Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #44, Katie Taylor

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #44, Katie Taylor

Our annual ranking of the people whose smarts, connections and clout are changing the city as we know it

(Image: Markian Lozowchuk)

Katie Taylor

RBC

44 Taylor, the most powerful chair in Canadian banking, sits atop the biggest of the Big Five banks by total market value. With $34 billion in revenue and 79,000 employees, it’s also one of the country’s largest companies. RBC posted record earnings of $9 billion in 2014, Taylor’s first full year as chair, and has since defied analyst expectations with regular quarterly profits of about $2.5 billion. As Canada’s first female bank chair, she’s a spokes­person for workplace diversity: she championed the Ontario Securities Commission’s “comply or explain” rules and helped launch the Canadian chapter of the 30% Club, a corporate gender-­balance initiative, then convinced bank CEOs, newspaper ­publishers and other Bay Street big shots—including CIBC’s Victor Dodig, Torstar’s John Honderich and RBC’s David McKay—to sign on.

Side Gigs:

Taylor is chair of the SickKids Foundation, and a director of the ­Canadian ­Pension Plan Investment Board and Swiss HR company Adecco Group.

More of Toronto's Most Influential People