RBC appoints ‘highly respected’ 22-year company veteran as CFO in wake of alleged affair scandal

Dave McKay, president and CEO of RBC, congratulated Gibson on her new appointment in a LinkedIn post on Thursday: “From day one, she’s lived up to her reputation for being a highly respected and experienced executive.”

McKay added that senior leaders across RBC rely on Gibson’s strong global financial insights and trusted advice. And after conducting an international search, she was “clearly the best choice for the role.”

Courtesy of Royal Bank of Canada

Gibson joined RBC, the largest bank in Canada, 22 years ago, and most recently served as SVP of enterprise finance and controller. Her other prior roles include SVP of wealth management, investor and treasury services and insurance finance, and VP of enterprise optimization. She has also held board positions on some of RBC’s domestic and global subsidiaries, served as chair of the ESG Disclosure Committee, and sat on the Enterprise Diversity Leadership Council.

“Katherine stepped into the role as interim CFO in April at a pivotal time for RBC, just a few days after we successfully completed one of the most important acquisitions in our history,” McKay said. RBC announced on March 28 that it completed the acquisition of HSBC Bank Canada.

Gibson’s appointment helps RBC turn the page on the scandal surrounding Ahn, who was fired due to what the bank said was an “undisclosed close personal relationship” with another employee—a violation of the firm’s code of conduct.

According to RBC, the relationship “led to preferential treatment of the employee including promotion and compensation increases.” Ken Mason, the bank’s vice president of capital and term funding, who was the other accused person, was also terminated. 

Ahn, along with Mason, have denied the allegations and subsequently filed separate lawsuits against RBC. The bank filed a statement of defense and counterclaim on Aug. 16. The investigation showed there was an “undisclosed close personal relationship and that Ms. Ahn misused her authority as CFO to directly benefit Mr. Mason,” RBC spokesperson Gillian McArdle told me last month. The relationship developed in 2013 or earlier and continued through to the termination of their employment, according to RBC’s counterclaim. 

In new legal documents filed in an Ontario court, Ahn accuses the bank of trying to “manufacture” a reason to fire her. Ahn claims that she and Mason were just “good friends,” and that she never abused her power to orchestrate promotions or pay raises for him.

Have a good weekend. See you on Monday.

Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com

Leaderboard

Some notable moves this week:

Lucas Montarce was promoted to EVP and CFO at Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY), effective immediately. Montarce joined Lilly in 2001, most recently serving in the role of president and general manager for the Spain, Portugal, and Greece hub. And before that, he served in roles such as group VP, corporate controller and CFO of Lilly Research Laboratories, and VP of finance and CFO of Lilly International.

Delphine Herve was named SVP and CFO of Sephora North America, owned by luxury conglomerate LVMH. Herve will succeed Christophe Le Boterff, EVP and CFO of North America since 2017, who will retire in April. Herve has served as SVP of finance, financial planning and analysis for the region since 2022. She joined Sephora North America in 2014.

Barbara Larson was named CFO of SentinelOne (NYSE: S), an AI-powered cybersecurity platform, effective immediately. Larson has more than 25 years of SaaS experience in financial operations management and leadership. She has held various finance leadership roles scaling dynamic, high-growth public software companies. Most recently, she was the CFO at Workday. Before that, Larson held financial leadership roles at VMware, TIBCO Software, and Symantec.

Troy R. Anderson was named EVP and CFO of Kelly (Nasdaq: KELYA, KELYB), a global specialty talent solutions provider, effective Oct. 14 Anderson will succeed Olivier Thirot, who is retiring from the company. Upon completion of the transition, Thirot will serve as a strategic advisor. Anderson brings to Kelly more than 30 years of experience. Most recently, he served as EVP and CFO of Universal Technical Institute, Inc.

Sean Sievers was named CFO of Merchants Bancorp (Nasdaq: MBIN), effective Sept. 9. Most recently, Sievers served as CFO at Rate (formerly Guaranteed Rate). His career includes leadership roles as CFO of Countrywide's Internet Bank and Retail Origination team, senior director at Freddie Mac, CFO of SunTrust's Consumer Banking Division, and CFO of Citibank’s Global Mortgage Business.

Doug Samuelson was appointed CFO of Newton Golf (Nasdaq: SPGC), a manufacturer of putters and other golf products, effective immediately. He will succeed former CFO Steve Handy, who resigned to pursue other opportunities, the company said. Samuelson has served as the CFO of eight companies and most recently held the role at biopharmaceutical company Kairos Pharma, which he joined in 2019.

Pete McGrath was promoted to SVP and CFO of Intuitive Machines (Nasdaq: LUNR), a space exploration, infrastructure and services company, effective Sept. 16. He will succeed interim CFO Steven Vontur, who will transition into serving as chief accounting officer and controller. McGrath, the company’s chief operating officer, joined Intuitive Machines in 2020 after working at Boeing as director of global sales and marketing in the company’s space exploration business unit.

Big Deal

ThoughtSpot and MIT have published a new report, Generative AI for Data and Analytics: How Early Adopters are Reaping the Rewards. It explores how companies are using generative AI to support their data strategy. The findings are based on a survey of 1,000 business and data leaders in multiple industry sectors across North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. Sixty-seven percent of respondents are already leveraging generative AI for an analytics use case, with 26% planning to and 7% evaluating its use, according to the report.

Going deeper

Here are a few Fortune weekend reads:

“Why a Roth IRA is the ‘holy grail’ retirement account—no matter your income” by Alicia Adamczyk

“Warren Buffett backs away from politics—even as Omaha could decide the election” by Greg McKenna

“How to get a job at Thoma Bravo, one of the most sought after PE firms” by Luisa Beltran

Overheard

“It is critical that all stakeholders, including regulators, supervisors, law enforcement, and banks, align on a shared vision to address financial crime that focuses more on outcomes than check-box compliance activities.”

—Adena Friedman, chair and CEO of Nasdaq, writes in a Fortune opinion piece titled, “U.S. economic growth would be 0.5% higher if it weren’t for fraud.”