Like many women in leadership, Rebecca Pang has worked tirelessly for decades. Now, after achieving many of her career goals, she is rediscovering the artistic expression that shaped her youth, incorporating music into an already full life that includes family, philanthropy, and leading a large team at RBC Royal Bank. Piano playing has called her back to her roots, reconnecting her with a form of expression and discipline she left behind as a 17-year-old in Hong Kong. It is this creative outlet to which she has returned, and it stands as a symbol of her reinvention into West Coast life after years in the fast pace of Bay Street. With numerous accomplishments on her résumé, Rebecca is enjoying the rediscovery of meaning after a lifetime of striving. “How do you do things a second time,” she asks, “but with more wisdom, and more experience, and feel it differently?”
Rebecca moved to Vancouver with her family 18 months ago as Regional Vice President of Business Financial Services for RBC. Her world-class academic and professional background positions her as a tremendous asset to any organization on the West Coast. With a Stanford MBA, experience as a consultant at McKinsey, and mergers and acquisitions work in investment banking, Rebecca achieved what many ambitious business school graduates aspire to. Yet now, upon reflection, she admits her goals were shaped by the competitive culture around her, which fueled her achievement-oriented personality. “I chose accounting because all the smart students went there,” she says. “And then I went into management consulting because it was the hardest job to get.”
Looking back on her earlier career, Rebecca recognizes that she had the titles, the prestige, and the experience of working on billion-dollar deals, but over time, purpose became more important than status. Today, she helps entrepreneurs, immigrant business owners, and nonprofits grow and create meaningful impact. She also prioritizes giving back, establishing a scholarship in her name to support international students attending Toronto Metropolitan University. She did not want to wait until retirement to make a difference, explaining, “It’s beyond the dollar. It’s how you use that wealth to create an impact today. I wake up every day excited thinking about the community I can impact through my work at RBC and personal philanthropy.”
From her vantage point today, Rebecca has a thoughtful perspective on her own journey. As an immigrant woman, despite being highly educated and business savvy, she received only one offer after sending out 500 résumés. Later, while working in investment banking, she was the only ESL woman on her team and realized that although she was fluent in English, in addition to Cantonese and Mandarin, her colleagues mainly spoke “hockey-ish,” a cultural language with which she was unfamiliar. She remembers feeling like an outsider, at times overly analytical, at times invisible, and worked hard to understand the nuances that would help her connect within the fast-paced culture of Bay Street, including learning the language of hockey.
With the benefit of hindsight, Rebecca has plenty of advice for women entering leadership. In particular, she stresses the importance of women putting up their hands and identifying themselves as ready to step into greater opportunities. She notes that women, especially immigrant women, often believe they must overprepare before taking the next step, leaving them stuck in a state of perpetual preparation. “Sometimes we have to get out of our own way,” Rebecca states. “By not asking, sometimes we are perceived as not ambitious enough.”
Today, Rebecca encourages other women to believe there are no boundaries to what they can achieve. She herself has removed many self-imposed limitations and is embracing reinvention by returning to piano, but now from a perspective shaped by joy, wisdom, and self-expression, refined through years of building a career, raising a family, and establishing a philanthropic legacy.
Beyond the titles and accomplishments, Rebecca is most proud of building a life defined by her own values. Her ability to mentor others and guide her family to live intentionally, give back, and contribute meaningfully are what matter most to her. “How do we find a life of joy beyond the titles and the salary?” Rebecca asks. Her priorities suggest she has already found the answer.