SPECIAL REPORT
WOMEN OF INFLUENCE 2019 ELIZABETH WOOD Executive vice-president CMI Group of Companies
EDEN SIMARI
Elizabeth Wood has been at the helm of the accounting and finance departments at CMI since 2015, serving as executive vice-president since early 2018. Wood’s experience in financial and budgetary analysis, strategic planning and resource allocation, organizational design and policy implementation, and internal assurance and auditing helped CMI rank 130th on Canadian Business and Maclean’s latest Growth 500 list. Wood was designated a chartered manager by the Canadian Institute of Management, is a certified manager through the Institute of Certified Professional Managers and is a 2020 MBA candidate at Laurentian University. She has also received certification for the Exempt Markets Proficiency Program from the IFSE. Outside of the mortgage industry, Wood is the founder and operator of a bookkeeping and tax preparation firm in her hometown of Hamilton and an instructor with the McMaster University CCE business program. In her spare time, encourages and emphasizes mental health awareness, recently embarking on an initiative to increase access to medical and dental care for homebound and marginalized populations.
Mortgage broker Quantus Mortgage Solutions
FRANCES HINOJOSA Managing partner
An award-winning mortgage professional, Eden Simari has extensive experience in mortgage underwriting, risk management, business development and customer service. Her professional experience includes 13 years with First National Financial, where she was nominated three times for Canadian Mortgage Awards and received the Canadian Business Development Award in 2015. Now, as a broker with Quantus Mortgage Solutions, Simari continues to work closely with the lender and insurer community to ensure she finds the best possible solutions for her clients. A passionate community and non-profit advocate, Simari serves as a board member of Community Key, a local charity that helps families carry their mortgage and rent costs while they care for critical or terminally ill children. She also volunteers regularly at the Alberta Children’s Hospital, the Terry Fox Foundation and the Ronald McDonald House.
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Tribe Financial Group
After spending two decades working in mortgage financing for a chartered bank, Frances Hinojosa decided it was time to become a mortgage agent. “I felt an urge to help Canadians navigate the winding path toward homeownership and to help a market where borrowers were underserved,” she says. “I felt something had been missing from the mortgage industry.” For Hinojosa, that “something missing” was the fact that new agents weren’t receiving adequate training, resulting in a steep dropout rate. To change this, she co-founded Tribe Financial in 2016 and instituted an internship program where participants shadow Hinojosa and her partners. “We make ourselves available every day,” she says. “We sit down and coach them [on] how to guide the process through not only numbers, but emotion and empathy.” Outside of her brokerage, Hinojosa is an active member of the Ontario chapter of Mortgage Professionals Canada; an advisory board member at Home Trust, Teranet and Lendesk; a founder and board member of Luxury Home Mortgage Advisor; and a board member of 100 Brokers Who Care.
www.mortgagebrokernews.ca
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