Director of Strategy, Ventures (Senior Manager until ~Dec. 2023) at RBCx Ventures, Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) (2021-08 – 2024-07) From ~Aug. 2021 – Sep. 2022, was part of RBC Ventures, focused on the B2B and Health & Wellness portfolios. Proactively & voluntarily departed w/ leadership's full support to focus on personal life priorities.
Several
Exec / Senior references available. Promoted to Director (considered pre-executive role) in Jan. 2024, and received highest performance rating of 'Exceeded' and maximum short-term incentive bonus for FY 2023
- Identified as an integral, effective, and high-EQ leader on the RBCx Ventures Strategy team
- Throughout tenure, directly reported into an RBC Ventures or RBCx Director, Senior Director, or Vice-President/Chief Operating Officer.
- General Strategy & Investment Themes/Thesis Development: LoB strategic alignment; client segment prioritization; venture theme mapping, criteria development, & prioritization; investment thesis development, tech companies market scan & analysis, and exec / stakeholder presentation; strategic choice structuring (options generation & conditions analysis); preceding done via qualitative & quantitative methodology, Excel/PowerPoint, PitchBook, cross-functional collab. (Analytics, Design), & engaging VC/industry SMEs • Minority Equity Investment & Commercial Evaluation Agreement [One Deal Executed]: contributing to strategic investment due diligence and the drafting & development of an investment memo, alongside RBC Capital Partners; developing and presenting to senior executive strategic investment rationale; liaising w/LoBs & collaborating w/colleagues and investee to develop evaluation agreement • Acquisition Exploration [One Opp.
Reached
No-Go]: iteratively working on: Venture theme exploration via target companies market mapping, analysis, and prioritization; founder/management engagement and meetings; initial investment thesis development (strategic rationale, and preliminary due diligence re: directional synergy value to RBC); executive pitch deck development and socialization to determine initial go/no-go decision; contingency planning to bolster target and theme pipelines
- Team collaborated w/RBC Corp. Dev.
- Leadership & Management: being official People Manager to 5 total direct reports at varying times in tenure, and mentor to 3 others, for project work and professional development & advancement; practice & frameworks development, resource management, and team issues resolution as 1/3 of Ventures Strategy Senior Management Team; recruiting/hiring, onboarding, & offboarding team members • Prospective Target Company Engagement & Evaluation: Conducted initial assessment of multiple tech cos. founder/exec pitches for potential RBCx collaboration and/or investment and built relationships w/N.A. tech & VC ecosystem by working w/RBCx, RBC Capital Partners, or RBC Corp. Dev. to triage inbound or proactive pitch/meeting opportunities and review and preliminarily analyze pitches • Minority Equity Investment & Commercial Evaluation Agreement [One Deal Executed]: Supported RBC in making a minority equity investment in the overall / total $50M USD Series B funding round of a Canadian Supply Chain Tech & Data platform • Acquisition Exploration [One Opp Reached No-Go]: Supported, and oversaw select elements of, bringing to senior executive for initial go/no-go re: playing in relatively untapped theme in Canadian tech ecosystem, and potential $M acquisition of a Canadian target • Business Case Analysis & Improvement: Materially strengthened business case of a past Venture/port. co., enabling its mgmt. to present a more accurate business case to Investment Committee (IC), by independently and in detail analyzing each line item in Excel revenue & cost model, identifying discrepancies in business logic and Excel formulae, and providing details and summary of findings & proposed changes; management implemented feedback prior to IC pitch & acknowledged materiality of preceding individual effort Senior Consultant (Consultant until Feb. 2020), Strategy & Operations Consulting at Monitor Deloitte (2017-09 – 2021-07) From Sep. 2020 for ~4 months, took leave of absence: studied for & wrote GRE grad school exam, and completed CFI FMVA finance course.
- Strategy: growth strategy design, options generation & analysis, market scan & trends analysis, private equity due diligence (technology) • Operations: transformation, operating model design, technology assessment, divestiture analysis, data analysis, project management • Innovation & Facilitation: scenario planning & analysis, innovation labs, partnerships & policy, executive alignment & transition labs • Buyside Acquisition: Informed a PE fund's acquisition of a financial services target by helping articulate the future state strategy, develop integration options, assess and interview potential vendors, and conduct technology due diligence by synthesizing working session insights, exploring the target's data room, and engaging in subject matter expert (SME) interviews • Pension Fund Innovation: Designed an insightful workshop w/a fund's Chief Investment Officer on the operational impact of innovation and thematic trends, by collaborating w/technical colleagues to efficiently develop a presentation and workshop playback • Data-Driven Strategy Development: Informed the development of a global strategy in professional services and provided insight into key clients by developing and analyzing an Excel database (S&P Capital IQ data) and socializing implications w/senior stakeholders • Thought Leadership: co-authored three COVID-19 POVs: Global residential mortgages
- Global retail banking
- Canadian retail banking Chief of Staff to the Investment Management Sector Lead for Consulting, Deloitte Canada (Side-of-Desk) at Monitor Deloitte (2018-08 – 2020-02) • Empowered practice leadership by helping develop and operationalize the practice's strategy and providing data-driven insights on key focus areas to inform investment ask to Deloitte leadership; client focus included pension funds, asset managers, private equity funds Summer Analyst (Contractor), Growth Debt & Equity (Technology Investing) at Vistara Capital Partners (Summer 2016) Summer Intern, Corporate Finance Advisory (primary rotation) and Private Enterprise Audit (secondary rotation) at KPMG Canada (Summer 2015)
