Kimberly Mason
KIMBERLEY MASON
Regional President, Atlantic provinces, RBC Royal Bank
WHAT SETS HER APART
Kim is Royal Bank of Canada’s first female head in Atlantic Canada
Responsible for 6.7% of RBC’s total operating budget; contributes over 7.2% to RBC’s gross revenue and posted Atlantic Canada’s best sales results ever
Completed deals, directly led, in the past 12 months: 24
HER CHAMPION
Gay Mitchell, Deputy Chair, RBC Wealth Management, Toronto
From Gay Mitchell
As told to Astrid Van Den Broek
Shortly after meeting Kim 15 years ago, when I was RBC’s Executive Vice- President, Ontario, I made a mental note to keep my eyes on her. It was clear she was a natural leader and I could really see the tone she set in terms of service for clients and attention to detail, and that follow-up was a high priority for her and her team. I was right: in 2010 she was named Regional President of Atlantic Canada for RBC.
Early on I was getting to know her and trying to figure out where she got her spark from. And then she started discussing her family’s business. She grew up in an entrepreneurial family—they had a car dealership and you could just tell when they had dinner, theytalked about business and they liked talking about it. Kim told me a story one time about how her father would recount to her and her siblings how many cars were sold that day, how many were leased, why customers were coming back to his dealership, how important it was to have their family name on the front of the business and how much joy it gave him when his customers provided repeat business and referrals. Kim seems to have absorbed his attention to detail, his sales focus, his passion for a quality customer experience and the personalized brand image that it built. Those values of hard work, customer satisfaction, care for others, and winning seem to be part of the family DNA.
Kim doesn’t mind doing her homework. While working full-time for RBC running our flagship branch in Toronto, she also entered the MBA program and this was like managing two full-time jobs. Not only does she have an honest interest in her own personal growth and she is always looking to learn, she brings it out in others. She just cares. She looks for people who actually have balance in their lives and ensures that the people she works with have that balance. She wants them to be successful in family and in their professional lives.
She’s got that willingness to talk to others and expose herself by sharing something personal, such as the struggle to balance work and family. She knows that you don’t have to be perfect and the younger women in the company learn from her that you can work hard and be a great role model to your family, your business and community.