Born in Kuwait, Llewellyn moved to Egypt with her family at age 11, then immigrated to Halifax five years later. After completing a MBA at Saint Mary’s University, she landed an entry-level job at Scotiabank, where she rose to hold a number of leadership roles, including vice-president of multicultural banking, and president and CEO of Scotiabank’s venture capital arm, Roynat Capital.
By 2020, she had earned a reputation as a transformational leader — which Laurentian Bank, at least with regards to its technological offerings, desperately needed.
Soon after being appointed as leader of Canada’s 10th-largest bank, Llewellyn spearheaded the creation of Laurentian’s first mobile banking app, enabled tap payments on its debit cards, and partnered with Alberta-based fintech platform Thirdstream to enable clients to open an online bank account within minutes rather than days. Llewellyn said she was shocked the bank had waited until now to develop those tech updates, which competitors had implemented years and even decades ago.
“I thought: How are we going to retain our customer base if we don’t have the digital foundational pieces?” she said.
Laurentian banking in pandemic times
33%
Percentage of Laurentian Bank's workforce that turned over in Rania Llewellyn's first year and a half as CEO.
$26.21 vs. $32.10
Stock price on Oct. 1, 2020, before Llewellyn began, versus stock price at close on June 22.
$1.40 billion
Approx. market cap as of June 22.
50%
Percentage by which Laurentian cut its leased office space when it became a digital-first bank in November 2021.
Llewellyn went on to ban loans to oil and gas companies to promote sustainable practices; launched new annual reports that track the bank’s progress toward meeting environmental, social and governance goals; removed Canadian experience as a hiring criterion; and added diversity, equity and inclusion metrics on hiring scorecards: a move she describes as necessary in making Laurentian an equal opportunity employer.
“As humans we want to hire people who look like us,” said Llewellyn, who recalls making coffee at a Tim Hortons in Dartmouth, N.S., because she couldn’t find a job in her field after earning her business degree. She wondered if her maiden name — Zakaria Guindi — which appeared at the top of her resume, scared off employers.
“Removing that bias from the recruitment process promotes diversity of thought and enables more creative solutions,” she said.
As those changes were made, however, there was an exodus of employees. More than 1,000 workers — one in three — left the bank during her first 17 months as CEO. Llewellyn claims that’s roughly on par with Laurentian’s regular churn, but it’s much more than the average turnover rate at U.S. banks, which hovers at around 20 per cent.
Llewellyn said the high movement was due to a combination of natural attrition and performance-oriented issues.
“The change in leadership was a natural way for some people to opt out and say, ‘You know what? This isn’t lining up, I’m good to go,’ ” she said.
Transformational time
Ian Lee, associate professor at Carleton University’s Sprott School of Business, called Laurentian’s turnover rate unusual, even for pandemic times.
“One in three is a very high churn for a bank, and certainly larger than what we typically see at Canada’s larger financial institutions,” said Lee, adding that other drivers such as the pandemic, retiring boomers and a rise in poaching by the Big Five banks are probably also to blame.
Employees told the Star there were various reasons why so many workers made their exit at once, and that the exodus started before Llewellyn’s time.
Audrey Holtz, who joined Laurentian’s Quebec headquarters as a consultant in August 2020, left her job after seven months because she grew frustrated with the company’s lacklustre tech offerings. She said customers were growing annoyed that no properly streamlined app had followed the bank’s shift to a cashless system in early 2020, and their constant frustration rendered her job stressful.
When Llewellyn took over as CEO in October 2020, Holtz hoped she would bring change, but employees in her department were quitting by the day, and when her manager left the following February, she also jumped ship.
“There was pressure to sell what I felt was an inadequate product — nearly every day a client would call and ask to close their account because we had no good digital offering,” said Holtz, who started a job at TD shortly after leaving Laurentian Bank.
“It’s good to hear (Laurentian’s) technology is better now — I think achieving this earlier could have helped keep lots of employees around.”
Lee agrees that 2021 was high time for Laurentian to bolster its computing capacity.
“It was urgent that they develop new strategies — like creating a better digital banking experience and giving employees the choice to work from home — so that they maintain talent. If not, they would get left behind in a recession scenario as clients and employees seek out larger banks,” Lee said.
Two years later, the makeover seems to have worked: Laurentian has beaten analyst estimates in nine of ten quarters since Llewellyn took the reins.
Last year alone, earnings per share increased by 14 per cent, almost tripling its initial target of five per cent.
In this time, the bank has reported that approximately 90 per cent of its employees who answered voluntary anonymous surveys trust upper management.
‘You have it or you don’t’
Kim Pernell, an assistant professor at the University of Texas who wrote her dissertation on bank regulation in Canada, predicts a difficult year for the country’s financial institutions, fuelled by rising interest rates, sky-high household debt and a lousy stock market.
Mid-sized banks like Laurentian, she said, are particularly at risk, as shareholders tend to move their investments toward large institutions in difficult economic times.
A high turnover, said Pernell, could also push some investors away by signalling discontent, and a loss of specific knowledge inside a bank carried by long-term employees.
“That being said,” added Pernell, “maybe Laurentian needed a cultural shakeup, and their new look will attract new retail depositors. That can be a great way to generate more income.”
Banking fast facts
99%
Percentage of Canadian adults who have an account with a financial institution.
$12.5 billion
Taxes paid in Canada in 2020 by the six largest banks.
280,000
Number of Canadians banks employed in 2020.
110,000
Number of people employed by Canadian banks in other countries in 2020.
3 million
Number of selfemployed and small- and mediumsized businesses across Canada banks serve.
78%
Percentage of Canadians who do most of their banking digitally (online and mobile).
Source: Canadian Bankers Association
Toronto Star graphic
Eric Provost, Laurentian’s executive vice-president of commercial banking and who has been at the organization for 11 years, praised Llewellyn for bringing the necessary change to prepare the bank for economic challenges. He said a poorly executed shift to cashless banking early in the pandemic reflected an organization operating in silos, with little cohesion or accountability between sectors. Now, he feels the bank is working more like a team.
“When Rania boarded, she brought new energy and made things happen … you can feel that the team is delivering now because they have the tools.”
Llewellyn said she recognizes that Canada is encountering unforeseen macroeconomic conditions: a possible recession with really low unemployment. She is convinced the new people she has hired — which include new heads of technology, operations and personal banking — are the right ones to tackle whatever lies ahead.
“We looked less for technical competencies and more for the right DNA: people who are resourceful and resilient with an agile mindset,” she said. “I can’t teach you that — you have it or you don’t.”
Llewellyn is confident her fresh-faced team — while smaller than those of competitors — has the right people in place to thrive in an economy still compromised by high inflation. The trust appears to go both ways: her staff’s high leadership approval rate, and the bank’s streak of positive earnings reports, indicate Llewellyn’s efforts might have not only kept the bank afloat during the post-pandemic years, but also saved it from collapse in a rapidly changing world.
“I see myself as a custodian: I want to leave this place better than I found it,” she said.