Founded by CEO Brian Jaskolka in 2005 as a traditional mortgage brokerage, CMI Financial Group has grown steadily over the last 15 years, attracting investors and borrowers alike due to their exceptional customer service, rigorous investment and mortgage management process and commitment to excellence.
After the 2008 financial crisis, there was a growing need in the market for private lending solutions. CMI responded by evolving into a private lender and establishing our first investment division in 2011, which is now known as CMI Mortgage Investments.
We offer investors a curated selection of mortgage investment products that are personalized to each investor’s unique investment objectives and risk tolerance. Our innovative approach to the investment selection process, rigorous due diligence process, exceptional service and industry expertise allows us to help investors like you find high-quality mortgage investments that capitalize on Canada’s traditionally strong real estate market.
The CMI Story
Bryan Jaskolka is the visionary and founder behind CMI, which he started as a family-owned consumer mortgage brokerage in 2005, when he was just 22.
In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, Bryan reinvented CMI as a lender. Anticipating the need for high-quality private financing solutions, he pivoted the business model to meet the needs of mortgage brokers and their clients who were unable to get financing from traditional lenders, like banks.
In 2011, CMI expanded to serve investors and their growing need to generate competitive yields for their portfolios by establishing its investment division. Four years later, in 2015, CMI launched its flagship MIC fund, the CMI Balanced Mortgage Fund, and following its success, expanded its offerings by creating two additional MIC options for investors: the CMI MIC High-Yield Opportunity Fund in 2019, and the CMI MIC Prime Mortgage Fund in 2020.
Since then, CMI has become a driving force in legitimizing private lending, transforming it from a place of last resort for borrowers to a viable and competitive financing solution – and a compelling investment alternative – for a growing segment of Canadians.
The CMI Group of Companies
CMI’s four businesses work in unison to provide transparent and flexible mortgage solutions to borrowers, while delivering compelling and consistent returns to investors. Seamlessly.
The CMI Difference
CMI strives to be a benchmark for excellence, setting the industry standard for the broker-lender relationship, ethical lending practices, seamless mortgage investing, and exceptional employee experience.
Over the past 15+ years, CMI’s successes have been recognized through a number of industry and business awards. Several members of our team have also been recognized for their contributions to our industry.
Learn more about our award-winning results
The CMI Team
CMI’s strong track record of success is driven by its mortgage industry experience, access to high quality mortgages and its diversely talented team of mortgage and investment experts.
Together, CMI’s team has helped to evolve the private lending industry into a highly professional domain, elevate its reputation as a popular and respected avenue for brokers, borrowers and investors alike, and gain regard as a key segment of the Canadian financial services marketplace.
Learn more about our award-winning Team
Giving Back
CMI is deeply committed to community engagement and giving back. We play a significant role in building communities, and we have an equally great responsibility to support them.
Our philosophy around giving aligns with our founding vision – serving the disadvantaged and restoring dignity to those who have fallen on hard times. It’s the reason CMI prioritizes giving to community-based organizations, like food banks, where proceeds go directly to helping those in need get back on their feet.
CMI’s employees are at the heart of its corporate philanthropy program. By engaging employees to select worthy causes for corporate charitable donations, they personally impact where funds are directed. CMI also offers paid volunteer days to encourage employees to engage in volunteer activities with causes that are personally meaningful to them.
Careers
CMI has been consistently recognized as a top mortgage industry employer. More recently, CMI was named a 2022 5-Star Mortgage Employer by Canadian Mortgage Professional (CMP), highlighting mortgage-industry organizations across Canada that deliver an exceptional employee experience.
A workplace culture defined by innovation, collaboration and teamwork has been a key driver of CMI’s incredible growth over the past 15 years. From a small family-run brokerage to Canada’s premier private lender, team CMI is more than 100 people strong – and growing.
Interested in helping CMI continue to lead and shape the private mortgage lending and investment space in Canada? Learn more about career opportunities
Learn more about Career OpportunitiesWho We Are
CMI is led by a team of pioneers and innovators. They bring unparalleled expertise and decades of experience solving complex business challenges. Some have joined as the company has grown. Others have helped to build it from the ground up. Together, they lead with passion and conviction, and have propelled CMI to become an industry authority and market leader.
Bryan Jaskolka
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Bryan is the visionary behind CMI Financial Group. Under his leadership, CMI has grown from a family-owned brokerage to become Canada’s premier private mortgage lender and one of the fastest-growing companies in Canada.
As a driving force in the Canadian private lending and mortgage financing industries, Bryan is regularly recognized for his leadership and innovation. He was named to the 2021 Mortgage Global 100 by Canadian Mortgage Professional and Entrepreneur of the Year at the 2021 CanadianSME National Business Awards. In addition to his vision, he brings expertise in residential, construction and commercial financing to the team. And as a committee member of the Canadian Mortgage Brokers Association, Bryan is committed to helping to define industry best practices.
Mike Spero
Chief Operating & Financial Officer
Mike is a career banker with more than 25 years’ experience leading through all phases of the business lifecycle—from vision and creation through rapid rollout and expansion.
As one of the founders of President’s Choice Financial, Dundee Bank of Canada and Ally Canada, Mike took responsibility for product development and sales channels. During his time at National Bank, he helped develop the first FundServ issued Savings account in Canada. Most recently, he oversaw operations at Street Capital Bank of Canada. Mike is a CPA, CMA and holds a BMath and an MBA.
Kevin Fettig
President
Kevin is an accomplished executive with more than 30 years of experience in capital markets, including more than 15 years in the mortgage industry.
He has held senior positions with CMLS Financial, Canada Guaranty, Genworth Financial, Triad Guaranty Insurance and Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). Some of his career highlights include building and managing residential underwriting, servicing, treasury and investor relations programs at CMLS Financial and managing a number of National Housing Act Mortgage-Backed Securities products at CMHC. He holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Economics, a graduate degree in management, a master’s degree in Economics and an MBA.
Elizabeth Wood
Chief Administrative Officer and Chief Compliance Officer
Elizabeth is a solutions-oriented leader with expertise in organizational design, change management, policy development and implementation, and regulatory oversight and governance.
In recognition of her trailblazing contributions, Elizabeth was twice recognized among Canadian Mortgage Professional’s Women of Influence (2019 & 2022) and was named 2021 Woman of Distinction at the Canadian Mortgage Awards. In 2023, she was recognized among Canada’s top 50 executive leaders as a recipient of the Report on Business Best Executive Awards. Elizabeth is a dedicated mental health advocate and Chair of the Canadian Lender’s Association’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion roundtable. She has earned an MBA, a Bachelor of Commerce in Management, and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. Elizabeth holds several industry-leading certifications, is an instructor and course content developer with the McMaster University CCE Business and Marketing programs, a Canadian Neuroendocrine Tumor Society (CNETS) board member, and Treasurer of the board of directors of CIM Chartered Managers Canada.
Blue McClellan
Chief Information Officer
As a leader of CMI’s technology division, Blue drives our IT strategy forward.
He spent the first decade of this century working in the technology departments of software firms servicing financial institutions in Toronto and New York, including Merrill Lynch, BMO and Scotiabank. As a project manager, he created and developed web-to-press and content management systems and built corporate intranets from scratch. Blue holds a BMath, has competed internationally in sports and owned his own sports event management company.
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