Excerpt from a speech to the the Universities Canada Governing Council Chamber meeting: An agile future through work-integrated learning

“I’d like to speak to you today, as one CEO to others. Speak to you as someone who is leading an organization through a disruptive and disrupting world, to you, leaders who are also wrestling with your own seismic changes.

I will comment on the great disruptions that both our sectors are in the midst of. And what we as leaders can do to ensure the outcome is not only positive for our own institutions, but most importantly, transformational for our communities and for Canadian society.

I also want to talk to you today about what we’re doing and what we’re seeing at RBC.

About how we’re trying to change the way that we work; how we are working with colleges and universities through accelerators, through experiential learning and through other connections; and what lessons we may be able to share with one another.

Our purpose as an organization is to help our clients thrive and our communities prosper.

But as the country’s biggest bank, if there is one simple thing that we believe in, it’s that education breeds innovation, which leads to growth for the benefit of all.

As a business, we also rely increasingly on the innovation coming out of campuses like this, and need both faculties and students to push us, and propel us, to new heights. It is critical to how we will realize value for our shareholders in the future.

But our world – like yours – is shifting.”

Read the speech in full here.