Refining business skills through the John Molson Executive MBA

Cyntia Guralnik has rediscovered her passion for learning

After finishing a Bachelor in Business Administration in 2007, Cyntia joined RBC Royal Bank and rapidly rose to coaching and managerial positions. Bolstered by her subsequent IQPF Financial Planning designation, she has become a successful and committed Senior Financial Planner, elaborating financial planning strategies to RBC’s mass affluent clientele with a focus on retirement, investment, estate and tax planning, cash flow and net worth optimization, as well as debt and risk management.

In her current role, she also provides support and mentors colleagues to increase their sales and advice capabilities. As a result of her commitment to collaboration, her expertise in coaching, and work values that align with a high-performance culture that prioritizes for greatest impact, twice she earned RBC Convention, which is awarded annually to the top 1% of employees. It gave her the opportunity to network with executive hosts, attend inspiring business sessions and learn about upcoming innovations. Cyntia not only is self-driven, loves people, numbers and finance, but has a particular interest in emotional intelligence and its impact on talent management.

Cyntia chose to pursue the John Molson Executive MBA with the goal of further developing and challenging herself. “I am keen to discover what else is out there, learning new ideas and innovations in my field as well as in other industries.  Things have changed so much since I earned my BBA”. The EMBA has allowed her to discover new interests in digital strategies, data analytics and prediction learning.  As stated by Ghandi, she believes you should “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever”.

Now more than ever, discussion and support in and around the topic of mental health have become a priority for many businesses and personal development has been a big motivator for Cyntia to pursue the EMBA.. “Having experienced a depression forced me to reassess my purpose in life and career and, although it was a tough experience, out of it, I’ve grown so much as I have built on my resilience and emotional intelligence.  Feeling like I can help build stronger awareness around mental health is extremely important to me, which is why I joined the RBC Unique committee to participate and support community activities around diversity and inclusion. I also recently volunteered with Ami-Quebec, our local mental health association, to share my experience and provide support.”

Cyntia is appreciating the many advantages of the EMBA. One key advantage is the ability to work full-time while pursuing the program, but the best part is the opportunity to learn from her fellow classmates. “This may be cliché, but the EMBA class feel like a family to me. It’s a small class, so the connections we’ve built together are huge.”

Another advantage of the program is that students have the capacity to make important connections between classroom learning and what is happening in their organizations, with students applying their new knowledge right away in the workplace. This is particularly relevant now, given how COVID-has disrupted most industries, including banking.

“It has been very helpful to apply new learning and approaches during this time of changing practices so it’s a really perfect timing to be pursuing the EMBA. Especially with how quickly things are moving in the banking sector, there is fertile ground for experimenting and introducing new approaches.”