that can create significant opportunity for owners and developers, they work closely with clients to make sure they are optimally positioned with a healthy risk profile to take advantage of those programs. That means looking at the whole business including liquidity and operations, asking the hard questions and pushing clients to improve areas that may be lacking. To them, honesty is everything. They’ve seen a lot of deals and opportunities, understand the truth of trends and know what works and what doesn’t. Pragmatically prudent in their lending approach, they avert risk for the right reasons to clear a smart path of success for their clients.