UWI Vice-Chancellor Award for financial executive Ray Williams
April 12, 2023
As a leading Canadian financial services executive who has demonstrated exemplary leadership and community service, Ray Williams has had a fair share of recognition.
When notified late last year he was going to be a University of the West Indies (UWI) Toronto Vice-Chancellor Award recipient, he paused to consider the magnitude of the recognition.
For a few seconds, there were several emotions in Williams’ head.
“I was completely surprised and overwhelmed, but also thrilled,” said the National Bank Financial Vice-Chairman, Financial Markets. “I have received numerous awards over the years, but this one stands out because it is aligned to me as a person and where I come from. This is coming from an educational organization that is raising funds for young people in the Caribbean to pursue higher education. Education has always been in my life and that is the reason I seek opportunities to create access for others. Had it not been for access to free education, I would not have been able to do undergraduate and graduate degrees and possibly not get into some professional capacities that I have been in over the years.”
Several of Williams’ family members and friends attended UWI.
He didn’t get that opportunity.
Just before turning nine in 1969, Williams – whose expertise is in debt capital markets -- left Grenada to join his parents who were part of the Windrush Generation that went to England in the early 1960s.
Unsure of a career goal, he ended up in banking by accident.
After completing an undergraduate degree with honours in Japanese Economic History at North Staffordshire University and a Master’s in Regional Planning Economics at Coventry University in 1982, Williams joined the treasury department of one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies.
“That was where all the cash management and transfers were done,” he said. “Because I was dealing with banks daily, I got engaged in understanding what some of these folks did. What really motivated me to move to the bank side was the money I saw some of these people were making. That, however, has not been the thing that has created joy for me even though there is a joy to numbers for sure.”
As a Derivative Specialist working in some of the most complex and sophisticated areas in finance, Williams created markets by supplying bid offer quotes for financial products.
“I did that for many years,” he pointed out. “Now, I don’t do anything right now that represents execution for clients.”
While working for CIBC in London in the late 1980s, steep and unexpected selloffs devastated global markets on October 19, 1987 known as ‘Black Monday’. The selloffs triggered a massive stock market crash.
Williams survived the layoffs, but was given a mandate -- make money.
“I started undertaking some arbitrages that ended up attracting attention in an unwanted fashion,” he said. “There were certain market mechanisms that allowed me to undertake a trade where I could offer a particular name or credit to the Canadian market at substantial return levels. Some of the clients in the Canadian market started to buy products from me and that led to complaints from the local people.”
Susan Crocker, then head of CIBC’s Money Markets Group in New York, called Williams to expand on the complaints.
When he told her his job was to make money, she advised she would be in London in a few days and would like to sit and chat with him.
“I explained to her what I was doing to create this arbitrage and her reply was, ‘Wow, that is very good’,” said Williams who is an Executive-in-Residence at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. “She asked if I was mobile which I was not sure what that meant. My wife was pregnant and I told Susan maybe there was an opportunity to have that conversation after the birth of our child.”
Ray Williams and his wife of 33 years, Georgina Williams (Photo by Ron Fanfair)
In his early 30s, he accepted an offer to run a seven-member team.
“I thought I was going to New York because that is where the boss was,” Williams said. “It turned out that I was coming to Canada which, looking back, I am very happy about. I came to Toronto in September 1988 for business and loved my three days here.”
It didn’t take long for the newcomer to make his mark.
Williams and a group of financial professionals, led by Paget Warner who was one of the first Black portfolio managers on Bay St., created the National Association of Urban Bankers in 1997 that became the Urban Financial Services Coalition (Canadian chapter) three years later.
Established in 1974, the UFSC headquarters is in Washington, DC.
A few years ago, the organization underwent another name change to the Canadian Association of Urban Financial Professionals.
“We concluded that we were paying money as a chapter without getting any value in return,” he said. “The majority of the membership money went to the UFSC head office which did not have much to provide.”
Williams said the organization, that promotes economic empowerment, is thriving.
“More importantly, it is creating a pipeline for young Black financial professionals,” he pointed out. “Most of our past presidents are doing extremely well and it is nice to see younger people coming through because a path was cut by some of the older folks who provided guidance and opened their networks to them. I am proud of my engagement and what I have contributed directly or indirectly over the years.”
For six years up until 2006, Williams was part of a six-member External Advisory Group on Embracing Change committee chosen to address the significant under-representation of visible minorities in the federal public service
He was also instrumental in the National Bank participation in the Banking Sector Education & Training Authority six-week development program that brought up to 16 senior South African banking executives from previously disadvantaged groups to Canada yearly.
In the summer of 2020, the Black Opportunity Fund (BOF) was launched with the aim of dismantling anti-Black racism through the establishment of a sustainable pool of capital to fund Black-led business and Black-led non-profit organizations ad charities to enhance Canada’s Black communities social and economic well-being.
Williams conceived the idea for BOF after meeting with human resources executive Heather Ricketts who founded World Class Jamaica to empower youths in mainly rural Jamaica.
In September 2019, he assisted the organization with a fundraiser, ‘Cocktail for A Cause’, to refurbish St. Theresa’s Basic School in the parish of St. Mary.
“There were people at the event that assumed I was Jamaican,” he said. “When I told them I am not, they asked why I was assisting with this fundraiser. It struck me that our community is too often focused on where they are from. We are immigrants here in Canada. When you pigeonhole yourself, you are just a thread as the host community see us as Black. There is nothing wrong with being proud of your island heritage, but understand we need to work together more collaboratively.”
Williams pulled together a group of business professionals who have an interest in delivering sustainable and needs-informed streams.
“We focused on inter-generational wealth, financial literacy, how people get access to housing, education and what is the next big industrial revolution which in STEM (science, technology, engineering & mathematics) and why it is important we don’t get left behind,” he noted. “We were on our way to starting something that we wanted to deliver and uplift our community when George Floyd was murdered in 2020. That was the accelerator for us to start the BOF.”
Ray Williams (l) with George Brown College’s Limberlost Place Project Manager Nerys Rau and the College’s Senior Vice-President Joe Cressy (Photo by Ron Fanfair)
The organization recently launched the Black Business Loan Program for Black entrepreneurs unable to secure funding through Canadian financial institutions. They may be eligible for loans between $10,000 and $50,000.
During the 2007/8 global financial crisis, Williams turned to cooking as therapy.
“I de-stress very quickly when I go into the kitchen and cook,” he said. “Cooking is my meditation.”
Williams also enrolled in George Brown College Culinary Arts Certificate program.
“The nine courses were a huge reprieve in that I was able to do something that was far removed from my day job,” the 2019 Harry Jerome Award recipient said. “For something that I am passionate about, that was wonderful for my soul and great for me as a stress reliever.”
Because of a busy work schedule, Williams attended classes on weekends and completed the program in 2011.
As the eldest of five children, he started cooking for his family at age 14 while his single mother was holding down three jobs.
“It was not pretty at first as I burned stuff and did half-cooked meals, but I learnt as time went on,” Williams, a member of the 100Strong Foundation Leadership Board, said. “When I started working, banks took me as a client to some of the fanciest restaurants in London’s Square Mile (the city’s financial district). I was seeing money spent on me that I was not earning in a month. What was more amazing was the exposure to various foods, including sophisticated French cuisine very early on. I learnt how important food is in a culture. When you break bread with people from a different culture, it goes a long way to creating relationships. Food is central to who we are as a people.”
The 14th annual UWI Toronto Benefit Awards ceremony takes place on April 29 at the Ritz-Carlton, Toronto.
