Ryan Wang, AMBA ’21, Ivey Business School (Canada), grew up in Xi’an, the ancient capital of China’s Shaanxi province and home to the Terracotta Warriors, where he developed an early appreciation for both history and ambition. In 2010, drawn by a single photograph of Signal Hill, he moved to Newfoundland, earning his undergraduate degree at Memorial University and beginning his career in public accounting. He now lives in Toronto with his wife and two daughters, working in a growth strategy role at RBC.
Diligence, persistence, and determination are the values his family instilled in him early – reinforced through eight years as a competitive table tennis player – and they’ve guided every chapter of his career since, from earning his CPA designation to leading M&A at TELUS to his current work at RBC.
What led you to your career, and how has it evolved over time?
My early career goal was to build a strong technical foundation in finance. Coming out of school, I wanted a credential that would be respected anywhere and would teach me how businesses actually worked from the inside out. That led me to pursue my CPA designation, working across different service lines including audit, tax, and transaction advisory at professional firms. With hindsight, I underestimated how demanding the path would be, but completing the three-day Common Final Exam and earning the designation gave me both the technical foundation and the confidence I was looking for.
From there, I wanted to apply those skills inside a company rather than serve it from the outside. I joined TELUS in 2018, where I spent nearly six years in Corporate Strategy and Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) across several business units – including TELUS Health and Business – leading and supporting transactions in industries I genuinely cared about, particularly technology.
After closing meaningful deals across those verticals, I felt ready for a new chapter, one that would broaden my industry exposure to financial services, one of the largest sectors of the Canadian economy. That’s what brought me to RBC in 2023. I spent my first two years on the venture and innovation side of the bank, leading strategy and investments in high-growth technology companies. More recently, I’ve moved into a growth strategy role within RBC’s Commercial Banking business, applying the same investor and strategist lens to a different part of the bank.
How did Ivey play a role?
Once I’d completed the CPA, I set a new development goal: to broaden my perspective from technical depth into something closer to business leadership. I researched MBA programmes across Canada and the US, and Ivey stood out for the case method. I knew it would force me to think and decide under pressure rather than just absorb material.
In practice, Ivey did more than that. The case method reshaped how I structure problems and communicate recommendations at work, and the diversity of the cohort taught me to value perspectives I’d never have encountered in my own industry alone. Years out, I still draw on that experience constantly, particularly in roles like the one I'm in now, where every initiative requires synthesising input from people with very different backgrounds.
Why did you choose the Accelerated MBA specifically?
When the Accelerated MBA (AMBA) launched in Toronto, I was one of the first applicants and joined the inaugural cohort. A few things drew me to it: the case method, the condensed format, and the part-time flexibility that meant I didn’t have to step away from the M&A work I was loving at TELUS.
Being in the first cohort came with a unique twist. We started in late 2019, and within a few months the pandemic hit. Overnight, the entire programme shifted to a fully virtual format. For an MBA, where so much of the value comes from sitting in a room together, debating cases, and building real relationships with classmates, doing it through laptop screens was genuinely hard. We adapted, the school adapted, and together we found ways to make it work, but it tested everyone in the cohort.
If a new applicant asked me today whether they should do the AMBA, my answer would be yes, without hesitation. Even through the disruption, the experience was transformational and immersive, and the friendships I formed will last a lifetime. That, to me, is the real measure of an MBA, and Ivey delivered on it.
What personal or professional accomplishment are you most proud of?
Becoming a CPA. On paper, it’s a standard credential – most people who know me today probably don’t think of it as my most defining accomplishment. But the work it took to earn it as a new immigrant, while building both a career and a life in a country I was still learning, is something I look back on with real pride.
Through that period, I was working 15-hour days at the firm during peak season while preparing for the CPA modules and, ultimately, the three-day Common Final Exam, a single assessment that determines whether years of training translate into the designation. Passing it felt less like checking a box and more like proof that the values my parents raised me on actually worked in practice.
Everything I’ve done since – the corporate move into M&A, the MBA, and the work I’m doing now at RBC – was built on the foundation that earning my CPA gave me. The credential matters. But the lesson the journey taught me about persistence matters more.
What is your favourite memory from your time at Ivey?
The two-week onsite orientation at Spencer Hall, before classes officially started. Most of the cohort didn’t know each other yet, and we spent those days living and learning together – long stretches of case discussions, group prep sessions, and a lot of late nights.
The moment that stays with me most clearly was a late-night case prep session that dissolved into laughter. We’d been at it for hours, the analysis was going nowhere, and someone made a joke that landed with the right group at the right time. We never quite got back to the case that night.
What I didn’t realise then was that those evenings, when the work dissolved into something more human, were where the real friendships were being built. Years later, many of those people are still in my life, both professionally and personally. The cases I remember; the relationships I won’t forget.
What is the most important takeaway from your Ivey experience?
The people. It sounds simple, but I don’t think you can replicate the cohort experience anywhere else. Ivey brings together classmates from a remarkably wide range of ages, industries, professional backgrounds, and life stages, and forces you to learn together intensely over a sustained period of time.
What that does, more than any single case or framework, is reshape how you think. Every classmate brings a perspective you wouldn’t have encountered on your own, and you absorb that across every discussion. Years later, when I’m working on a problem at RBC and instinctively ask, “What would someone outside finance see here?”, that habit came from Ivey.
The credential is portable. The case method is sharp. But the network and the way of thinking are what stay with you.
Are you still connected to the school in any way?
Yes, and probably more actively than I expected I would be. I attend Ivey events through my workplace and broader professional circles, including Global Ivey Day, and I make a point of staying engaged with the alumni community. I also volunteer time through the Ivey Career Connection Programme, meeting with current students and prospective candidates who are weighing whether the AMBA, or another Ivey programme, is right for them.
One of the things I’ve come to appreciate post-graduation is how genuinely willing Ivey alumni are to make time for each other, and for current students. That spirit is part of why I keep showing up. This very profile, in fact, came out of exactly that kind of connection – and it feels like a small way of paying it forward.
