Our team

Better people make better lending

We lend billions of dollars to commercial real estate projects every year. But it’s not just capital that distinguishes us. It’s the empowered nature of our workforce. Our advisors are experienced experts whose sole focus is to deliver financing strategies that enable you to achieve greater success.

Our Better Lending culture – three decades in the making – is built on the skill that comes from pure mortgage lending. Because we start from a position of knowledge about you, your project, and your market, we can design solutions that are fit for your purpose. And because accountability is in our nature, we meet our commitments.

Better by design, better by nature, better for you in every corner of the country.

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Scott Mizzen

Scott is a member of:
Commercial leadership team

Vice President, Commercial Financing, Ontario

scott.mizzen@firstnational.ca

519.521.9596

Diplomacy mindset. Supportive guide. Collaborative mentor.

Scott joined the First National team in April 2023 with a mandate of growing First National’s presence, book and sales team in Ontario. He is looking forward to supporting an already strong and experienced origination team on complex deals, sharing his law background, deal structuring experience and solution mindset.

While in law school, Scott spent a summer working at a law firm and realized that litigation was not his future. Upon graduating, he got an opportunity to work in commercial real estate financing and ignited a passion he didn’t know he had. He was inspired watching projects get built, specifically the planning and analysis phases.

In 2001, Scott joined what is now known as VersaBank as an Account Manager. In his 21.5 years there, he advanced to the role of SVP, Commercial Real Estate. In 2012, he began managing VersaBank’s co-investment relationship with First National. Similar to First National, VersaBank has a client first culture. As a result, Scott innately understands that people are the driving force and how valuable strong relationships are in weathering the industry’s inevitable cycles. He emphasizes collaboration, where everyone has a voice and people feel heard. In his view, reasonable minds may disagree at times, but everyone must feel respected. His approach to diplomacy focuses on helping people understand the why behind changes or decisions, providing clear explanations and tangible connections to outcomes.

Working at First National, Scott is excited to apply his skills, expertise and philosophies on a larger scope and with deeper complexity. Having worked alongside the First National team as a partner, he appreciates the shared values and motivations. He always knew that if the time came to make a change in his career, First National was where he wanted to be.