UWI Vice Chancellor Award for retired financial services executive Mark Beckles
February 5, 2025
Migrating to Canada in the middle of winter is very daunting for most newcomers.
With a job in hand before making the move, Mark Beckles thought that would, at least, mitigate the cold.
Before deciding to accompany his newlywed wife who was accepted into Algonquin College’s Financial Management Studies program in 1990, he did a phone interview from Barbados with an insurance company in Ottawa and was offered a risk management job.
“They faxed the offer to me before I left,” Beckles recalled. “The plan was that I was going to work and take care of most of the financial responsibilities while my wife was in school.”
On occasion, the best-laid plans go awry as he found out when he showed up for work that first day.
“The gentleman who offered me the job said there must be some mistake,” Beckles recounted. “At first, I did not pay attention to what he said. As I pulled out the letter and kept talking, he insisted there was a mistake. The last time he said it, he turned the back of his chair towards me so that I could no longer see his face. That is when it hit me that he didn’t know I am Black.”
Disqualified for the position because of skin colour was confusing for the newcomer confronting prejudice for the first time.
“Walking out of that office, it took me a while to process what had just happened,” Beckles said. “I had just come from a multiracial society in Barbados and worked for and with people in high office who look like me. It was hard trying to make sense of what I had just encountered.”
Out of bad comes good as he found out a few weeks later.
On a frigid February morning waiting for a bus to go to church for the first time in Canada, an elderly White woman (Marty Houston) pulled up in a Blue Chevrolet Caprice and inquired where the couple was heading.
Mark and Wendy Beckles have been married for 36 years (Photo by Ron Fanfair)
“We told her we were going to church and, without asking which one, she told us to hop in her vehicle,” Beckles said. “It was not until we were in the car did she ask and we told her Bethel Pentecostal Church. She said that is where she was going.”
On the way, Houston asked about their journey to Canada and their professional backgrounds.
“When I told her I am in insurance and my wife is in accounting and I am looking for work, she said she knew the person who I should talk to,” Beckles said.
It was her husband, Ernie Houston, who was already at church.
“Ernie told me he did life insurance which was not what I did,” Beckles pointed out. “However, he introduced me to Bill Cassidy who was an insurance broker and was at the same church that Sunday.”
Over the next two months, Cassidy drove him to and from his office so he could understand the insurance business in Ontario.
During the learning experience, Zurich Insurance with whom Beckles was interacting with, invited him for an interview after he applied for a position.
“Part of the interview included an aptitude test which I failed badly,” he said. “I was so nervous that I blanked out. Two days later, I received a call from Bev Edwards who said my performance in the test was inconsistent with what was on my resume and I needed to do it again. She didn’t have to do that. Something prompted her to make that call and gave me a second chance.”
Beckles aced the test a week later and never looked back.
After four years of getting Canadian experience and certifications, he and his wife returned to Barbados.
“At the time, several insurance companies were converting to full insurance companies,” Beckles, who completed Algonquin’s three-year Enterprise Risk Management program, said. “My job with the company I joined was to write the reinsurance, operational and risk management policies to transition from an insurance agency of General Accident which was a large Scottish company to become a local fully capitalized insurance company in Barbados.”
A year later, he joined CGM Gallagher Insurance which is the Caribbean’s largest insurance broker.
Skilled in operating an insurance brokerage, Beckles founded Allied Insurance Brokers Ltd. in 1997 which grew to a value of $2.5 million before he sold it and came back to Canada for good in 1999.
Canada was his home for two years in the early 1970s after spending the first five years in England.
Mark Beckles was the recipient of a Harry Jerome Award in April 2015 (Photo by Ron Fanfair)
At age nine, Beckles left for Barbados where his classmates at Merrivale Preparatory School, founded by Avisene ‘Avis’ Carrington who celebrated her 106th birthday last September, was Mia Mottley who is the island’s first woman Prime Minister (PM) and leader of the Barbados Labour Party.
He said Mottley’s leadership skills were evident at a young age.
“She was assertive, confident and an excellent communicator and debater,” Beckles said. “She had ‘followership’ back then. You saw that arc from primary school through to high school and then university. People were attracted to her and converged around her. Just naturally brilliant, she invested the time to understand the issues.”
