Peter Marlin

For Peter Marlin, Business Development is less about sales and more about problem solving: connecting the right people with the right solutions. By helping to identify issues, and then finding straight forward and cost-effective solutions, the sale isn’t front of mind – the person is.

Born and raised about five minutes from his current home in Calgary, Peter doesn’t venture far from what works and has spent most of his life in the financial services industry. Though he won’t brag about his letters, Peter graduated from the University of Calgary in 1992 and has held designations across securities, financial planning, and insurance from various institutes.

Way back in the very high-tech days of answering machines, discmans, and zip drives, Peter worked in Health Care for a short time when the Investment Business found him in 1995. Sporting acid wash jeans on the weekends and keeping it all business during the week, Peter traded stocks and bonds as a full-service investment advisor.

27 short years later, Peter has given up the acid wash and now with First Foundation since June 2019, has broadened his lines of business to include investment advice, group benefits and retirement savings, as well as life, disability, and critical illness insurance. Through his partners here, Peter is now able to help clients across all facets of finance: including mortgages, home and auto, and commercial insurance.

A committed Calgarian, Peter is rarely convinced to leave – but when he does, it is to chase baseball dreams with his son who is throwing his way through his sophomore season with the #1 ranked Wabash Valley Warriors in Mt Carmel, Illinois.

Keeping a highly regimented calendar where spare time is a fiction, Peter has spent the last 4 years at the gym at 6:00 a.m., volunteering as part of a fitness project developing devices to make gym life for wheelchair athletes a little more productive! Later in the day, you will find Peter behind the lens of a camera, often volunteering for community organizations such as the Brian Burke Targets for Kids charity event in support of KidSport Calgary and the Flames Foundation, where he has volunteered for the past three years. “My calendar is pretty regimented, but luckily for me I really like the things I get to do everyday, so it doesn't seem that way,” says Peter, whose love for people, the outdoors, and athletics permeate his life.

When he isn’t at the gym, behind a camera, or at his desk, you will find Peter exploring “old man interests” in his backyard. “Now that there's a little more grey in my beard, I've started developing old-guy tastes. I used to play rugby, now I like to garden … it hurts way less and my lawn looks much better!”

Peter’s initial attraction to First Foundation was to broaden his client’s access to products. “Having a broader network of products to complement my existing lineup means I am better able to help people solve financial problems.” The fact that President Gord is “as big of a tech nerd as he is” was just a bonus.

“Now that I've been here for a while, I've realized the true strength of the company is the people who offer those products. I'm truly inspired by the people I have the good fortune to work with. Amazing talent and personalities to match.”

We are inspired by Peter’s devotion to finding solutions across business, sport, and for the community - and we are so grateful that he has taken his tackling experience “off field”, to tackle issues and find solutions for clients as part of the First Foundation team.