Strategic Leadership in Operational Risk Management

Beverley MacAdam, Vice President, Operational Risk and Shared Services, Wealth Management Global Operations, RBC Wealth Management

Beverley MacAdam, Vice President, Operational Risk and Shared Services, Wealth Management Global Operations, RBC Wealth Management

Beverley MacAdam, VP of Operational Risk and Shared Services at RBC Wealth Management Global Operations, has been instrumental in managing operational risks and ensuring regulatory compliance for nearly 30 years at RBC. With a diverse background spanning Commercial Banking, IT and Operations, she holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business from Dalhousie University and an MBA from Rotman School of Business. Beverley is actively involved with the MS Society of Canada and serves on the Board of the Toronto Cricket Club.

Through this interview, Beverley MacAdam discusses her nearly 30-year career journey with RBC, highlighting how her diverse roles within the organization, including in banking, risk management and operations, have prepared her for her current role in operational risk at RBC Wealth Management. She emphasizes the importance of understanding client needs in wealth management and the role of innovation in driving operational risk management efforts. MacAdam also shares insights on fostering a culture of continuous improvement and offers advice for senior leaders in operational risk management.

1. Could you share the key milestones in your career that have best prepared you for your current role at RBC Wealth Management? How have those experiences shaped your leadership approach? 

In some ways, as I reflect on nearly 30 years with RBC, I can now see how my career path prepared me for this very role. When I joined RBC, it was purposefully to join a company with a culture that fostered and rewarded a growth mindset. I had the opportunity to hear a senior leader speak at my sister’s university graduation and he impressed me with the notion that I could join one company and have many careers, all without having to change my health care plan. And RBC has lived up to that reputation. Operational Risk looks at a very broad range of non-financial risks that impact an organization and is very closely linked to the business processes and activities that must be executed to bring a good or service to life for a client.

"To create a culture that fosters and drives innovation, at the heart of it, is to be a good listener. You need to be open to new ideas, both big and small, and be willing to invest time and energy in exploring those ideas."

By learning about banking from a variety of different perspectives, from my first role as a Commercial Account Manager, I developed a strong understanding of the underlying processes and risks associated with banking. Since then, I have spent time in several areas of the bank including international trade, IT, operations management, product management and risk management, all of which has led me to my current position of heading up the Operational Risk team for RBC’s Global Wealth Management business. There have been elements of operational risk in each role, that I lean into every day.

2. What are the primary challenges you encounter in wealth management, and how do these challenges affect the industry? 

Being in Wealth Management for a little over six months, I am still learning about the challenges and opportunities in the industry. That being said, I have some initial thoughts.  One, the business is really about people and deeply understanding our client’s needs and vision for their future. Each client’s story is different and how they want to grow, leverage and share their wealth. From that perspective, it is more challenging to take a ‘cookie cutter’ approach to managing each business. From an operational risk perspective, the deep relationships we have with our clients are an advantageous control against some types of risk, such as fraud. However, the reality is that we need to be alert about always monitoring our operations to protect our client's assets.

3. How does innovation drive your operational risk culture and risk management efforts at RBC Wealth Management? Can you provide specific examples of new technologies you have implemented and their impact on improving operational efficiency and effectiveness? 

We look at innovation in our operational risk culture as both big and small opportunities. The big opportunities are often related to how we can leverage data more effectively to reduce the administrative burden of some risk management practices. For example, control testing and reporting are critical to being able to understand and communicate the underlying risks in a business. Deeply understanding the inherent risk of a process and then monitoring and testing the controls that are intended to mitigate those risks are core to operational risk management. But traditionally, this has been a highly manual process. Our strategy is to look at processes end-to-end ensuring we fully understand process and data flows, in turn allowing my team to better identify key risks, the appropriate controls and further automation and digitization opportunities. At the same time, we know that there are also small improvements we can make to our day-to-day activities. These ideas usually come from the people who do those activities. We celebrate these small changes to improve our processes and activities because a few small changes can make a big difference.

How do you cultivate a culture of continuous improvement and innovation within your team in the context of operational risk and shared services? 

I love putting the words innovation and culture in the same thought because I think that they are both very important to drive success. To create a culture that fosters and drives innovation, at the heart of it, is to be a good listener. You need to be open to new ideas, both big and small and be willing to invest time and energy in exploring those ideas. The work environment is often moving at a break-neck pace, so to truly cultivate a culture of continuous improvement and innovation—sometimes you must slow down and listen.

4. As an ending note, what is your advice for other senior leaders and CXOs working in the operational risk management space?   

My advice is two-fold. First, for those not yet in the operational risk management space, get into it if you are looking for a challenging but rewarding career, or at least make it a stop in your career. The opportunity to explore the issues related to operational risk will give you a broad perspective on your business, which will be valuable no matter what you do next. Second, for those in the space, operational risk is still a relatively new risk practice. Embrace the opportunity to not only learn the practices but also to shape them for your organization to optimize the balance between risk and reward. Operations, in my view, is the heartbeat of most organizations. Operational risk ensures that the organization is resilient in the face of challenges and is directly linked to positive client and employee satisfaction.

Risk Management

Financial

Fraud