The Canadian Multicultural LEAD organization member fondly remembers his childhood days pitching marbles with Mottley who is his close friend.
“The loser of those games got their knuckles hit a marble which we call goots,” he said. “A lot of people got sore knuckles from Mia who was very good at that game.”
Beckles’ first job out of high school at age 17 was in the office of the late Tom Adams who was the islands’ second PM.
Realizing he would not have a meaningful career in the government service without a university education, he transitioned to the insurance sector.
“I stumbled into risk management that was at the time a fledgling practice in financial services,” pointed out Beckles who completed executive programs with Richard Ivey School of Business and holds the Institute of Corporate Directors designation. “I sank my teeth into that.”
At one point, he considered pursuing a bachelor’s degree.
“It became apparent that employers were looking for people with knowledge and experience that could translate into their businesses,” said Beckles who was accepted to read law at Nottingham University. “In the Caribbean, a significant premium is placed not just on a degree, but how many you have. Whether or not you have the experience, greater emphasis is placed on experience here.”
Back in Canada nearing the turn of the 21st century, he returned to the financial services sector.
In the nearly 25 years in that industry, Beckles was at RBC for 15, leading the execution of the bank’s Social Impact portfolios, including RBC Future Launch, RBC Tech for Nature and RBC Emerging Artists before retiring last November.
He also led stakeholder relations to cultivate and maintain key relationships across Canada, including policymakers, partners and stakeholders to advance RBC’s community investment priorities.
With its market cap soaring to $244 billion, RBC is Canada’s largest bank.
“I want to thank RBC for trusting me to do the job I did,” said Beckles who has an MBA in International Business from Bradford University. “Rarely do you have people that look like me influencing and directing the size of community budgets that I was responsible for which was in the tens of millions of dollars during the time I was there. I would like to think I earned the bank’s trust and they repaid that trust by not just allowing me to lead that work, but by allowing me to speak with senior leaders on how to navigate major issues when they arose, not the least of which was the George Floyd murder and the introspection that the bank needed to do.
“…I have had the opportunity to work with some of the most talented leaders in financial services and there is no doubt in my mind why RBC is among the world's most trusted and successful financial institutions. It has been my profound honour to commit to the work of helping clients thrive and communities prosper.”
Future Launch is RBC’s largest financial commitment to help young people prepare for the future of work.
“We recognized that Canada’s economic prosperity and future is directly linked to the extent to which we can prepare young people to succeed in an ever-changing global economy,” Beckles, a former Canadian Unity Council Governor, said. “By ensuring they have access to those skills and opportunities and know where they are, they can transition from school to work and find meaningful employment in the process. If this is done well, we will have empowered Canadian youth in the way in which we intended.”
Elynn Wareham, RBC’s Insurance Director of Communications, said Beckles is an exceptional leader.
“Mark is always making space for all voices around the table to be heard,” she said. “He is a believer in taking calculated risks and trusting his teams. It is because of this leadership quality that some of my proudest moments at RBC were brought to life through the work of the RBC Future Launch team. Of course, it was about the successes, but it was always more about how we worked together to realize those successes. I will forever be grateful for his leadership, partnership and friendship.”
As an adolescent in Barbados, Beckles looked forward to family member Tony Bristol’s annual summer visits.
The former Toronto District School Board educator brought books that helped to open his eyes to the world.
“I have an affinity for reading and learning,” said Beckles who is a former World Relief Canada Vice-Chair. “Reading the books he brought helped me develop an interest in Niagara Falls, the Sydney Opera House in Australia and Johannesburg in South Africa. I said I wanted to go to these places one day and I have been to them. Uncle Tony instilled that curiosity in me to not just settle for what I read or hear, but to dig deeper.”
It was through those books that he also learnt about apartheid in South Africa and yearned to meet the late Nelson Mandela.
It came through when Beckles became the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund (Canada) President & Chief Executive Officer.
“Of all the experiences other than when I transitioned to Canada and having the support of Bill, Marty, Bev and Ernie, the most significant was meeting Mr. Mandela,” he said. “Canada had its own Board of Directors and I had to be presented to him as the person who would be the face of his organization. As I got close to meet him for the first time in Johannesburg, I stumbled on my words because I was so in awe of him.
