nextgeneration
PLAYING TO POTENTIAL A lifetime sportsman, Wes Sudsbury is focused on helping others achieve their best performance, both on and off the field. BY LISA GORDON
W
es Sudsbury is passionate about coaching. Whether it’s assisting a new mortgage agent with a difficult deal or encouraging kids to play their best game at the hockey rink, he gets great satisfaction from helping people realize their full potential, both on and off the field. In fact, the love of the game – just about any game – has been a constant for as long as Sudsbury can remember. From age four, he’s put his heart into ice hockey, ball hockey,
helped me work with people. It helps me to have vision. In business, you want to work on improving your product knowledge, and sports has given me a good work ethic for improvement. It’s a community in business, just the same as sports.” In fact, it was a sports analogy that helped Sudsbury get through his first year as a mortgage agent. He had left a 10-year career at Laurentian Bank/B2B Trust to try his hand at Homeguard Funding, the family-run mortgage brokerage founded in Newmar-
The experience I had growing up in the sports community has helped me work with people. It helps me to have vision.” –Wes Sudsbury lacrosse and, more recently, golf. Whether he’s playing himself or coaching one of his three kids’ teams, he believes sports prepare you for life. “You have to learn to work with many different personalities in pursuit of a common goal,” he says. “The experience I had growing up in the sports community has 44
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ket, Ont., by his parents, Wayne and Sheilah Sudsbury, and their partner Bill Eves. “I just kept the end goal in mind,” he recalled. “That’s what put me through the first year as an agent. I didn’t make as much as I made at the bank in the first year, but I knew the future potential was much greater. My kids are all in sports, and I wanted that
flexibility to be there. I didn’t want the twohour-a-day commute. I knew if I stuck at it, I’d be able to benefit.” Although the job was new, in some ways Sudsbury had been preparing to join Homeguard Funding for his whole life. He remembers competing in games at the company picnic and helping the office digitize paper records as a teenager. “I’ve been in the mortgage business forever,” he said with a laugh. “I helped Dad out with setting up the booth at trade shows, or putting signs around town.” Now, at age 40, he’s ready to help the company achieve tomorrow’s goals.
BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE Homeguard Funding was started in 1983 as a family-operated, full-service independent brokerage firm serving the Greater Toronto Area. Partners Wayne Sudsbury and Bill Eves made it their mission to find creative, innovative solutions for even the most difficult funding deals, always putting an emphasis on personal service. Today, after 35 years in business, the company enjoys strong relationships with second- and even third-generation customers. The staff has grown to include 23 mortgage agents, two full-time underwriters, two customer service staff and one administration manager.
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