The Empire Club of Canada
Hybrid
Tuesday, January 19, 2027
The Empire Club of Canada is proud to recognize Stephen J.R. Smith as the 2026 Nation Builder Award recipient.
Through First National Financial, which he co-founded in 1988, Smith built a lender that grew to more than $90 billion in mortgages under administration, opening the door to homeownership for hundreds of thousands of families — and with it, a foothold of stability and belonging in this country.
He has invested more than $150 million in Canadian higher education, including the largest single donation ever made to a Canadian engineering school, shaping how the country educates its future business leaders and engineers.
He has championed the preservation of Canada’s national story through his stewardship of Historica Canada, and through his stake in The Economist Group has worked to ensure Canada’s voice carries weight in the global conversation.
The award will be presented at a luncheon ceremony on January 19, 2027. The program will include testimonials from Duncan Jackman, Chairman of the Board, E-L Financial Corporation Limited, Gareth Seltzer, Board Director at the Empire Club Foundation, and Esther Vlessing, Co-founder and CEO of CLOAK Biotech and Queen’s University’s Smith School of Business Amumni, followed by the presentation of the award, remarks from Smith, and a fireside chat with Amanda Lang, Chief Financial Correspondent, CTV News, and host of Taking Stock.
For more information on the Nation Builder Award, click here.
Stephen Smith, OOnt, is the Chairman and CEO of Smith Financial Corporation (SFC). Throughout his career, he has been an innovator in the development and utilization of various securitization techniques to finance mortgage assets and a leader in the development and application of information technology in the financial services industry. Through SFC, he has significant equity investments in a range of entities: Fairstone Bank, Canada Guaranty, First National, Peloton Capital Management and The Economist Group.
Mr. Smith co-founded First National Financial Corporation in 1988, serving as CEO until 2022, then as Executive Chairman and now Chairman Emeritus.
He is the Chair of Peloton Capital Management, a mid-market North American private equity firm; Glass, Lewis & Co., a leading global proxy advisory firm; and Fairstone Bank of Canada, Canada’s seventh largest bank. He served as Chair of Canada Guaranty Mortgage Insurance Company from 2010-2023. He is a member of the Board of The Economist Group Limited and E-L Financial Corporation.
Mr. Smith is Chair of Historica Canada, the creator of the Heritage Minutes and publisher of The Canadian Encyclopedia. He is a member of the Board of the C.D. Howe Institute and is an Honourary Governor of the Royal Ontario Museum.
In 2015, Queen’s University announced the naming of The Stephen J.R. Smith School of Business at Queen’s University in honour of Mr. Smith and his then historic $50-million donation to the school. In 2019, Mr. Smith was inducted into the Canadian Business Hall of Fame. In 2023, Mr. Smith pledged $100-million to the Queen’s faculty of engineering, now named Smith Engineering, the largest gift ever made to an engineering faculty in Canada. He is a member of the Order of Ontario.
Mr. Smith holds a B.Sc (Hons.) in Electrical Engineering from Queen’s University and a M.Sc. in Economics from the London School of Economics. In 2017, Queen’s University awarded him an honourary LL.D.
Award-winning business journalist Amanda Lang has been covering business in North America for 25 years. Lang is the host of Taking Stock, a weekly national television program airing across multiple Bell Media networks including BNN Bloomberg, CP24 and CTV News Channel. Taking Stock also airs as a weekly podcast and on the iHeart radio network. Lang is also a regular contributor to The Hub, a daily news and analysis platform. She was previously host of Bloomberg Markets, a global program airing in Canada on BNN Bloomberg and on the Bloomberg Television network globally. Prior to that, Lang was CBC’s senior business correspondent, reporting for its flagship nightly news program, The National, and host of The Exchange with Amanda Lang, a daily business program airing on CBC News Network. For five years before that, Lang hosted The Lang and O’Leary Exchange, with Kevin O’Leary. And prior to that the pair co-hosted SqueezePlay, on BNN, for 6 years.
Lang studied Architecture at the University of Manitoba, before becoming a journalist. Her first job in journalism was for the Globe and Mail, and subsequently Lang joined the Financial Post newspaper, where she became the paper’s New York correspondent. In New York she made the leap to television, where she first was part of the team that launched BNN and before long wound up at CNN as a reporter and anchor.
Lang is a member of the board of directors of Covenant House Toronto, the largest agency in Canada serving homeless and at-risk youth.
Lang is also a best-selling author. The Power of Why (HarperCollins, October 2012) explores the connection between curiosity and success. The Beauty of Discomfort (HarperCollins, April 2017) examines how difficult change can be, and set out strategies for how to achieve it.
Duncan Jackman has been Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of E-L Financial Corporation, an investment and insurance holding company, since 2003. In 2003, he was also elected Chairman of the board of directors of The Empire Life Insurance Company. Mr. Jackman is also Chairman of Algoma Central Corporation, the largest Great Lakes bulk shipper, as well as Chairman and President of Economic Investment Trust Limited and United Corporations Limited, two Canadian listed closed-end funds. He also serves as a member of the board of directors of several other public and private companies. Mr. Jackman is a member of the Business Council of Canada and formerly served on the Economic Advisory Council to the Minister of Finance, Government of Canada. Mr. Jackman graduated from McGill University in Montreal
Gareth Seltzer has spent much of his career advising business leaders and institutions on conflict, legacy and change, earning a reputation for discretion, perspective and trusted relationships. An entrepreneur, he co-founded RYOT, acquired by Verizon/AOL, and produced the Academy Award-nominated documentary Body Team 12. A past President of The Empire Club of Canada, Seltzer is a current board member of The Empire Club Foundation and is passionate about the work the Foundation does to give Canada’s students opportunities to network and meet with the country’s most influential leaders. He devotes much of his time to cancer philanthropy and serves on The Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation’s Capital Campaign Cabinet. Following his own cancer diagnosis in 2022, he has shifted his focus toward family, community and meaningful experiences — a more personal expression of his lifelong interest in people — and is also a registered Ontario marriage officiant.
Esther Vlessing is a Canadian entrepreneur and co-founder and CEO of CLOAK Biotech, which is engineering the human skin microbiome to repel mosquitoes, building on DARPA’s $10M ReVector program. Previously, she co-founded and led Canada Emergency Medical Manufacturers (CEMM), coordinating 24 domestic factories and securing over $30M in government contracts. She also served two terms on the Board of Directors of the College of Psychologists of Ontario, contributing to public protection.
Her awards include the RBC Canadian Women Entrepreneur One to Watch Award, the University of Toronto’s Emerging Leader Award, and the Dare to Dream Award.
Esther holds an Honours BSc from the University of Toronto and an MBA from Queen’s University’s Smith School of Business, where she was a Forté Fellow and recipient of the Stephen J.R. Smith Entrance Scholarship.