“Here was this man who spent 27 years in prison, served four years as President of his country and now, in his late 80s, was dedicating the rest of his life to the improvement of children. That was his interest and I thought I had to give it my all because I have gone through nothing close to what he experienced. When we met the third time, I was still nervous. He put his hand on my shoulder and said, ‘Son, you know me now. Just breathe’.”
Having worked in the PM’s office in Barbados and being close friends with Mottley who made TIME magazine’s 100 Influential People List in 2022, it is not surprising that Beckles has an interest in politics.
John Tory (l) and the late Bill Davis (r) helped Mark Beckles kick off his campaign in Brampton West in the presence of his family in 2007 (Photo by Ron Fanfair)
He ran in the 2007 provincial elections after John Tory – who he first met in Ottawa in 1993 when the former Toronto Mayor managed Kim Campbell’s federal election campaign – led the provincial Conservative Party in that election 18 years ago.
“I put my name in the ring and John and the late Bill Davis happily supported me,” he said. “It was a tremendous experience to understand the inner workings of party politics and how well-intended policy, if not articulated well, can be your downfall.”
After losing to Dalton McGuinty’s Liberals who secured a majority government, Tory admitted he erred by not anticipating the pledge to fund religious schools would become the campaign’s dominant issue and not being able to provide an appropriate response.
“The policy was intended to bring what was thought to be greater equity, but it was misplaced and ill-timed,” said Beckles who lost to Liberal Vic Dhillon.
York University conferred Mark Beckles with an honourary degree in October 2024 in the presence of President & Vice-Chancellor Dr. Rhonda Lenton (Photo contributed)
Bestowed with an honourary degree last year from York University and the recipient of Harry Jerome, African Canadian Achievement and City of Toronto Bob Marley Awards, the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal and the Barbados 50 Independence honour for Community Service, Beckles will receive a Vice-Chancellor Award at the University of the West Indies Toronto Benefit gala on April 26 at the Ritz-Carlton Toronto.
“As a Caribbean person, this award ranks at the top of every honour I have been recognized with,” the Metro Toronto Convention Centre Board member and Audit & Finance Committee Chair stated. “I have always held UWI in great esteem because of its significant role in transforming the region. Whether or not one attended the university is irrelevant as we have all benefitted in some way from its impact. There are the graduates who taught us, the political leaders who shaped public policy and the businesspeople who received their foundational skills at the university that ranks high on the global scale.”
Though retired, Beckles – a Fulbright Canada Board member -- plans to share his knowledge and experience with communities and organizations to help them achieve success.
“Sometimes, community organizations are their worst enemies,” the Lincoln Alexander Award Advisory Committee member said. “It is easy to point fingers and say that person or that community did that to us. Oftentimes, our community does it to themselves. There is a higher likelihood that you would imperil yourself if the foundational principle of accountability is one that you don’t practice. If accountability is missing, you will get into trouble. The organization may continue, but it will affect your funding. The other thing we don’t do is ensure our ambition aligns with funders. Your job is to ensure that the things you care about are the things they care about. If they do not, you move on to the next organization.”
Expressing gratitude is often taken for granted.
Saying thank you to funders, said Beckles, reassures them you are grateful for their support.
“One of the things that we think we do well, but we don’t do well enough is to say thank you to organizations that are funding our communities,” he noted. “It doesn’t happen as frequently or consistently as it should. People underestimate the power of thank you. Funders might not say anything, but they take note. While they care about the issues, they want to know what is in for them. What needs to be understood is that corporate giving is a diversion of shareholder wealth. If that is being diverted to a community initiative, you better be able to tell that story around how that is making an impact without eroding shareholder value and dividends. When you are being gracious and accountable, you create opportunities for other organizations.”
The Beckles clan…Sons Warren (l) & William and daughter Ashley McKay (r) with parents Mark & Wendy (Photo contributed)
Married for 36 years to Wendy Beckles who is the President & Chief Executive Officer of Shepherd Village which is Toronto’s largest service retirement community, the couple has three children – William, Ashley and Warren.
