Age: 39
Job title: Chief Financial Officer, Melcor Developments and Melcor REIT
Why she’s a 2019 Top 40 Under 40: She helps her company and city grow.
Growing up, Naomi Stefura didn’t have a dream job, but she knew when she found it. It happened when she set foot in the Melcor Developments office. Stefura was there as an auditor — typically the least popular visitor in any office, but not at Melcor. “When you’re an auditor, pretty much everyone hates you, but they invited me to have lunch with them. I was like, these are my people.”
Stefura made a similar impression and, when Melcor needed a new controller in 2008, they reached out to her. She accepted, but her newfound dream job — chief financial officer — was still a few years away. “When the CFO position first opened up, they asked me if I wanted to apply and I said no. I wanted to get married and have kids, and I just didn’t want to take that on at that point in life.”
Eight years, a husband and one baby later, the position opened up again, and Stefura became one of the youngest female CFOs of a publically traded company in Canada. Since starting the role in 2016, Melcor’s assets have grown by $125 million, pushing it over the $2 billion mark. And Stefura was instrumental in the initial public offering of Melcor REIT, a Melcor Developments spinoff company that today generates $70 million in annual revenue.
Admirable achievements for anyone, at any age, but Stefura doesn’t measure success in titles and numbers alone. “In my eyes, my greatest career accomplishment was that I continued to grow my family during this time.”
This article appears in the November 2019 issue of Avenue Edmonton
