Press release
Rémi Racine appointed chair of the
Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal
Montréal, October 29, 2008 During the annual meeting of the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal, held today, the members appointed Mr. Rémi Racine as chair of the board for a one-year term and also elected the board of directors for the 2008-2009 season. Mr. Racine, president and executive producer of Artificial Mind & Movement (A2M), succeeds Ms. Hélène Desmarais, chair and CEO of the Centre d'entreprises et d'innovation de Montréal (CEIM), who is now the retiring chair of the board.
I am very pleased to have been appointed chair of the Board of Trade for the 2008-2009 season, and I would like to thank the members of the board of directors for this demonstration of their confidence in me. If the Board of Trade is the organization that best represents the Greater Montréal business community, it is in part because of its board of directors, whose members supply a broad range of complementary expertise, and of its team of permanent employees, one of the most talented in the metropolis. I care deeply about the development and vitality of Montréal, so I look forward to my mandate with great enthusiasm, declared Mr. Racine.
Racine is president and executive producer of A2M, a company he founded in 1992. For more than fifteen years, he has helped make A2M a world leader in the video game industry. Thanks to his leadership, the company has been ranked among the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 for the past three years. In addition, it has been named one of Canada's 50 Best Managed Companies for the past two. With 450 employees, A2M is the largest independent video game developer in Canada.
Before devoting himself to new media, Mr. Racine spent a decade in the fields of management and real estate investment. For three years, and until recently, he was president of Alliance Numérique the business network for Quebec's multimedia and interactive digital content industry. He is currently a member of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences and the International Game Developers Association. He holds a B.A. in finance from Université du Québec à Montréal.
The chair of the Board of Trade is actively involved in the organization's activities for a one-year term, after which he or she serves as retiring chair for a second year. Throughout this two-year period, Mr. Racine will sit on the Board of Trade's executive committee.
Isabelle Hudon will step down as president and CEO on October 31, and the board of directors has already begun to search for her replacement. The individual who succeeds Ms. Hudon will take the reins of an organization whose finances are sound and whose membership has grown steadily in recent years. During this transition period, the Board of Trade can count on the active involvement of Mr. Roger Plamondon, the organization's treasurer, as well as on the expertise of its management team; it will continue to effectively represent the interests of its members and to offer a full range of services centred on the specific needs of the business community.
The 2008-2009 board of directors is composed of the following members:
Chair of the board
Rémi Racine *
President and Executive Producer
Artificial Mind & Movement (A2M)
Retiring Chair of the board
Hélène Desmarais *
Chair of the Board and Chief Executive Officer
Centre d'entreprises et d'innovation de Montréal
First vice-president of the board
John Parisella *
President
BCP Ltd.
Treasurer
Roger Plamondon *
President
Société en commandite
Stationnement de Montréal
Dimitri Antonopoulos
Vice-President, Marketing & Hotel and Restaurant Development
The Antonopoulos Group
Marc-André Blanchard
Managing Partner, Quebec Region
McCarthy Tétrault
Manon Brouillette
Senior Vice-President, Market and Business, Strategic Development
Videotron Ltd.
Charles-Mathieu Brunelle
Executive Director
Montréal's Nature Museums
Isabelle Courville
President
Hydro-Québec TransÉnergie
Robert Desbiens
Senior Vice-President, Corporative Strategies
R3D Consulting Inc.
Sylvie Giguère
Vice-President, Medium Business Market
Bell Canada
François Giroux
President
Groupe Lacasse
Michael Goodman
President and Founder
Michael Goodman Executive Search
Joseph Iannicelli *
President and Chief Executive Officer
The Standard Life Assurance Company of Canada
Luc Martin
National Manufacturing Leader Canada
Deloitte
Frédéric Michel
President
Jeune Chambre de commerce de Montréal
Lorraine Pintal *
Artistic and General Director
Théâtre du Nouveau Monde
Jan-Fryderyk Pleszczynski
General Manager & Vice-President, Corporate Affairs
Digital Dimension
Erik Ryan *
Vice-President, Communications
and External Relations
Rio Tinto Alcan Primary Metal
Jérôme Silvestre
President and CEO
sanofi-aventis Canada Inc.
Martin Spalding *
Assistant Vice-President
Sales and Marketing
Astral Media Radio Inc.
Sylvain Vincent
Managing Partner, Quebec, and
Member of Canadian Executive Committee
Ernst & Young LLP
Peter Todd
James McGill Professor and Dean
Desautels Faculty of Management
McGill University
Luc Vinet
Rector
Université de Montréal
* Member of the executive committee
The Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal has some 7,000 members. Its mission is to represent the interests of the business community of Greater Montréal and to provide individuals, merchants, and local businesses of all sizes with a variety of specialized services to help them achieve their full potential in terms of innovation, productivity and competitiveness. The Board of Trade is Quebec's leading private economic development organization.
-30-
Information:
Sylvie Paquette
Coordinator, Media Relations
Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal
Phone: 514 871-4000, extension 4015
sylvie.paquette@ccmm.qc.ca