VELA Team

Experienced in marketing and project management, Olga coordinates marketing initiatives at VELA and manages the systemized approach to continue strengthening VELA clients’ experience. Working in the security and defence industry in the past, Olga has developed a detailed-oriented approach and communicational and organizational skill set that helps her deliver her projects.

Olga is having diplomas in Strategic Relationship Marketing and Personal Financial Planning from George Brown College in Toronto, and currently pursuing a CRM Administration certificate.

In her free time, Olga enjoys painting, reading, hiking end exploring beautiful British Columbia.

Jeremy has worked within the financial planning industry for the last 20 years and brings a depth of financial and life planning experience to the VELA team.

Jeremy’s strong background in both personal and corporate taxation allows him to piece together and understand the unique circumstances of VELA’s entrepreneurial clients. This depth of knowledge also allows him to work more effectively in collaboration with other tax and legal professionals to establish recommendations designed to achieve the life goals of VELA’s clients.

Jeremy prides himself on building strong trusting relationships with every family or individual he works with. While having a passion for working with the data and detail, Jeremy has learned from experience that ultimate success for clients is more than just financial, it is about establishing clarity around the life planning objectives clients hope to achieve for themselves and their families. Building out this clarity allows all the planning pieces to come together, to then provide peace of mind for clients.

Jeremy holds the Certified Financial Planner (CFP®) designation. More recently, Jeremy has worked as a financial and estate planning consultant and as part of a team of industry professionals within a multi-family office which advised successful business owners and professionals. Jeremy has attended both the CPA Income Tax for the General Practitioner Course and the Canadian Association of Family Enterprises (“CAFE”) Family Facilitation Course.

Outside of the office, Jeremy enjoys cooking, gardening, travelling, and spending time with his wife Miranda and child Arx.

May has joined VELA Wealth as our Client Service Coordinator. Nine years of client service excellence in the financial sector in addition to two years providing professional patient care as a licensed nurse have provided May with excellent client service credentials. She has experience in a wide range of wealth, insurance and lending products—well suited to handling client inquiries and processing transactions. May is excited at the prospect of working with VELA clients.

May holds a Bachelors’ degree in Law obtained in Korea and is currently working toward her insurance license.

May is an outdoor enthusiast. In her free time she can be found exploring local parks with her husband, young son, and Tobi the Pomeranian.

Whitney’s role is to take care of VELA Wealth’s clients and deliver a seamless and enjoyable experience for them. Whitney’s strong communication and organization skills are an asset to VELA Wealth’s community, and she has a strong passion for delivering excellent service. Whitney’s positive attitude and caring nature bring abundant energy to her work.

Whitney has an accomplished career in Volleyball, competing at both secondary and college levels, where she learned key leadership and team-working abilities. When not working, Whitney enjoys spending time with her friends and family, exercising, food-adventuring, hiking with her significant other and remains a competitive force in Beach Volleyball.

Whitney studied Social Work and Psychology at Briercrest College in Saskatchewan before moving home to Vancouver in 2016.

Whitney chose to build a career in financial services after college and worked as a financial services advisor at a Credit Union prior to joining the VELA Wealth team.

Kevin Parton, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® (CFP) professional, specializes in personal and business financial planning, tax reduction, and estate planning. Kevin is diligently concentrating on client education as a powerful strategy for building financial certainty.

Kevin holds the CFP®, Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU), Registered Retirement Consultant (RRC), and Elder Planning Counselor (EPC) designations, and has 12+ years of experience supporting clients in making the most of their money and helping them to reach their long-term financial goals. As no financial situation is the same, Kevin and his team monitor clients’ plans and implement personalized strategies to reduce their personal and corporate taxes, and protect their income, assets, and loved ones against the financial consequences of a serious illness, injury or death, ensuring clients maintain financial certainty and peace of mind.

Rob has been providing expert planning and strategic advice for nearly 20 years, and has been with VELA Wealth since 2016. He is a detail-oriented strategist with a proven track record.

