Age: 33
Job Title:Manager of commercial, real estate and construction services, Royal Bank of Canada
Why He’s a Top 40: For being a leader in the community and maintaining a long-standing commitment to volunteerism
Daniel McBee, a long, tall Texan from Arlington, found his true love in an Edmonton girl, followed her back to her hometown and began an extraordinary career in banking with the Royal Bank of Canada.
Since arriving four years ago, he has become a top RBC performer, and is one of the managers in a team of specialists ranked as the number one commercial group in Canada for the first three-quarters of 2009. That’s better than 98 others.
By day, he gives his banking expertise to homebuilders, developers of condos and multi-family housing, general contractors and trade contractors for a variety of large commercial projects all over northern Alberta and the Northwest Territories. On evenings and weekends, he’s an avid volunteer (Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation, Junior Achievement of Northern Alberta and NWT, Habitat for Humanity), a member of several business and industry associations and the father of a toddler. He and his wife also own a small real estate photography business.
“You meet a lot of the higher professionals with the top organizations at various functions – the Chamber Ball, the Junior Achievement Hall of Fame dinner – and you can see the involvement of the community,” McBee says about his out-of-office commitments. “When I met the president and CEO of a major company [in Edmonton] and he and his wife were donating tons of money and time, I said to myself, ‘How do I get involved?'”
His activity with business groups is part of a longer-term plan to get on larger boards in order to better effect change and have a greater impact. “There are all these boards around the city, with decision-makers making sure to help preserve things or move things forward,” he explains. “It’s a check mark for 10, 20 years down the road.”
McBee is optimistic for the future here. Even with the economic downturn, “projects are still ticking along at a pretty good pace, the numbers are still quite high and developers are acquiring land right now for 10- or 20-year holds. I think it’s going to continue to grow and thrive.” And it’s a great place to put down roots, he adds. “The house we’re in, the community we’re in, the relatives close by, friends within walking distance – I can’t see myself leaving this community.”
