Aubrie De Sylva

VP, Originations, FrontWell Capital Partners

Aubrie De Sylva is a vice president, originations at FrontWell Capital Partners. An experienced finance professional with over 10 years of originating new deals and ongoing deal management, she has been with FrontWell since inception and has been involved in almost every single aspect of developing a growing business and fund, from origination efforts, marketing and CRM implementation.

She was a former SVP and relationship manager with Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Canada from 2017 to 2020 and a director in Corporate Banking with HSBC from 2016 to 2017, starting her career at Scotiabank in 2011 to 2016. Aubrie holds a MBET from the University of Waterloo and is a certified management consultant. 

With a multitude of personal achievements outside her professional occupation, she is a breast cancer survivor and board director. An accomplished national-level track cyclist who has trained with the Canadian National Team, she competes as a semi-professional road cyclist with Girondins de Bordeaux Cyclisme Feminine. Additionally, Aubrie is a current vice chair on the Board of Directors for the Ride to Conquer Cancer, benefiting the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation, and was previously a director at Large for Cycling Canada, overseeing fiscal policy, strategy and governance.

What advice would you offer to women just starting out in the industry? 

Learn as much as you can from senior figures in your organization. While I am a fan of firsthand experience being the best teacher, a well-tenured bank of knowledge is a close second. More often than not, a firm’s intellectual and human capital are its greatest asset. 

What do you know now that you wish you knew in the beginning of your career?

I wish I knew the importance of first impressions and building relationships during those first few years. Too often with technology, and especially now during virtual and remote working, relationships can appear relatively transactional – you want longstanding relationships that you’ve worked on, with individuals you will work with or for throughout your career. Those are the people you’ll lean on in the 11th hour when things are tough – those people are the ones who matter the most. 

How do you balance work/personal time?

You’ve got to prioritize what’s most important to you. I literally sit down in my home office on Sunday afternoons and write a schedule for my week with my must-haves and non-negotiables. Be selfish with your personal and rest time as well; you can’t pour from an empty cup. 

What effect, if any, has working remotely had on your career and/or your industry? What have been the challenges and how have you worked to overcome them?

We’ve all felt the pressure to be “on” when not in the office. It’s certainly been a challenge for me, but I’ve had to set pretty strict guidelines for myself around work/life balance at home – it’s far too easy to sit down with dinner and say to yourself, “I’m just going to read a few articles and send out a few emails”; two hours later you’re still at your computer and have sacrificed time or responsibilities from your personal life. I’ve had to focus on smart working, and delegating tasks so I don’t take it all on myself.