Rob excels at working with entrepreneurial professionals and business owners to define their individual ecosystems and establish meaningful life and financial goals. He has specialized expertise in guiding healthcare professionals who are building multi-location, and specialist clinics.

A methodical and analytical thinker, Rob compassionately navigates clients through the complexities of a thorough financial planning process ensuring that they feel understood and supported throughout.

Prior to joining the VELA team Rob worked in various client management, technical financial analysis, and financial planning roles both in Canada and the UK.

Rob holds a BSc (Hons) in Investment & Real Estate Finance from the Cass Business School in London.

British born and raised, Rob is a globe-trotting travel enthusiast who loves spending time with his family hitting the slopes and hiking.

Jason has built VELA Wealth into an established life and estate planning firm, guiding families as they make meaningful choices at the intersection of life and wealth.

More specifically, Jason’s areas of expertise include intergenerational wealth transfer and estate planning with a focus on advanced insurance-based solutions that incorporate philanthropy and legacy planning. Leveraging these specialties, Jason brings a fresh perspective and outside-the-box thinking to the strategic planning process. His satisfaction comes from watching clients fulfill their vision of life and create impact with their wealth, knowing that VELA played a role in bringing that vision to fruition for the benefit of current and future generations.

Jason is a long-standing, active member of CALU (The Conference for Advanced Life Underwriting), the leading advocacy group promoting the financial health of Canadians and influencing sound public policy. He is a sought-after speaker and contributor to a number of regular publications.

A proud family man, outside of the office Jason enjoys spending time with his beautiful wife Carissa, their three wonderful children, Benjamin, Noah and Eleana and their Bernese Mountain dog Lucy. Jason is the Immediate Past President of the Rotary Club of Vancouver and an active member of the Thunderbird Football Alumni. Jason has a passion for leading an active lifestyle and as an avid golfer, can be found regularly pursuing mastery of the game that always seems to have mastered him.

Running a family business in the telecommunications industry for over 20 years, Patricia knows what it takes to get things done. Her entrepreneurial experience and most recent role at Fraser Health Authority, have equipped her with a keen attention to detail. She excels at managing and prioritizing multiple deliverables, while working with speed and efficiency.

Even with all this experience, if you ask about her greatest accomplishment, she will tell you it’s been raising her children. All grown up now, she enjoys time with her friends & family, especially her grandchildren as often as she can. With 11 grandchildren, when Patricia does have some spare time, you’ll find her heading out on a road trip, or swimming at the local pool, reading a good book, baking a fresh batch of cookies or expressing herself through music.

Joe has deep experience in investment banking and financial services leadership, with a proven track record of success in both traditional financial services and fintech environments.

After stints at RBS, Standard Chartered and HSBC Bank Canada, he left banking to join Canada Drives as part of the executive team. During his time at the company, he contributed to the business growing to more than $350 million in revenue and led two rounds of funding raising over $150 million in capital.

Most recently, Joe was VP, Corporate Development at Purpose Unlimited, where he supported the company’s efforts to grow its Advisor Solutions business, including providing strategic advice and capital to advisors on their journey to creating and growing their independent practices.

Joe is a CFA charterholder and served as a director of the CFA Society Vancouver from June 2021 to July 2023.

Outside of the office, Joe is a keen cyclist and skier, he recently completed the Whistler Fondo and is currently in training for his first triathlon event.

Kirby’s role at VELA is designed to provide VELA clients with seamless execution of the options for risk management and investment recommendations made to clients by VELA’s Planning team. He participates in planning meetings with VELA clients, alongside VELA’s advisors and planners, to read and comprehend the recommendations made in the plan, and then to research risk management providers and policies as well as investment firms and advisors, for suitability against the plan’s recommendations.

Prior to VELA Kirby spent 3 years working in the financial services industry as an advisor serving clients in British Columbia and Alberta.

Kirby was selected 7th overall in the 2012 CFL draft by the BC Lions and spent six years playing football professionally in the CFL. He played collegiately at the University of Calgary where he graduated with a degree in economics. Currently, Kirby is the offensive line coach at the University of British Colombia. In his downtime Kirby enjoys cooking, travelling and all things sports.

