montreal
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Jean-François Bouchard’s unfinished business
He co-founded Sid Lee and helped turn Montreal creativity into an international business. Now his photographs and films follow people making lives outside the usual frame.
Robert Dumas and the business of belonging
After 28 years at Mercer, Robert Dumas joined Sun Life to help deepen its place in Quebec. His work across finance, museums and community boards raises a practical question: what does it take for a company to belong somewhere?
Tim Hurlebaus and the education of a payday
His first assignment helped pay 32,000 people around the world. Now CGI’s CEO, Tim Hurlebaus faces a new test: making the promises of artificial intelligence work where the consequences are real.
Peter Brereton and the business of getting things there
A Chevy Nova, a brother’s basement and an unexpected turn toward America. Peter Brereton’s four decades at Tecsys trace a career spent making complicated businesses work.
Marc-André Forget and the Power of Coming Home
He spent years advising electric utilities, then co-founded dcbel to give households more control over their energy. After a long California apprenticeship, his idea has come home to Quebec.
Maxime Dubois and the shop that outgrew its walls
He bought Altitude Sports with a friend in 2011. Building it meant learning when to trust the internet, when to trust a paper catalogue, and when to pay people more.
Malik Yacoubi and the Value of Starting Over
He built businesses before the iPhone, learned the habits of big brands at Cossette, then started again with mortgages. Malik Yacoubi’s career is a study in moving quickly - and staying with the same people long enough to change direction.
Jean Fallacara and the price of being his own boss
Jean Fallacara spent years building companies in Montreal, then joined the corporation that bought his business. His next chapter at Lifespanning brings him back to the work he prefers: making the decisions.
Narjès Boufaden and the trouble with listening
Long before chatbots became a daily habit, Narjès Boufaden was studying the untidy business of human conversation. At Keatext, she turned that research into a company built around a deceptively difficult question: what are people actually telling you?
Sam Vermette and the art of catching the next bus
A Montreal designer built Transit around a question people ask at the curb. Fourteen years later, Sam Vermette is still working on the answer - and on the city that surrounds it.
Philip Cutler and the price of getting a chance
He built Paper around a classroom problem: extra help depended on what a family could afford. After a decade in education technology, Philip Cutler is bringing another overlooked opportunity onto the field.
Massimiliano Paganelli and the long way back to Rome
He left Rome, built a career in Montreal, and co-founded Morphocell with Claudia Raggi. Now the company’s expansion is bringing an Italian chapter to a partnership twenty years in the making.
Giles Day and the compound interest of good company
Giles Day built Distributed Bio through customer revenue and partnerships before starting again at Ability Biotherapeutics. His second act carries forward a practical conviction: the people around the table help determine what a company can become.
Stéphan Morency and the second life of a savings account
A factory’s energy bill. A farmer’s lease. A pension contribution. The new CEO of Fondaction has spent years finding ways to connect ordinary financial decisions to the future of Quebec.
Christopher Baron and the business of staying connected
Before leading Sofistic.AI, Christopher Baron co-founded a portable charger business and worked in venture capital. His return to wealth management puts a familiar customer at the centre of a new job.
Mario Venditti and the distance between an idea and a business
From cybersecurity operations to concrete, ocean buoys and aircraft cabins, Mario Venditti keeps returning to the work that comes after invention. At Montreal’s Innovobot, he pairs early-stage investment with the engineers and operators needed to bring technology to market.
Martin Raymond and the second life of a piece of land
From property valuation to the leadership of Québec’s Fonds immobilier de solidarité FTQ, Martin Raymond has built a career around what land can become. His current work puts that question to a practical test: more homes, different building methods, and partnerships that last beyond the first shovel.
François-Charles Sirois and the cost of playing it safe
A crêpe dispute in Los Angeles offers a glimpse of the Telesystem chief’s appetite for a challenge. From Montreal’s music business to a gaming venture run from Madrid, François-Charles Sirois keeps putting his ideas about risk to work.
Ken MacKinnon and the value of staying at the table
After co-founding MKB in 2007, Ken MacKinnon spent more than sixteen years as its CEO. His work with founders offers a view of the energy transition measured in board meetings, factory space and relationships that last.
Luc Fortin and the problem with closing time
After decades on the banking side of the trade, Luc Fortin crossed over to the exchange. His work at TMX asks a practical question: how does a Canadian market keep pace with clients whose day has already begun?
Francois Lafortune and the business of starting before the beginning
He sold computers at 13, built a window-cleaning business, and spent years inside large financial institutions. At Diagram, Francois Lafortune now works on the part of entrepreneurship that happens before a company has a founder, a product, or a name.
Chris Arsenault and the art of keeping doors open
Before he backed Canadian founders, Chris Arsenault was one of them. His career at Inovia turns on a practical question: how do you give a company room to choose its own future?
Thomas Boucher-Charest and the value of what already works
A Montreal stock-market competitor grew into an investor and software operator. At Valstone, Thomas Boucher-Charest is helping build a manufacturing portfolio around a practical question: what should an acquisition preserve?
Tasso Roumeliotis and the business of picking up
Raised around a Montreal convenience store, Tasso Roumeliotis built Location Labs, sold it to AVG, and started again with familiar colleagues. At Numa, he is betting that the next customer relationship begins with the call somebody almost missed.
Elias Farah and the business that began over lunch
An aerospace engineer, a conversation in a Bombardier cafeteria, and a partnership that lasted. Elias Farah’s route to MEDFAR runs through patient engineering, acquisitions, and a deadline called 2030.
Roberto Cipriani and the art of getting unstuck
He co-founded Paper to put academic help within reach of more students. After a decade building the company, Roberto Cipriani is working on another stubborn problem: how founders learn to lead.
Elise Golbert Builds for Winter - and for Belonging
At Pajar Canada, a fifth-generation shoemaker translates family memory into modern footwear. Across Montreal, she applies the same instinct - make useful things, keep people close, and give tradition somewhere new to go.
Benjamin Tuff Is Teaching the Home to Behave Like a Power Company
After helping turn a three-person travel startup into a business acquired by Airbnb, the Montreal marketer moved from selling escape to explaining energy independence. His latest challenge is making the electric car feel less like transportation and more like part of the house.
Hrant Boghossian Maps the Invisible Architecture of Mobility
An early architecture credit, a world of color-coded passports and a forum built around belonging reveal one consistent project: making the systems that govern movement easier to see.
Laurence Gagnon Beaudoin Makes Personalization Feel Personal
From a student newsroom to Cook it’s growth years and Omy Lab’s personalized beauty platform, the Montreal marketing executive has built a career by listening closely, testing the small things and making technology feel human.