Dave Lanphear has had a successful career in financial services. With nearly 25 years at Envision Financial, he climbed the ladder from working the front desk, to financial advisor, all the way to president, a role he held for nearly seven years.

As a student, Dave’s aspiration was to pursue a career in law, which led him to complete a Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice in 1999. However, his experience working as a summer student at BMO sparked his interest in a more financially oriented career path, which led him to Envision Financial.

During his long career there, Dave received the National Young Leader Award (under 35) for the Credit Union System in 2008; he also served as a financial planner and was awarded Envision Financial’s CEO’s Award of Excellence for his work in both 2008 and 2010.

But shortly after turning 50, Dave decided it was time to pursue a new career. “I needed to scratch another itch,” he says. The decision wasn’t easy.

“UFV was small at the time, but it afforded me the ability to learn, meet some great people, get mentored by some great teachers, and be set up for success.”

“When I was talking it over with my wife, I said I might be having a midlife crisis,” laughs Lanphear. “Those words actually came out of my mouth.”

He now works at independent investment firm Odlum Brown, where he has partnered with friend Paul Donaldson. Together they formed the Donaldson Lanphear Investment Team at Odlum Brown. “And now that I’m a year and a half in,” Dave says, “I’m just loving it — I realized I should have done it sooner.”

Dave credits UFV for setting a strong foundation for his future, even outside his area of study.

“UFV was small at the time, but it afforded me the ability to learn, meet some great people, get mentored by some great teachers, and be set up for success” says Lanphear.

“One of the things I have really stressed over the last 20 years is that UFV is not a B-team school. It’s highly rated, it’s highly regarded,” he says. “Students who come out of there are extremely well-educated and held in high regard by graduate schools.”

Dave has watched the institution grow since the early aughts from a small college to the university it is today.

And Dave and his wife of over 20 years, Wendy, are beginning to see their kids through their own educational journeys. Their son, now 19 and working towards a career in HVAC, wants to get into the refrigeration industry, and Lanphear says he is excelling.

Now as their daughter nears the end of high school, and Lanphear finds himself in yet another transition phase in his life.

No longer a baseball and hockey coach for his kids, settling into his own career change, focusing on his family, he is ready to be a supportive mentor and leader, following in the footsteps of important mentors in his life like his father and his instructors at UFV.