Keith Allan is a Portfolio Manager with Harness Investment Management. Harness has engaged in a strategic partnership with VELA Wealth and provides discretionary portfolio management for many of VELA’s clients. With more than 15 years of buy-side investment management experience, Keith brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to provide insight and guidance to clients regarding their investment portfolios.

At Harness, Keith is responsible for developing and maintaining investment portfolios for VELA clients. Keith is dedicated to fostering long-term relationships with high-net-worth individuals and families by providing a clear and transparent vision to help them achieve their investment goals.

Keith has broad industry experience including portfolio management, research, equity trading and operations. Prior to joining Harness in 2019, Keith worked as an Equity Trade Specialist for nine years at one of Canada’s largest independent investment management firms. In this role, he worked alongside the equity trading desk while building and maintaining Separately Managed Account models and pooled fund portfolios. Prior to that he was an Equity Trader and Research Associate for a boutique investment counsel firm in Vancouver.

Keith is a CFA Charterholder and earned his Bachelor of Commerce degree, with a specialization in finance, from the Sauder School of Business at UBC. Keith is currently an active member of the CFA Vancouver Society.

Keith is married with two young children and when he isn’t spending time with his family, he can be found playing hockey in a senior men’s league, racing down the ski slopes, or on the golf course.

Carissa leverages her diverse hospitality management experience working both in Vancouver and New York City for two of the world’s top luxury hotel brands. Creating unique and memorable experiences for their highest profile guests was Carissa’s daily responsibility.

The entrepreneurial spirit called, and after the birth of her first child, Carissa co-founded Clearly Prepared, an emergency preparedness company. Six years later, Carissa decided the time was right to sell Clearly Prepared and focus on working with VELA Wealth to develop unique, powerful programs to enhance the VELA client experience. Carissa has provided pivotal support and direction in the creation and growth of GRAVITY, VELA’s annual signature event celebrating and nurturing entrepreneurial spirit.

Outside of her work Carissa leads an active North Shore lifestyle, exploring the trails of the local mountains with husband Jason and their children Ben, Noah and Eleana as well as their Burnese Mountain Dog Lucy. She is also spends considerable time exploring the North Shore roads ensuring that the kids are always at their various activities on time and ready to go.

As our Underwriting Coordinator, Bahar is responsible for navigating VELA Wealth clients through our policy application processes. Her attention to detail and commitment to providing best -in-class client service are important to consistently delivering excellent client experiences.

Bahar holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Allameh Tabatabai University in Tehran, Iran. Before joining VELA team, Bahar has accumulated over 7 years of invaluable experience by working as an advisor and administrator in the financial services industry in British Columbia.

In her spare time, Bahar enjoys hiking, practicing yoga and gardening.

Christie’s role at VELA as a Senior Accountant is to maintain and narrate financial data to influence decision-makers in leveraging opportunities and managing risks. Christie holds a Chartered Professional Accountant designation and brings a wealth of experience from various industries including professional services, development, property management, and retail.

Christie is a travel enthusiast and loves sampling local cuisines. She is also trying her hand at pottery and enjoys the creative process.

Trudy is an experienced financial services veteran with over 30-years of industry experience.  She started in the business as a Customer Service Assistant and then as a Marketing Assistant for three financial advisors. She then transitioned into a role as a Sales Support Manager where she managed a ten-member team supporting two offices (Vancouver and Nanaimo).

In her spare time, Trudy enjoys going out with friends for Happy Hour to catch up with each others everyday life, watch Marvel or DC movies with her boys, go to the gym or hiking when she can, and her main passion is baking!

Lisa Paquette has over 30 years of executive administration experience and ensures the professional operation of the practice behind the scenes with efficient systems, well-rounded knowledge of client administration, and familiarity with the financial sector.

She takes pride in doing her part to give our clients the highest level of friendly service and is always available if you have any questions.  Lisa is married with two adult sons, is a little obsessed with European football, loves spending time with friends and family, and enjoys local bird-watching.