Our People
Andrea Wildeman is a principal of Capital Pacific a company formed in Canada and now focused on Western US projects after her move stateside.
Andrea started her career at an office leasing broker at a multinational firm in Vancouver, Canada. She was rookie of the year in her first year and in the Top 50 in Western Canada in her second year. As she says, "I didn't bother to note, but if I wasn't the first woman in the office to do this, I was the second".
A small merchant bank approached her and suggested she pivot into lending and join their company. Here she learned the fundamentals of mortgage underwriting through the lens of the parent company, a Vancouver based developer. The loans were mostly second mortgages throughout Western Canada. This experience formed the mindset that lending is about the real estate fundamentals, rather than a due diligence 'checklist'.
While working on her MBA, she worked for one of Canada's largest commercial real estate lenders. There she quickly rose to an assistant vice president title, managing a team who originated, underwrote and funded over $1BN of loans throughout Western and Central Canada. Deals ranged between $30M - $150M.
After moving to the US, she joined a real estate firm firstly as a consultant. This quickly morphed into something multifaceted, moving into the role as Vice President, Investments. Andrea managed an acquisition team, acted as an owner's representative for an office repositioning in Phoenix, and analyzed business opportunities such as buy versus build, or the feasibility of starting a mortgage fund. Here she synthesized the skills she learned in earlier years.
Andrea is constantly evolving and believes in hard work and efficiency. She has always been a champion of equity in the commercial real estate industry. She is a founder of the Vancouver Chapter of Women in Commercial Real Estate (CREW Vancouver), was their first chapter President, and sat on the Board of Directors for multiple years.
At First National she was not only the first woman to hold a position as an originator/team lead, but also the first woman to have the Assistant Vice President title. Andrea has an MBA from WBS at Warwick University in England where she graduated with merit. She sat on the board of the Vancouver Adaptive Snow Sports and was a volunteer instructor for them. In her spare time, she loves adventures with her family and hopes to travel more as her kids grow older.