Janet is a Senior Investment Counsellor with RBC Phillips, Hager & North Investment Counsel. She’s also an active member of the Ottawa charitable community. Notably, after a decade volunteering with The Ottawa Hospital Foundation, in 2022 Janet McKeage became chair of its board.
A passion for community service was instilled in Janet at an early age. Her parents would frequently welcome people around their family dinner table and volunteer at community functions and for sports teams. “The message that I was taught is that everybody has something to give back and it is our responsibility to help others around us,” recalls Janet McKeage.
Two further messages her parents emphasized: “We were taught that you need to have an education and that music is core,” describes Janet. Having fallen in love with singing after a solo church performance at the age of four, uOttawa’s music program was an outlet for Janet to pursue a post-secondary education while continuing an activity that was so important to her life.
Though she loved studying under the tutelage of world-class vocalists like Ingemar Korjus and Sandra Graham, Janet also realized that the constant travel and nature of musical performance were at odds with her desire to start a family.
She decided to pursue another path in the financial sector. Having started working part time as a bank teller with Royal Trust, now the Royal Bank of Canada, during her uOttawa degree, Janet completed her Chartered Financial Analyst program in 1997 and segued into the world of business.
Though finance and music may seem like opposite ends of the spectrum, Janet McKeage says they’ve been surprisingly complementary. “Some of the nicest compliments I’ve received in business are ‘wow, you’re a really good storyteller. The way you talk, people really want to listen,’” she says. “All I can think is, ‘oh my gosh, it’s just like singing and performing.’ I use my musical background in my work everyday.”
“The message that I was taught is that everybody has something to give back and it is our responsibility to help others around us.”
Janet McKeage (BMus ’94)
A career built around connecting with others
Today, in mentorship sessions with young financial professionals, Janet likes to drive home the importance of being open to what life has in store—but to be sure those opportunities align with your values.
Throughout Janet’s career, staying true to her values has taken the form of building meaningful, long-term connections with her clients. “What gets me motivated every day is that I get to listen to and help people,” says Janet McKeage of her work with RBC. “I genuinely care—when I meet people I want to understand and know what matters most to them.”
It’s this compassion that guides her relationships with clients. “I get to help people with some of the happiest moments of their lives, but also through the difficult and sometimes devastating times,” shares Janet. “Being an investment counsellor is centered around managing money, but more importantly it’s also about everything else that people go through where they really need a human connection to help.”
Giving back to the uOttawa community
Janet has become increasingly engaged with her alma mater in recent years. In addition to sharing her personal journey from arts to business at a uOttawa entrepreneurship competition, Janet McKeage and her family have started a scholarship fund to support arts students in financial need.
The fund is an acknowledgement of the support and sense of family Janet felt while studying at uOttawa, and a recognition of all that the Gee-Gees community has meant to her loved ones (her husband is also a uOttawa grad, and two of her four children attended the University).
“uOttawa is really special and it adds to all the wonderful elements of Ottawa and why we should shout from the rooftops that this is an incredible place to live,” summarizes Janet McKeage. “It’s not a surprise that top researchers and physicians want to come here, because we have a great hospital and research institute. Add onto that a phenomenal university, a great community of people who give back, and a beautiful lifestyle in a midsize city—we’re so lucky.”
