Riva Walia is a global leader with an MBA from Cornell University and 20 years of experience in leadership positions in strategy, management consulting and non-profit organizations, she has managed multi billion transformational programs with multi-disciplinary team at global business organizations like Accenture and Royal Bank of Canada creating and delivering successful business strategies and shareholder value for Fortune 500 clients. She has experience of setting up and running new business units in four continents – including in the United States, Canada, India, Philippines, Luxembourg and Guatemala.
Riva currently serves as the Managing Director and Founding Member of France Canada Chamber of Commerce, Ontario and is Country Partner for Chef Alain Ducasse Enterprise in Canada. As part of her Global mandate established by CCI France International, she is fully responsible for the expansion and evolution of the market. Under her leadership, the Chamber was successfully incorporated and grew to 70 Members in an 18-month period. She leveraged her C-suite connections and market knowledge to proactively identify new opportunities & established 4 Industry focused Centre of Excellences: Luxury Food and Retail, Innovation and Technology, Smart Ecosystems and Financial Services to drive incremental revenue and deliver value to the participating enterprise members. These platforms have enabled French organizations to expand footprint and build a C-suite peer community which enables collaboration. Rica is credited to conceptualized a CEO Club called Les Lumieres with 20 of the top French-Canadian business houses like AECON, IBM, Schneider, BNP Paribas, BNN Bloomberg, TD Bank, Chanel and the likes. In addition, Riva runs a strong advocacy group with entrenched relationships with all levels of the Government in Canada and Europe including Federal Minister of Public Services and Procurement in Canada; Minister of Culture of France, Canadian & French Ambassadors positioning Canada as strategic partner as a Trade partner for Europe.
She is a board member with the Breast Cancer Society of Canada, and Les Dames Escoffier. Rica is also an Executive Member of the Board of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in Canada.
Prior to this, she worked with the Royal Bank of Canada leading the Strategy and Transformation agenda with a $2Bn Operational Transformation program running across multiple businesses within the bank. Riva led the efforts to create near shore centres in Halifax & Luxembourg. She was also responsible for development and execution of RBCI long term vision and strategy as well as optimize business impact of various strategic initiatives; including Market Entry strategies, establishing Digital Shared Service centres and several cost and service optimization projects. She managed executive level relationships and reporting tot he General Operating Council as well as over 12 cross functional and cross discipline teams across RBC.
Before her 4-year tenure at RBC, Riva worked with Accenture Consulting for 11years, where she successfully executed market entry strategies for many leading global Fortune 500 companies by creating target operating model for impact in a new market,CRM approach, category attractiveness, partner identification etc. She was hired on campus from Cornell University establish Accenture as a leading Consulting organization in Asia Pacific and Eastern Europe. She set-up Accenture’s Global Delivery Network and Shared services practice and helped to grow it from 0 to 2,00,000 employees within 3 years. She is credited for growing the Hospitality business year-on-year by 160%, winning consulting, technology& outsourcing engagements with global clients.
Riva is an active member of the Business community in Canada. She frequents the speaking circuits and also hosts a monthly exclusive executive speaker series “CXO Rendezvous” where she interviews C-Suite executives on Global Technology and Industry trends. Her Government and Public sector connections have supported the France Canada Chamber of Commerce, Ontario’s growth and led Trade Missions between Canada andFrance.
Riva is a strong voice in the country for diversity and inclusion through her efforts with United Nations Women’s Empowerment team.