Unconventional career path gave Ellyn the skills she needs to support Toronto-based fintech company
Sharissa Ellyn has taken an unconventional path in her career, moving back and forth between in-house and private practice roles. After starting out as a litigator at Blakes, Ellyn moved into the firm’s financial services regulatory practice where she honed her skills for over 10 years before taking an in-house role as legal lead for Dell Financial Services Canada.
After two-and-a-half years at Dell, she jumped back to private practice at Norton Rose Fulbright where she had the opportunity to expand her practice. At Norton Rose, Ellyn became a subject matter expert for financial services, regulatory matters, and deals in those areas.
When the opportunity arose in 2017 to join Canadian startup Flexiti to build a legal department from scratch, Ellyn was keen to put her expertise to good use and return to the in-house world.
“I decided that I prefer being in-house, primarily because you get more opportunity to work with the business,” says Ellyn. “You get to add value to the business by bringing a legal lens to the problem.” Each of her previous roles gave Ellyn the experience and skillset she needed to help her in her role at the Toronto-based fintech startup.
Starting as the only member of the legal and compliance team, Ellyn has grown her department to eight individuals in the past six years, in line with the rapid growth of the business. As general counsel and chief legal officer, she takes responsibility for the legal function, and she is a member of the executive team, which involves navigating all board-related matters.
As a provider of point-of-sale flexible financing solutions for customers, Flexiti has grown substantially since its launch, and is now available at over 8500 retailers and e-commerce sites, including the likes of The Brick and Leon’s.
Ellyn has guided the company through its growth and supported two acquisitions – the company was sold to CURO in 2021, and most recently, it was sold again to Questrade Financial Group this year.
“Questrade was a pretty big deal that required a lot of involvement from my team to get the deal done to the satisfaction of both parties,” says Ellyn.
Back in 2018, Ellyn also helped Flexiti with the acquisition of a portfolio from TD. The acquisition of TD’s private label credit card portfolio – valued at roughly $250 million – allowed Flexiti to grow its business tenfold overnight and become a strong player in the financial space.
As general counsel, Ellyn makes it her priority to act as a business partner and focus on all matters that are of significance to the business. She and her team also handle regulatory requirements, merchant agreements and vendor agreements.
“My focus is to get the deal done, mitigate risk, and identify risks for the business to think about. Ultimately, we are there to facilitate the business, not hinder it,” she says. “It’s our job to know our business extremely well. It’s our job to attend meetings – even when there isn’t a clear legal requirement to do so – if the meeting relates to an important business initiative, and to really listen to what the business leaders are focused on and provide the support and advice they need.”
As Flexiti continues to expand and launch new product initiatives in 2024, Ellyn is poised to help and continue supporting the business in any way she can.
