“Pay it Forward”: Joanna Pearson on Letting Mentorship Change You, Too
When Joanna Pearson first met Ruhi Mander in 2019, neither of them could have predicted what the next few years would hold. A global pandemic. An ocean between them. A friendship that would outlast the mentorship program that started it, and a mentee who would go on to teach her mentor as much as she learned from her.
It’s a full-circle kind of story, one that begins decades earlier, at Deloitte.
After earning her CPA in 1990, Joanna’s career has taken her from Partner at Deloitte, to CFO and Executive VP of Endeavour Mining in London, and now to her current roles as a Non-Executive Director in various mining companies across the Americas. It’s a path that has let her do what she loves most: understand the numbers, yes, but also work in teams and learn about the businesses behind them. Outside of work, Joanna is an avid Canucks fan, a tennis and golf player, and the proud owner of a pandemic puppy she spends much of her free time with.
But long before any of that, Joanna’s first real lesson in mentorship came from a Partner she worked with early in her career at Deloitte. He was steady and present, whether things were going well or falling apart. When she faced roadblocks, he listened. When she needed calm, he offered it. He wasn’t trying to fix everything, he was just available. That presence, she says, is the real power of mentorship. He has since retired, but they still connect once in a while over lunch. In fact, when Joanna made a major career change some years later, he was one of the first people she called.
That kind of steady presence and the trust built within it, she learned, are not a one-time thing. It’s cumulative. Someone taught her when she was starting out, and naturally, she taught the next person. That’s simply how it worked at Deloitte: team-oriented, hands-on, learning on the job and passing it forward. It kept her energized and curious. Watching people she had mentored go on to do incredible things, to evolve into more successful versions of themselves, became one of the most rewarding parts of her career.
When the opportunity to mentor Ruhi came along, she said yes, even though it looked a little bit different than what she was used to at Deloitte.
The timing, however, would test that willingness right away. They met in person just once, in 2019, before COVID reshaped everything. Following the pandemic came a move to the UK. As their relationship shifted online, Ruhi and Joanna met on monthly calls throughout the remainder of Ruhi’s undergraduate years. As Ruhi navigated an almost entirely virtual post-secondary experience, Joanna was there to help her persevere.
The learning, it turns out, goes both ways. Ruhi, who is known for her tidiness and organizational skills, has taught Joanna a few things – from cleaning tips like one should fully wash the walls when they move into a new apartment, to technological savvy on how to better program her instagram to focus her feed on the people she follows. These might seem like small things, but they speak to something bigger: the relationship isn’t one-directional. As Ruhi grew from student to adult, the mentorship became a two-way exchange. Ruhi had things to teach, too.
The mutual exchange is exactly what Joanna points to when asked what makes mentorship so rewarding. “It’s the learning,” she says. “Mentorship helps me understand how the world is changing — not from a book or a headline, but through an actual relationship. That kind of connection does something a newspaper article never could: it gives you hope, especially in moments when hope feels hard to come by.”
Joanna reminds us that connection only happens if both people show up genuinely and honestly. Her advice to future mentees is simple: too many people walk into these relationships like it’s a job interview, trying to impress rather than open up. “Remember, mentors should have no vested interest beyond wanting to help and pay it forward”, she adds. The only way that help actually lands is if the mentee is genuinely honest about what’s going on. Otherwise, Joanna says, you’re left with a superficial conversation that helps no one.
That honesty is part of why, even now that Ruhi has graduated, their relationship has grown closer. Joanna hopes to be a good memory for Ruhi; one that she still thinks of fondly twenty years from now, and someone whose support Ruhi eventually passes on to someone else.
“Joanna has always been incredibly warm, funny, and insightful. Despite her endless list of achievements as a Partner at Deloitte and beyond, she is the most humble and genuine soul. I’m grateful to have had her mentorship over the years that have passed and excited for the conversations we’ll have in the years ahead. Having her bubbly yet wise self as a mentor has created a positive impact on my life that will stay with me for decades to come and inspired me to engage in opportunities as a mentor myself. Joanna the role you have held in my world has certainly encouraged me to pay it forward!“
Ruhi Mander
“I have watched Ruhi navigate real hardship throughout her post-secondary and personal life, and come out the other side building the start of a promising career.” As Ruhi continues to embark on the early years of her career, Joanna adds that Ruhi is “simply exceptional. She’s inspirational and I couldn’t be prouder.”
In the end, Joanna hopes people take away one thing about the mentorship experience: there’s no real downside. It doesn’t demand a massive commitment of time or money. It simply asks you to be open to meeting someone with a different perspective, to learning something you didn’t expect to learn, and to letting the relationship change you a little too.
Thank you for everything you do, Joanna. You are incredible!
Interested in becoming a mentor? Learn more here.
