USA 
United Kingdom
The high-profile sacking of Royal Bank of Canada’s former Chief Financial Officer (CFO) has escalated with the ex-executive claiming the bank sought to ‘manufacture’ her exit.
Former CFO Nadine Ahn has repeatedly refuted the accusations made by RBC, who fired her after allegations arose of a personal relationship with another executive that she did not disclose to the company.
She has also denied that she broke company policy by inappropriately sharing confidential information with the individual in question, former RBC treasury executive Ken Mason.
Ahn filed a wrongful dismissal claim against the bank in August, which stated: “It is clear that RBC’s conclusions are based on conjecture and speculation, and are a blatant, deliberate attempt to manufacture a just cause termination.”
According to the executive’s lawyer, Mark Fletcher, Ahn and Mason were only friends.
From retention to risk reduction: How to deliver training to improve employee experience
There are a range of challenges facing people leaders when it comes to creating a compelling employee experience. It can be difficult to keep workers engaged, particularly where training & development is concerned. But whether it's compliance risk through mandatory training, or retaining staff through career skills building, it's business-critical for effective learning programs to enhance the employee experience.
Join us for a webinar hosted in partnership with WILL Interactive to learn how to deliver training to improve workplace culture and the bottom line.
The webinar will cover:
How the training you provide can elevate or diminish the employee experience
The benefits a more modern training experience can bring to the organization include retaining staff, addressing competency gaps, and even reducing compliance risk for mandatory training
The role exceptional training can play throughout the process of employee and workforce development
HR Grapevine is recognized by SHRM to offer Professional Development Credits (PDCs) for SHRM-CP® or SHRM-SCP® recertification activities.
“There is no policy against workplace friendships, and that’s all this was,” the legal representative said in a statement Thursday, claiming that RBC has “selectively quoted” communications between the pair.
Fletcher’s statement came as new documents were filed for the case, which reiterated that Ahn and Mason were “good friends” and claimed that Ahn did not abuse the power she held as CFO to secure Mason career promotions or pay increases.
“Nadine was supportive when consulted about these decisions because they made sense,” Fletcher explained. “There are many checks and balances at the bank to ensure no individual can unilaterally determine compensation.”
Why did Royal Bank of Canada fire CFO Ahn?
Royal Bank of Canada, the country’s biggest bank that also runs some operations in the US, fired the CFO in April after a whistleblower reported an alleged relationship between Ahn and Mason.
The whistleblower report prompted an external investigation into Ahn, who is one of Canada’s highest-profile financial leaders having worked at the bank for over 25 years.
“Ms. Ahn was a highly respected member of the executive team and a senior leader with fiduciary responsibilities. We supported her career growth and had great confidence in her abilities,” RBC previously stated.
“After receiving the anonymous complaint, the bank “immediately commenced a thorough investigation conducted by external legal counsel. We were disappointed to learn the allegations were true,” it claimed.
Ahn again denied accusations by RBC that she lied to the external investigators about the relationship.
RBC has refuted Ahn’s accusation that her exit was manufactured by the business and that communications were selectively chosen to misconstrue her reported friendship with Mason.
After Ahn filed the wrongful dismissal suit in August, the bank hit back, claiming it gathered over a decade of communication between the former colleagues. RBC said the communications include pet names, outside-of-work drinks, romantic poetry, anniversaries, and other details that prove the relationship was intimate.
The former CFO argued under the RBC’s policies, workplace friendships don’t need to be required—claiming that other executives at the company even went on vacation together as friends and that nicknames between colleagues were commonplace.
Ahn previously fired a member of her team who had an undisclosed romantic relationship with a subordinate, an incident which she claims is “fundamentally different” than her friendship with Mason.
Mason has also fired a wrongful dismissal claim against the company.
Office relationships commonplace in the US
Workplace relationships represent troubled waters for HR professionals, particularly given their prevalence in corporate America.
A 2024 Forbes Advisor study found that over 60% of adults have had a workplace romance. Provided relationships are properly disclosed and do not lead to consequences such as favorable treatment, distraction in the office, team disruption, or other issues such as confidential information breaches, some employers will condone office relationships.
But it’s rarely that straightforward. The same study found that 57% of responding employees admitted workplace relationships impacted their work performance, 35% revealed they don’t report their relationship to their employer, and 52% of people reported that their co-workers treated them differently.
Whether HR teams choose to permit them or not, office relationships are romance are still going to take place. Employers must practice careful safeguarding, setting out clear policies on navigating and managing workplace romances.
