Masters in Business · Friday, July 31, 2026
Som Seif, CEO of Purpose Unlimited, initially aspired to be an architect but pivoted to industrial and systems engineering. He found himself drawn to finance, particularly investment banking, and joined RBC's investment banking division in 1998, leveraging his engineering background to navigate the tech bubble.
“Yeah, I mean, since as long as I can remember, architecture was my kind of goal, and that fundamentally was something that just inspired me. I loved the mix of the creative side of my brain and the call it systems and structural mathematical side of my brain and bring them together.”
“So I said, okay, I'm going to go do engineering with the idea that maybe I'll switch, and fundamentally that was not going to happen.”
“And coming out of an engineering degree, I ended up, luckily just a timing really uniquely. At the end of nineteen ninety eight, got an opportunity to join the biggest bank in Canada, RBC, in their investment banking division, and so engineering was a really interesting path towards it.”