John Bai

John Bai is executive vice president, chief financial officer and chief transformation officer of City National Bank. John oversees the teams responsible for finance, enterprise project management, treasury, corporate development, third-party relationships and corporate real estate. He also coordinates City National’s sustainable growth model, managing functions and initiatives related to operations, efficiency, profitability and strategy. John is also a member of the Strategy & Planning committee and reports to City National CEO Kelly Coffey, Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) CFO Nadine Ahn, and RBC Chief Administrative and Strategy Officer Christoph Knoess.

John has more than 25 years of financial services experience. Prior to joining City National in 2021, he was president and CEO of RBC Direct Investing, Canada’s second-largest online brokerage. Before that, he led RBC’s Wealth Management Finance division, where he oversaw teams in Canada, the U.K., Singapore and Hong Kong. He also led RBC’s Enterprise Performance Management team.

Earlier in his career, John worked as a director in RBC’s Strategy and Corporate Development group. He also spent nine years as a senior portfolio manager at Fiera Capital Corporation and as an equity researcher at Credit Suisse First Boston. John began his career as an accountant with PwC. 

John currently serves as a director on the CODE Inc. foundation board, which supports Canada’s leading international development agency focused uniquely on education and literacy. He also serves as a director and treasurer on the board of EnCorps, an organization dedicated to providing low-income communities with access to STEM educational programs. He is a member of the User Advisory Council of the Accounting Standards Board and is a chartered financial analyst^® and chartered accountant.