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Diversity and Inclusion

YearData
1968Georgette St. Cyr was the first woman to be appointed as a Royal Bank branch manager (Place Longueuil branch, Montreal, Quebec).
1976Mitzi Dobrin was the first woman to be appointed to Royal Bank’s Board of Directors.
1977Task Force on the Status of Women – CEO Rowland Frazee commissioned this task force in response to concerns expressed by women employees. The task force’s recommendations dealing with mobility, training, and assessment of job opportunities for women still form the basis of policies in these areas today.
1979Suzanne Labarge was the first woman to be appointed as a Royal Bank executive.
Royal Bank established an Equal Employment Opportunity program, the first of its kind for a Canadian bank.
1982Targets for recruiting, training and promoting women were established.
1987The first Royal Bank Employment Equity survey was conducted to assess our workforce representation of the four designated groups in Canada: women, visible minorities, people with disabilities and Aboriginal peoples.
1988The percentage of Royal Bank employees in Canada who are women reached 75%.
1994Closing the Gender Gap awareness initiative was launched to increase effectiveness in dealing with and respecting gender differences.
1996Royal Bank expanded its efforts to help capitalize on the broad-based diversity of its workforce and market by establishing a Diversity Business Council with the mandate to develop an action plan to help close the gender gaps between the current and desired states.
1998The Employees with Disabilities Advisory Council is established to promote a better understanding of the abilities and needs of Royal Bank employees and clients with disabilities, to make recommendations on the elimination of barriers to marketplace and workplace opportunities and to provide tools and resources to support increased representation of people with disabilities throughout Royal Bank.
1999Suzanne Labarge was appointed Royal Bank’s first female Vice-Chairman.
2004Janice Fukakusa was appointed Royal Bank’s first female Chief Financial Officer.
2006Royal Bank expanded the number of employee resource groups, including PRIDE and REACH, supported by the delivery of cross-cultural training and diversity mentoring.
Royal Bank sponsored an ongoing study of women in capital markets with Catalyst Canada, tracking the impact of efforts to increase the representation of women in the industry.
2007-2008Royal Bank introduced a visible minority and newcomer to Canada employee resource group, MOSAIC, and also established a scholarship program for new Canadians.
2009Building on the successes and lessons of the past, Royal Bank published the Diversity Blueprint setting out priorities, objectives and commitments relevant to leveraging diversity as a business priority.
Royal Bank received the prestigious Catalyst Award for Diversity, an annual global award given to companies with an exceptional commitment to women and minorities.
Royal Bank established RBC Academy a unique program providing both learning and development opportunities for talented teenagers in the United Kingdom.
Royal Bank launched the first Aboriginal Corporate Social Network (ACSN), its first social network for employees who are part of or are involved in the Aboriginal community.
Royal Bank established it first chapter of RWoman in Toronto, Ontario with subsequent chapters launched in New York (2011) and London, England (2012). RWoman is an employee led networking forum dedicated to fostering the development and career aspirations of Royal Bank’s female employees.
2011Heather Munroe-Blum, principal and vice-chancellor of McGill University in Montreal and Bridget van Kralingen, general manager of North America for IBM Corporation in New York, were appointed to the Board of Directors, bringing the number of women on the 16-member Board to five.
2012Royal Bank signed the Catalyst Accord, supporting a call to action for Canadian corporations to increase the overall proportion of “FP500” board seats held by women to 25 per cent by 2017.