RBC Appoints Director to Head Quantum Technologies Strategy

12:54 PM EDT, 09/28/2026 (MT Newswires) -- Royal Bank of Canada (RY.TO) has appointed Elizabeth Iwasawa as director of Quantum, a newly-created role, the company said on Monday. Iwasawa, who was previously director of quantum technologies at Leidos, will lead a team of quantum researchers and developers and manage the development and buildout of RBC's quantum strategy. RBC said it aims to achieve "quantum-safe" client services in the next few years, to protect client data and infrastructure against cybersecurity threats, and promote secure communications, among other things. The bank also signed partnerships with the University of Waterloo's Institute for Quantum Computing and with the University of Toronto, a statement said. Canadian photonic quantum computing company Xanadu (XNDU.TO) will also host a hands-on workforce training program where RBC staff will learn quantum application development using Xanadu's open source frameworks, the statement added. RBC shares were last seen down CA$0.45 at CA$285.18 on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Price: 285.38, Change: -0.25, Percent Change: -0.09