SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Joy Roberts, outgoing branch manager of the Franklin Avenue Royal Bank of Canada, started her career at a time when women mostly held the position of tellers and there were no computers.
Joy Roberts retired as branch manager of the Franklin Avenue Royal Bank of Canada on Feb. 28. - Thandiwe Vela/NNSL photo |
Her rise up the corporate ladder began as a customer service representative (CSR) in her hometown of Killarney, Man., in the 1970s, and culminated in Yellowknife, where she led the RBC branch for several years.
Staff and clients at the downtown bank bid Roberts farewell last week as she retired after a storied career with RBC.
"When I started at the bank, there were women hardly in the bank. Women were tellers," Roberts said. "I mean, times have definitely changed - we have computers. I started my banking before we even had computers."
Roberts worked her way from manually calculating interest owed to each client as a CSR, to the position of branch administration officer to account manager and then senior account manager - taking training and university courses to secure promotion after promotion.
"Royal Bank is a great employer in the fact that you can really grow in your career," she said. "You can do anything you want to do in the bank. It's just a matter of you doing your training and working hard."
Her career took her to Winnipeg and then in 2000, to Yellowknife, when husband Ed Roberts was transferred with NAV Canada.
In Yellowknife, "her skills and talents and ability to coach staff" led executives to promote Roberts to assistant branch manager in 2004 and then branch manager in 2006, said Jeff Fowler, regional vice-president North of 60 for RBC.
"When you think of Joy, I think of her not only as a leader but a mentor and a friend to everyone," said Fowler, adding that she will be missed "tremendously" at the Yellowknife branch.
Roberts inspired her colleagues with her dedication to a number of causes, especially the Yellowknife Terry Fox Run, which she has helped organize professionally representing RBC and personally, having lost a mother, sister-in-law and nephew to cancer. Her sister and brother-in-law are both cancer survivors.
"I guess you can say that's why it's kind of been my main cause," she said.
Roberts plans to continue her involvement with the Yellowknife Terry Fox Run as well as with Habitat for Humanity NWT post retirement.
She is being replaced at RBC by Yanik D'Aigle, who joins the Yellowknife branch from Langley, B.C.
