Canada's brokers and underwriters under 35 reveal what really drives their careers
Canadian Mortgage Professional (CMP) named 60 mortgage professionals aged 35 and under to its 10th annual Rising Stars list on Oct. 1.
The nomination data behind the list points to one trait above every other. Hard work scored 4.97 out of 5 as the top driver of career advancement, according to the CMP Rising Stars 2026 nomination survey. A relevant degree scored 2.83, the lowest of the six traits measured.
The 2026 cohort is larger than last year's. CMP named 43 winners in 2025.
Jordan Ellis, a mortgage broker with Ellis Mortgage Group, part of TMG Atlantic, in Prince Edward Island, shows what that work ethic looks like in practice.
In his first full year, during the COVID-era refinancing boom, he closed 212 mortgages on his own while working roughly 70-hour weeks. He now produces a steadier 145 to 165 mortgages a year, worth roughly $50 million.
He has also begun partnering on commercial deals with Matthew McKay, a commercial specialist in Moncton, N.B.
"I don't work unless you give me documents," Ellis said. "I don't live in hypotheticals. I live in reality."
Who made the Rising Stars 2026 list?
The winners work at brokerages, lenders, wealth managers and fintech startups from British Columbia to Newfoundland and Labrador.
Anant Bawa is a mortgage broker and the co-founder and chief executive of Autowrite, an AI platform that automates the administrative work around a mortgage file.
Autowrite ran a pilot with DLC FC Funding's 350-agent brokerage and passed 200 active users within two months of its commercial launch, according to his Rising Stars profile.
André Cadieux is director of mortgage finance operations at IG Wealth Management in Winnipeg. He leads valuation, analytics and operational oversight for the firm's residential mortgage securitization programs, which pool mortgages into investment products.
Those programs include Canada Mortgage Bonds and mortgage-backed securities issued under the National Housing Act. Cadieux holds the CFA charter and the Financial Risk Manager designation.
Danielle Gibson, a mortgage broker with Premiere Mortgage Centre in Newmarket, Ont., trained as a nurse before moving into mortgages. She rebuilt her practice as Your Hometown Mortgage Girl and sends 10% of every commission to a charity the client chooses.
"I can count on one hand the number of times I've lost a client to a bank this year. I fight tooth and nail for my clients," she said.
Gabriel Oyedele is a chartered professional accountant and a Calgary-based mortgage broker with Mortgage Architects. He left his corporate accounting career in December 2023 to broker full time. In 2025 he ranked among the network's top 10% of producers by funded volume.
Hussein Adatia, a Level 2 mortgage agent with DLC FC Funding in Burlington, Ont., founded Smart Lend Hub. He specializes in complex files, including commercial mortgages, equity-based lending and investment properties.
Prashant Chudasama, underwriting manager at Spire Mortgage in Alberta, runs a six-person underwriting and fulfilment team. Spire funded 362 mortgages in 2025, up 17% from 308 a year earlier, and Chudasama onboarded four new employees over the same period.
"Success is building something that continues to work when I'm not even personally touching every piece of it," he said.
Tracy Le, senior mortgage advisor with DLC Onward Lending Group in Richmond, B.C., spent seven years as a mobile mortgage specialist at TD Bank. She became an independent advisor in 2024 and ranked among the top 10% of DLC brokers in Canada the following year.
Udit Rathee, a Level 2 mortgage agent and underwriter at DLC FIN Mortgage in Toronto, joined the firm in 2025 after three years at Pineapple Financial. He has since taken on training and knowledge-sharing work within the brokerage.
What separates Canada's young mortgage professionals from the pack?
Emotional intelligence ranked second in the nomination data at 4.65. Long tenure with a single employer scored 2.90. Mentorship also ran through the results: 38 of the 60 nominees credited a mentor with shaping their careers.
This year's class is more seasoned than last year's. Some 47% of the 2026 winners are aged 33 to 35, the top of the eligibility range.
In 2025, the largest group was professionals aged 27 to 29, at 34% of winners. This year, 85% of winners still hold frontline roles such as broker, underwriter or advisor.
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