Helping Communities Thrive: Interview with RBC's Jeff Boyd
Read time: 7 minutes
An interview with Jeff Boyd, Regional President, Alberta & The Territories at RBC
RBC has been a partner and sponsor of Arts Commons for nine years, and while their sponsorship focus has changed over time, their commitment to Arts Commons has never faltered.
“The relationship between RBC and Arts Commons is truly authentic. Both parties work tirelessly to understand the perspective of the other to ensure both organizations’ objectives are achieved no matter what project we are working on together,” said Greg Epton, Chief Development Officer at Arts Commons.
RBC’s relationship with Arts Commons began as Series Presenting Sponsor of Arts Commons Presents: National Geographic Live - a perfect fit with their RBC Blue Water Project. At the fulfillment of their commitment to the Project, RBC took the decision to step away from National Geographic Live, but not Arts Commons.
As part of a nation-wide initiative to support emerging artists in various disciplines, RBC now partners with Arts Commons to support emerging visual artists through the Arts Commons Presents: RBC Emerging Visual Artists Program, providing the best opportunity to advance an emerging visual artist’s career. Despite the current economic climate and the fact that Arts Commons’ doors are still closed to the public, RBC renewed their Naming Partnership of the Program for the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons.
We caught up with Jeff Boyd, RBC Regional President, Alberta & The Territories, as well as a member of the Arts Commons board for the past two years, to get his perspective on how things have changed since COVID-19, and the direction RBC is taking in this brave new world.
Q&A
1. You’ve worked at RBC for over 25 years and moved out west about 6 years ago. What were your first impressions of Calgary when you arrived?
I joined 25 years ago in February and came to Alberta in 2014. The nice thing about a big firm like RBC, you can have multiple careers and that’s what I’ve done. I’ve worked in a number of different parts of the organization and different cities too.
We had no connection to the West at all. I had been out once or twice through work, and Michelle had only been to the Calgary Stampede as a kid.
When I got here, it was a boom town. The real estate market was hot, going through three or four bids on houses with multiple offers. What struck us, first and foremost was obviously the mountains, but ultimately it was the sense of community here. We were welcomed in pretty quickly. Calgary doesn’t lack anything compared to many of the cities we’ve lived in, including Toronto or Ottawa, or the big cities in Atlantic Canada.
2. What have been RBC’s biggest challenges during the pandemic?
It’s been a balance of being an essential service. We need to be there for clients and then balancing the need to make sure both our clients and our teams are feeling safe and confident in their protection. And then, we’ve taken a whole component of our team and asked them to work from home, which has its own challenges. Keeping up with the changes that have come, including the federal and provincial support and keeping our teams educated on those? There was no global pandemic playbook. We had to do it all in real time, with a team of 2500 people.
3. When did RBC begin its relationship with Arts Commons and how did that come about?
I have only been in Calgary for 6 years, but our support of the National Geographic Live series began eight or nine years ago. And that was one of the very first events that I went to in Calgary. I can remember going and I believe I introduced our support at the event, and then watched the show. It was the one with snow leopards, with Steve Winter. Unbelievable images on such a large screen in the concert hall, and the stories from the speaker, and then the Q&A – it was really impactful. Understanding the school programs connected to it, and seeing the kids that were there that evening who were so captivated by it. I felt this was a really great initiative and I felt really proud to be connected to it for as long as we had been. Especially linking our Blue Water pillar of support, which tied really well with National Geographic Live.
More recently, we’ve moved towards supporting emerging artists right across the country. This is a national initiative that often connects with Future Launch, a 10-year, $500 million program supporting youth and young people. A big part of it is helping them build the bridge to a profession, to economic sustainability, giving them networks and experience. And that ties right in with our work with Arts Commons, supporting the RBC Emerging Visual Artist Program. A person wants to figure out how they are going to become a professional in their field, something that they are passionate about, and this kind of a program is really positive and helps them get there.
