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Canaccord Genuity, a Canadian financial services firm, has named former Royal Bank of Canada CFO Nadine Ahn as its deputy chief financial officer, the Toronto-based financial services firm announced last week.
Ahn is expected to transition into the CFO role next year when Canaccord’s current CFO, Don MacFayden, moves to a position allowing more focus on the company’s capital markets business.
Ahn will first concentrate on optimizing global financial operations, including managing strategic projects and identifying ways to bolster Canaccord’s financial position, the company said.
“Nadine brings a wealth of multijurisdictional financial leadership experience, making her exceptionally well-suited to support our continued long-term growth and delivery of significant shareholder value,” Canaccord Chair Dan Daviau said in a statement Wednesday.
Ahn will join the company’s global operating committeebecoming the third woman executive on the panel.
“She’s the most qualified candidate I could ever hire,” Daviau told Bloomberg, adding that Canaccord began talks with Ahn during the summer and that her court battle with RBC would not affect “her ability to get the job done here.”
RBC dismissed Ahn in April over what it called an “undisclosed close personal relationship” with a treasury executive at the bank, Ken Mason, whom the lender also fired.
Ahn and Mason have both sued RBC for millions of dollars in damages, maintaining that their connection was merely a work friendship. RBC countersued Ahn and Mason to claw back what it has called excessive compensation. The bank additionally argued Ahn used her position to secure a promotion for Mason.
“I am excited to join Canaccord Genuity Group, and I look forward to bringing my experience to an organization that prioritizes innovation, entrepreneurial spirit and improving shareholder returns,” Ahn said in a statement.
Ahn joined RBC in 2002 and spent most of her career in the lender’s treasury department. She worked as the controller of RBC’s capital markets unit for seven years before being named CFO in 2021, The Globe and Mail reported.
She was reportedly instrumental in RBC’s acquisition of HSBC Bank Canada and was, at one time, seen as a potential successor to CEO Dave McKay.
Toronto-based Canaccord operates two principal lines of securities business: wealth management and capital markets. Canaccord’s client assets in its global wealth management business at the end of the first quarter totaled $105.8 billion — a $8.6 billion increase over the same period last year, according to its most recent earnings report from August.
Canaccord did not respond to requests for comment by press time.