Rising Tide’s Tom DeFegely named MPA’s Young Gun of the Year
Posted by
Matt Hale
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Every year, Mortgage Professional Australia (MPA) magazine reviews hundreds of applications from brokers all around Australia to uncover the top mortgage brokers under the age of 35 as part of their annual Young Guns list.
The list is limited to 30 brokers, and the Young Guns are selected by the quality of recommendations from their peers in the industry, in addition to the quantity of loans they’ve written over the year.
For the year of 2018, the team at Rising Tide couldn’t be more proud to announce that our very own Tom DeFegely has made MPA Young Guns list!
Tom first joined the team as an intern back in 2014 while he was completing his business degree at Monash University. We recognised Tom’s innate talent and strong work ethic early on, and we didn’t hesitate to offer him a full-time position after he’d completed his studies.
“I’ve been with Rising Tide for just over 3 years now, and I was first introduced to the company by Sam Jewell, one of our Financial Planners who I knew through uni, as well as having a few mutual friends,” says Tom.
“Sam brought me in to interview for an internship role, which I took on for a few months until I finished my degree. After that, I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to step into a full-time role which I was of course pretty stoked about – I finished up uni on a Friday, and walked into my new job on the following Monday!”
For Tom, being recognised on the MPA Young Guns list and receive such a highly sought-after industry accolade is a great honour.
“I’m pretty proud to be nominated, it’s definitely been a busy year. I’ve been broking for just over 18 months now, and to be honest, it wasn’t easy at the start – so it’s a really great feeling to get noticed for how far I’ve come,” says Tom.
“To receive an award so early on in my career is exciting and I think this will boost my confidence. As a lot of my clients tend to be older than I am, accolades like these give me an extra leg to stand on. It shows clients that I know what I’m talking about, which will build the level of trust.”
“I would also like to add that having a great mentor like Sam Gawenda has really made all the difference. I wouldn’t be where I am today if it weren’t for Sam and his wife Mel who helped me out with learning a lot of the processes involved with broking,” says Tom.
“I’ve also been really fortunate to work alongside Matt Hale, Sam Jewell and the rest of the guys at Rising Tide. We’ve got a really great team here, and I couldn’t have done it without them!”
Congratulations again Tom!
To find out more about how the Rising Tide team can help you reach your financial goals, give us a call today on 03 370 330 287.