4. You also partnered with Arts Commons and Calgary Pride on our Fast Love initiative, which included a concert and free LGBTQ 101 training. Why is it important to RBC to do this kind of work?
None of those support initiatives are mutually exclusive, but you shift your focus over time to where you are needed most. You see, we have our mission, and sometimes a mission is just something you put on your letterhead or a wall, but I can tell you unequivocally that the team at RBC think about this every day and this is one of the things that gets them up in the morning. If you asked any member of our team why they do what they do, they would say it’s because they love our clients. Our mission is: Helping Clients Thrive and Communities Prosper. More and more, people are looking to tap into a sense of purpose. They don’t just want a job and a paycheck. They want purpose. Our support of things like National Geographic Live, the Emerging Visual Artist Program, and the Fast Love / Pride initiative with Arts Commons, we’re supporting causes and initiatives that are important to the communities where we work and that we serve.
5. Do you have a personal interest or connection to the things that RBC sponsors and partners on?
I have 2 daughters – 24 and 26 – and when we talk about what they should be thinking about professionally, I’ve always said, “Do something that you can be proud of. Connect yourself with an organization that has the same values as you do, so you can be proud of them.” Personally, I have a belief that diversity is very important. You get richer experiences, and you get better outcomes (if you want to put it into business terms), by tapping into those diverse experiences and being open to them, and having conversations about them. Frankly, these days with all the terrible things that have been happening that have demonstrated violence, prejudice, and racism at its worse, knowing that diversity and inclusivity are an important value of RBC is really comforting. Trying to be a catalyst for the conversations around inclusivity and diversity is important, I mean, I think that’s all you can really do is create the conversations. And then, where you see it not happening, having a voice about it and saying something about it. I’m thankful that I get to work for an organization with this as one of their core values. So, when you ask about our support of Pride and Fast Love, and different causes in the LGBTQ+ community, it is a core value of the company, but it also aligns very well for me personally.
6. You became a member of the Arts Commons board of directors a couple of years ago. Why was that of interest to you?
I was really excited about the vision and potential of the reimagined Arts Commons and the expansion of Arts Commons. I’ve come to know the great work that Arts Commons has done in the arts community, and as a catalyst for a vibrant community. A huge part of having a great place to live is having a vibrant arts and culture community. And it goes back to the point about diversity – diversity of thought, diversity of experience. I think in the absence of that, it can be a pretty flat, dull community. Tapping into those resources is really good for everyone. And if I can play a role in that as a board member of Arts Commons, I’m happy to.
7. RBC, like most organizations today, has a stance on diversity and inclusion. Could you please tell me how recent events have impacted or changed RBC’s commitment to this?
We’ve talked about diversity and inclusion for years, but it would be a disservice to our community and our teams if we weren’t creating an opportunity for the kinds of conversations that need to be had. Those are challenging conversations. They can be uncomfortable, but I find the ones that we’ve been having, specific to the current environment and the dynamics happening in the world around us, it’s very emotional, and incredibly powerful for people to participate in. I have a strong belief that I have a responsibility to model what some of those conversations look like. I have an all-employee call next week, where we are having a panel discussion and an open Q&A, to facilitate a challenging conversation. Those on the panel are our employees, from a number of these diverse communities.
8. Out of all the things that RBC does in the community, what are you most proud of?
One of the things I’m really proud of, is that we’ve got 2500 people that work for us in this province and those 2500 people raised almost half a million dollars through volunteering for organizations in some of the communities that we are talking about. They volunteered almost 13,000 hours to those organizations. This ties exactly to our mission to help our clients thrive and our communities prosper.
The organizations that benefit from RBC volunteer initiatives are community partners as well as causes that RBC employees feel passionate about, from soup kitchens to financial literacy to animal rights.
In May of 2020, RBC also announced a new virtual performance series called “First Up with RBCxMusic” that will support and promote emerging Canadian recording artists and musicians through the challenging circumstances caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Every year the RBC Foundation donates millions of dollars to hundreds of arts organizations globally to help emerging artists become established.
