Stephen Smith (Canadian businessman)

Stephen Smith is a Canadian businessman and philanthropist. He is the co-founder and executive chairman of First National Financial LP, Canada's largest non-bank lender.
==Early life and education==
Smith was born and raised in Ottawa, Canada. He attended Queen's University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree in Electrical Engineering in 1972. He later received a Master's degree in Economics from the London School of Economics (LSE).
==Career==
===Early Career===
After finishing his Master’s at LSE, Smith returned to Canada and joined Canadian Pacific, and later Hawker Siddeley. After years of working for Hawker Siddeley, he was fired for speaking out against higher-ups, saying that “if my boss told me to do something and I didn’t think it was right, I didn’t hide that.” He remembers believing that he was smarter than his bosses, and remarks that this is a trait he finds common in future entrepreneurs.
Now out of work with a Canadian economy that was spiralling into a recession, Smith heard a friend make a profit flipping duplexes, and figured he too could make it in real estate. He began to invest in renovating and then reselling triplexes, but fell flat and later declared personal bankruptcy in 1984.
===First National Financial LP===
In 1988, Smith co-founded First National Financial LP with Moray Tawse, a young Guaranty Trust manager. The firm is a Canadian-based originator, underwriter and servicer of predominantly prime residential (single-family and multi-unit) and commercial mortgages. Over the years, it has grown to become Canada's largest non-bank lender, providing financing solutions to customers across the country. As of 2023, the firm services more than $130 billion in mortgages.
As the current executive chairman - and formerly president and CEO - of First National, Smith has played a pivotal role in shaping the non-bank lending sector in Canada, influencing mortgage policy and leading technological advancements in the industry.
===Other ventures===
In addition to his role at First National, Smith was the chairman and co-owner of Canada Guaranty Mortgage Insurance Company, the third-largest mortgage insurance provider in Canada, from the time he bought it until April 2023. He purchased the company from the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) and the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan in 2010. He is the current chair of Glass, Lewis & Co., Fairstone Bank, and Peloton Capital Management. He sits on the board of Canada Infrastructure Bank and E-L Financial Corporation Ltd.
==Philanthropy==
Smith made a $50 million donation to Queen's University in 2015 to fund scholarships and the newly named Smith School of Business. The donation stands as the largest ever received by the university and one of the most substantial gifts ever given to a Canadian business school.
==Awards and recognition==
Smith was one of 59,351 Canadians to be awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal by the Government of Canada in 2012. He was named Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst and Young Financial Services in 2007, and was inducted to the Canadian Business Hall of Fame in 2019.
==Personal life==
Stephen Smith is married and has three (now-adult) children, who he sees weekly. He resides in Toronto, Ontario.
Category:People from Ottawa	
Category:Canadian people	
Category:Queen's University alumni
Category:Businesspeople
Category:Philanthropists
Category:Company founders