Zabeen Hirji, Beedie School of Business alumna and Chief Human Resources Officer at the Royal Bank of Canada, has received the Professional Achievement honour at the 2016 SFU Outstanding Alumni Awards.
Each year, the Outstanding Alumni awards recognize SFU’s most accomplished graduates, whose contributions reflect the university’s mandate of Engaging the World. Since being introduced in 1983, the awards have become one of the university’s most celebrated traditions, with nominations for the awards made by alumni, faculty, staff, students, and the community.
She was presented with the award at a ceremony held on March 3 at the Vancouver Convention Centre. Other winners this year included charter students Margaret Trudeau (BA 1969), an advocate for mental health and clean water, and David Mark (BA 1971, PhD 1977), a pioneer of Geographic Information Science, along with philanthropist David Fong (BA ’80), and scientist Jennifer Gardy (PhD 2006).
Outstanding Alumni Award – Professional Achievement
Zabeen Hirji has twice been named a Top 25 Women of Influence as she is an internationally recognized champion for diversity and inclusion and also active in youth employment. She is a frequent commentator in the media on the themes of leadership, talent management, youth and diversity. As RBC’s Chief Human Resources Officer with global responsibility for Human Resources, Brand, Communications and Corporate Citizenship, Hirji has brought a fresh perspective to the human resources and corporate citizenship field by looking beyond convention and being creative in how talent is recruited, engaged, developed and retained. She was named Catalyst Canada Honours Champion in 2014 for leadership in the advancement of women and minorities and inducted into Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100 Hall of Fame by the Women’s Executive Network in 2012.
“My story began in Tanzania…my father was a successful entrepreneur, a great teacher to me and truly a man ahead of his time…he instilled in me the belief that I should never limit my ambitions just because I was a girl. To the men in the room, don’t underestimate the impact your encouragement and actions have on the girls and the women in your lives.”
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