Paula Cruickshank

Paula is Senior Vice President, Fund Investments for BDC Capital, overseeing the Fund Investments team with a focus on achieving BDC Capital’s mission of seeding and growing emerging top-tier general partners, supporting existing top-quartile Canadian general partners, and attracting global funds. She brings more than 25 years of experience in the banking industry to the role and has been with BDC for over 15 years. Paula joined BDC in 2009 as Vice President, Securitization, taking over the management of the Canadian Secured Credit Facility, a $12 billion program by the Government of Canada to help restart the asset-backed securities market following the 2007–2009 financial crisis. She also launched BDC’s Funding Platform for Independent Lenders (F-PIL) to provide capital to smaller financing and leasing companies. In 2015, she assumed responsibility for both Syndicated Financing and Indirect Financing. In 2017, Paula was appointed Senior Vice President, British Columbia and North, successfully growing the bank’s financing and consulting services throughout that region. In 2020, Paula transitioned into the role of Senior Vice President, Ontario, overseeing BDC’s financing and consulting services across the province. She also took on the role of Business Lead for BDC’s Digital Transformation in Ontario from 2021 to 2023, in which she focused on ensuring digital investment decisions and strategies for segmentation, omni-channel and client teams were aligned and continued to serve BDC’s clients. Before joining BDC, Paula spent more than 11 years with the Scotiabank Group, where she gained broad experience in structured finance and corporate finance.