Commercial Banking Vice President, City National Bank
November 30, 2025
by Mark Pliushchanskii (’27)
Leadership seems not to be a slogan you flaunt on a resume but a learned habit of response when the ground shifts beneath your feet. Shiroaki “Shiro” Takahashi (Class of 2007) learned that habit at Soka, which he then carried into commercial banking after graduation, where he now serves as a Vice President at City National Bank, a subsidiary of RBC Company.
Shiro’s leadership still begins with Soka’s first principles. “I have learned to embrace challenges as opportunities to grow and develop,” he says, recalling how a curriculum rooted in global citizenship and value-creation trained him to look for upside and opportunity to contribute when others see only risk. “Soka taught me to see the good in every situation.”
That mindset proved decisive early in his career. “I’ve experienced being laid off and though I initially felt discouraged, I chose to view it as an opportunity to find a better career path.” The instinct to turn setbacks into momentum, rather than stall points, became a governing theme for Shiro, just like with other great alumni of SUA.
Equally formative, Shiro says, was living, and working, in a truly diverse environment. As every Soka student knows, living among the student population, 50% of which consists of people coming from more than 30 countries and speaking as many languages, carries a unique value. “At Soka, we live with diversity and embrace everyone’s uniqueness.” Banking, he notes, is a mosaic of backgrounds and perspectives. It seems, therefore, that being trained on so many perspectives helps find the right approach for almost any client, even those seemingly different from yourself.
Ask him what Soka’s “wisdom, courage, compassion” look like in a manager’s chair, and Shiro answers through the lens of value creation. Decisions are weighed for the positive they unlock: on the relationship, for the client, and for the team. It is an ethos he keeps deliberately simple: “Creating value: this is such a simple yet [beautiful] philosophy.”
For students looking into the world of finance, Shiro is disarmingly pragmatic: build experience early. It is now common knowledge that internships do matter. So do other experiences. Supplement the Soka classes with external coursework when needed. And above all, invest in people and relationships: “Help others and your path will open up,” he says.
Networking is no longer a cold call into the void. Companies in the financial industry often get thousands of applications just for one spot. Today, technical knowledge has become a baseline, a standard, but what often differentiates successful students is being able to be in the right place at the right time. This is where relationships matter.
While Soka does not have distinct “Business” or “Finance” majors, SUA education opens doors that continue to benefit graduates years after graduation, especially in leadership roles, such as Shiro’s. Instead of manufacturing a single mold of a leader, it cultivates the range of skills that business rewards over time. And most importantly, Shiro’s example shows it is working.
