RBC's fired CFO says she was in the running for CEO before bank sacked her over relationship
Nadine Ahn says she had a chance to become the first woman to run Royal Bank of Canada before she was fired over a personal relationship with a colleague.
Ahn “was identified by RBC as a possible successor for the CEO position,” according to a lawsuit she filed against the lender.
She was promoted to chief financial officer in 2021 and “maintained a spotless employment record,” the lawsuit states. “Over 25 years of employment with RBC, Ms. Ahn proved herself as a loyal, trustworthy, and an extraordinarily talented leader, who overcame many gender-based hurdles during her employment.”
Ahn, 53, was sacked on April 5 by Canada’s largest bank, which said she’d violated its code of conduct with an “undisclosed close personal relationship with another employee which led to preferential treatment of the employee including promotion and compensation increases.”
That other person was Ken Mason, the bank’s vice-president of capital and term funding. He was fired the same day.
The two have filed separate legal actions for wrongful dismissal and are each asking for tens of millions of dollars in pay and damages. They both say the RBC press release that announced Ahn’s departure falsely insinuated that they were having an affair and that Ahn had advanced Mason’s career as a result.
“This discriminatory and unbalanced misstep by RBC ended the career of a woman who was a candidate to be RBC’s first female Chief Executive Officer and caused colossal professional damage and personal and family embarrassment and privacy damage for RBC’s loyal long-term employee, Ken,” according to a statement of claim filed by Mason.
Both Ahn and Mason are married with children, according to their lawsuits.
“These claims are without merit, and we will
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