Helena Gottschling: Aside from spending time with family and friends, what's your favourite thing to do for yourself?

Jennifer Tory: People always seem surprised when I answer this question this way, but I love to cook! People say, "Well, where do you have time to cook?" Well, obviously I don't go home because I'm not home that night...

Helena Gottschling: Every night and cook...

Jennifer Tory: ...most often - and cook, but if I'm entertaining I often will do – depending on the size of the group, of course - I will often do all the cooking myself.

Helena Gottschling: Do you watch those cooking channels on TV to get new ideas?

Jennifer Tory: I sometimes do. I sometimes do.

Helena Gottschling: Good for you.

Jennifer Tory: But I love to cook. I love to golf. And I like watching movies. Those are three of the things that I would say I spend a lot of my leisure time doing. But now that my girls are older, I've also [gotten] involved in different things that are of interest to them. We've gone to cooking classes with one of my daughters.

Helena Gottschling: Oh, cool. Very neat.

Jennifer Tory: And then my youngest was very involved in beach volleyball, so I used to go all the time and watch her play beach volleyball. I make time for those things when I can.

Helena Gottschling: What book is on your nightstand right now?

Jennifer Tory: I just finished an incredible book called Cutting For Stone, by a fellow named Abraham Verghese, I think you pronounce it.

Helena Gottschling: I just read that over the Christmas vacation period.

Jennifer Tory: It was amazing.

Helena Gottschling: Yeah.

Jennifer Tory: I haven't decided what's next. I have to find something for my next vacation. I tend to only unfortunately have time to read when I'm on holidays because I'm too tired at night. I get through about two pages and then I totally lose my train of the plot.

Helena Gottschling: You end up re-reading the same chapter over and over again.

Jennifer Tory: Yeah, exactly. Where was I? Anyway, but that one was a great one.

Helena Gottschling: What about the best vacation you ever took?

Jennifer Tory: That one's easy. My extended immediate family took a trip to Kenya three years ago.

Helena Gottschling: Ah, I remember that.

Jennifer Tory: Yeah. Three generations, so my parents, all of my siblings, and the grandkids - 20-plus of us. We went to Kenya. Not only did we do a safari, but we spent four days with Mark and Craig Kielburger and Free the Children. I have to say, it was a magical vacation - and experience. It wasn't just a vacation. It, I think, changed all of us in terms of some of what we think about when we're working in the community. It's not only about here, but also about the fact that we are so lucky to live in a country where things like education for women, which is a huge issue in countries like Kenya...

Helena Gottschling: It's just a given here.

Jennifer Tory: ...is a given. And so that was the best ever, I would say.

Helena Gottschling: Yeah. And actually, the book you referenced, Cutting For Stone, very much along that same theme, where just how...

Jennifer Tory: That's probably why I liked it so much.

Helena Gottschling: Yeah. Yeah. For sure. Finally, and I think this is the right question to ask you, for the end. Who has been the most inspiring woman in your own life, and why?

Jennifer Tory: You know, you told me...

Helena Gottschling: Or women?

Jennifer Tory: ...you were going to ask that question, and I had to give it a lot of thought, because I couldn't pick just one woman. I realized that if I look at who my group of - and that's why I believe in peer mentors - if I look at who my women mentors are, they're the many women that I've had the privilege and pleasure of working with multiple times over my many years in RBC. I would say a lot of them have been on my team, past or present, and we've gone in and out of each other's lives, but we were always there for each other - and they know who they are. I reach out to them for input, and even we've shared stories about being working women and what it's like and how we make the balance work. So I think that it's those women that I've been privileged to have as part of my team - as I say, past and present - and now that are in other parts of the organization, so we even have different experiences to share with each other.

It's a network, I would say...

Helena Gottschling: Fabulous answer.

Jennifer Tory: ...including someone like you.

Helena Gottschling: Oh, thank you. I think being part of RBC and building relationships over the years, you're just right on. The people that you work with really are what make the difference to who you are, how you approach your work, knowing you can pick up the phone to seek advice and counsel from anyone that you've met over the years, it really I think is a unique aspect of our culture at RBC.

Jennifer Tory: I agree. When there are new people coming in, I describe it that, this RBC, we are so lucky - it's such a supportive culture - and I think people do make friends at work. I know there are all those surveys that those gurus do about what makes for satisfied and happy employees, and one of them is "I have friends at work". I think that our culture is all about relationships, and I think that really helps.

Helena Gottschling: For sure. Thank you so much for taking the time to be here this morning. I really enjoyed talking with you about your experiences at RBC and the work that you've done to advance women. I just look forward to continuing to support you and work with you to, I'll say, continue to do the work around diversity. It's not easy. We've made great progress over the years. But there's still work to be done.

Thanks for sharing your perspectives this morning.

Jennifer Tory: Thanks for having me, Helena.