In The Press

CIHL Seeks Community Patrons for CIHL Intern Program

Hong Kong, April 28, 2014 - Hong Kong's first elite full-contact ice hockey league is seeking community patrons to help support its third class of CIHL interns for the 2014-2015 season. The cornerstone program, which provides talented ice hockey players from Canada and the United States with an opportunity to live and work in Hong Kong, while continuing their playing careers with the CIHL and coaching youth hockey, gains popularity with each season and the CIHL is now looking for community patrons to help support the program's expansion.

The CIHL is seeking Hong Kong companies who would be interested in partnering with the CIHL to provide internships to exceptional candidates. After accepting two interns in each 2012-2013 and 2013-2014, the CIHL is aiming to double its efforts and extend four internships for the 2014-2015 season.

"We believe that the CIHL Intern Program is one of the best ways to provide young, talented student-athletes with an opportunity to gain professional experience in Hong Kong, while at the same time contributing to Hong Kong's sporting community by playing and coaching hockey," CIHL co-founder and director Greg Smyth said. "Every season we receive more and more applications from exciting candidates who demonstrate not only great athletic skills, but a desire to gain international experience and give back to ice hockey. As such, the CIHL is looking for patrons to help us further our efforts to provide even more opportunities to empower talented student-athletes to become global citizens."

The 2014-2015 CIHL Intern Program will provide recent university graduates or BCHL players with an opportunity to live and work in Hong Kong, play in the CIHL and coach youth hockey with the Hong Kong Typhoons. Interns are drafted to one of four CIHL teams: the CIHL championship-winning AsiaXPAT Kowloon Warriors, RBC South China Sharks, Galaxy Macau Aces and the Quam Hong Kong Tycoons. Internship placements are desired in a wide range of industries, from sports management to finance.

While just finishing its second year, the CIHL Intern Program has already achieved success. Both interns from the debut 2012-2013 class remained in Hong Kong following the completing of their internships and continue to play in the CIHL. Jordan So and Christian Long, the CIHL interns for the 2013-2014 season, excelled both on and off the ice, with So named the league's top scorer and Long in the top five in points.

"On behalf of the CIHL I would like to thank all of our CIHL patrons and partners for their support for what we believe is a fantastic programme and a fundamental part of the league," Smyth said. "As we receive more and more talented applicants every season it is our hope that we can match interns with community patrons to further grow and develop not only the sport of ice hockey in Hong Kong, but the future leaders of Hong Kong's business communities."

For further information about the CIHL Intern Program or to get involved, please contact Devin at [email protected].

About the CIHL
The CIHL is Hong Kong, Macau and Southern China's first elite contact ice hockey league. Founded in 2010, the CIHL provides high-level, entertaining hockey, while working to develop future generations of Chinese hockey players.

The Royal Bank of Canada is the official league sponsor for the 2013-2014 CIHL season. This year, the league will feature four teams: the Quam Hong Kong Tycoons, AsiaXPAT Kowloon Warriors, Galaxy Macau Aces and South China Sharks.

Saturday nights from October 5, 2013 through March 22, 2014, the teams will face off at Mega Ice for two back-to-back games. Family entertainment, community events and on-ice kids' competitions are aimed at making Saturdays a true "Hockey Night in Hong Kong". The official website of the CIHL is www.cihl.com and a free iPhone app is available through the iTunes store.

About RBC
Royal Bank of Canada (RY on TSX and NYSE) and its subsidiaries operate under the master brand name RBC. We are Canada's largest bank as measured by assets and market capitalization, and are among the largest banks in the world, based on market capitalization. We are one of North America's leading diversified financial services companies, and provide personal and commercial banking, wealth management services, insurance, and investor services and wholesale banking on a global basis. We employ approximately 80,000 full- and part-time employees who serve more than 15 million personal, business, public sector and institutional clients through offices in Canada, the U.S. and 44 other countries. For more information, please visit rbc.com.

RBC supports a broad range of community initiatives through donations, sponsorships and employee volunteer activities. In 2012, we contributed more than $95 million to causes worldwide, including donations and community investments of more than $64 million and $31 million in sponsorships.