Board of Directors and its committees

Chair

Jean Laurin is President and Chief Executive Officer of Devencore Investments Inc. He is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Montreal International, a board member of Canassurance insurance company, a governor of the Blue Cross insurance company, a member (and former chairman) of the board of directors of the Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital Foundation, and Vice-President of the executive committee of the UQAM Foundation. He is also a member of the Foundation de la Place des Arts and the Cercle des présidents du Québec. He was previously the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal and its Foundation. Mr. Laurin holds a Bachelor of Administration degree from UQAM.

Vice-Chair

Éric Gosselin is a Partner in the Business Law Group of the McCarthy Tétrault law firm in Montréal. He is a member of the Boards of Directors of the Fondation de la Place des Arts and Festival TransAmériques and Chairman of the Board of Culture pour tous. Mr. Gosselin was one of the three mentors of the Go-C.A. project, a peer-matching program that seeks to enhance the boards of directors of arts & culture organizations with new members from the fields of business and communications. Mr. Gosselin was called to the Québec Bar in 1995 and has been a member of the Ordre des agronomes du Québec since 1998.

Members

Pierre Bernier is Vice-President of Finance and Corporate Services with Processia Solutions. In the cultural sector, he sat on the Board of Directors of SODEC from 2009 to 2013, where he held the positions of Vice-President of the Board of Directors and President of the Audit Committee. He was President of the Consultation Committee of the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), member of the Board of Directors of the Institute for Governance of Private and Public Organizations (IGOPP) and Vice-President of the Board of Directors of the West Island of Montreal Chamber of Commerce. In the business community, he previously served as CEO of JJ Buckley Fine Wines, CEO of Intelligent Cellars Inc., Executive Vice-President, Operations with the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), Vice-President, Finance and Administration of Airborne Entertainment Inc., and Vice-President and CFO of Yellow Pages Group.

Sylvie Chagnon is closely involved with the management of corporate donations at Lallemand Inc. She is a member of the Boards of Directors of the St. Mary’s Hospital Foundation and the Fondation de la Place des Arts. She was formerly associated with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal as a member of the Board of Directors and Chairwoman of Les Amis des Grands Ballets. She sat on the Board of the Quebec Breast Cancer Foundation and is co-founder of the Serenity Program. She has taken an active part in major fundraising campaigns for these organizations.

Nancy Cleman is a lawyer and partner with the firm Lapointe Rosenstein Marchand Melançon LLP, where she practices corporate commercial law with a focus on intellectual property and information technology. A member of the Quebec Bar since 1983 and of the Ontario Bar since 1990, she is an accredited mediator and trademark agent. As an active member of her community, she sits on the board of directors of the Canadian Technology Law Association. She has also been a board member at several arts organizations dedicated to dance, theatre, and visual arts, including the Fondation Jean-Pierre Perrault and the Saidye Bronfman Centre. Ms. Cleman holds a B.Sc. (Genetics) and a B.C.L./LL.B. from McGill University.

Hugo Delorme obtained his Master’s degree in Management at the HEC Montréal in 2010 and graduated from the EMBA McGill–HEC program in 2016. He was a Partner and Director of the Public Affairs group at NATIONAL Public Relations, where he was employed for over 10 years. Mr. Delorme then held the position of Senior Director, Corporate Services at the Canadian National Railway (CN). In 2018, he started his own consulting firm, MERCURE Conseil. Involved with the Fondation de la Place des Arts since 2009 and founder of its Young Patrons Committee.

Annie Derome is the Chief Executive Officer and Executive Producer at the firm GSM Project. She previously worked for Cirque du Soleil, where she was actively involved in the development of several shows and partnerships in various countries. Trained as an actuary, she has worked for such companies as Videotron, RBC Dominion Securities and Aon, where she acquired significant experience in the area of international business development. She sits on the board of directors of X3 Productions, the Quartier des Spectacles Partnership, and Au Sommet Place Ville Marie. She has also been a member of the board at the Société de développement Angus and Filaction. Ms. Derome holds a Bachelor of Actuarial Science degree from Université Laval.

Marie-Josée Desrochers is the President and CEO of the Société de la Place des Arts de Montréal. With over twenty years of management experience in arts and culture, she has held executive roles with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, actively taking part in the organization’s growth and the implementation of new initiatives, successively leading the Marketing-Communications and the Artistic Planning and Operations’ departments, before being appointed Chief Operating Officer from 2015 to 2019. Actively involved in her field, she is a member of the Board of Directors of the Quartier des Spectacles Partnership. She also sat on the Board of Orchestras Canada, was President of the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal’s Pedagogical Orientation Committee, and a member of the Executive Committee of the Conseil québécois de la musique. She holds a Master of Business Administration (EMBA) from McGill University-HEC Montréal. (Photo : Caroline Bergeron)-

Danielle Laramée is a Partner and Leader of Human Capital in the firm Ernst & Young. She is a Fellow of the Ordre des comptables professionnels agréés du Québec. As a leader in her field in Canada, she has been very active in the Ordre des comptables professionnels agréés du Québec, the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants, and the Association de planification fiscale et financière. She was also a member of the Board of Directors of the Standards Council of Canada. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the UQAM Foundation and a Chartered Administrator.

Michel Ohayon is a Senior Consultant with Shore & Associates, Executive and Legal Search. He has worked in the professional services and human resources industry since 2003, beginning his career with Willis Towers Watson, a global human resources consultancy. He sits on the board of directors of non-profit organization Hillel Montreal and is a former board member of the Caisse du Complexe Desjardins (2013-2019). He has been involved with the Segal Centre for Performing Arts for several years and was very active with the Jewish Chamber of Commerce (2011-2015) and the Regroupement des jeunes chambres de commerce du Québec (2011-2017). Mr. Ohayon holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from HEC Montréal, a Graduate Diploma in Journalism from Concordia University, and a Bachelor of Arts degree from McGill University.

Louise Poissant is the Scientific Director of Fonds de recherche du Québec - Société et culture (FRQSC) since 2015. She was Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Quebec at Montreal (UQAM) from 2006 to 2015. She was professor of aesthetics and theory at the École des arts visuels et médiatiques at UQAM from 1989 to 2006 where she led the Groupe de recherche en arts médiatiques (GRAM). From 2001 to 2006, she led the Centre interuniversitaire des arts médiatiques, Hexagram-CIAM. Ms. Poissant is a member of The Royal Society of Canada and sits on the board of directors of Savoir. média, Synapse C, and the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture. She is the author of numerous books and articles in the field of media arts published in various journals in Canada, France, Brazil and the United States. She has also been a member of the board of the Fondation de l’UQAM and the Agora de la danse. Ms. Poissant holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the Université de Montréal.