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Board of directors and committees
Member group representatives elect five out of the eleven members of the corporation. They have many years of experience as active union members and as group representatives in charge of their local retirement plans. The Executive Committee of the Confédération des syndicats nationaux appoints four other members.These nine members then appoint two external members who, through their expertise in fields such as governance and retirement, complete the Board.
Members of the Board of Directors
Pierre Patry
Chair
Investment Committee and Governance Committee Member
Pierre Patry has been Treasurer of the Confédération des syndicats nationaux since 2004. He was previously and successively President of the Syndicat des enseignantes et enseignants du collège de Saint-Félicien and Secretary-Treasurer of the Fédération nationale des enseignantes et des enseignants du Québec. He completed his Master’s degree in Mathematics at the Université de Montréal and has been teaching at the Saint-Félicien CEGEP since 1984. As Treasurer of the CSN, he is responsible for the various social economy, socially responsible finance and corporate social responsibility files. He is in charge of co-ordinating the work between the CSN and the various economic intervention institutions that it created. He is a member of the Board of Directors of MCE Conseils and Filaction, of which he is the President, and of Fondaction, of which he is the Secretary-Treasurer.
Léopold Beaulieu
Vice-Chair
Extrafinancial Risks Management Committee Member
Léopold Beaulieu has been President and Chief Executive Officer of Fondaction, le Fonds de développement de la CSN pour la coopération et l’emploi, since its inception in 1996. Treasurer of the CSN from 1976 to 1996, he was instrumental in the creation of several of the CSN’s economic intervention tools, such as the Caisse d’économie solidaire Desjardins, MCE Conseils, Bâtirente and Fondaction. The first Chair of the Comité Bâtirente, he remained at the helm of the Board for ten years, and has been a member of its Board of Directors since 1987. He is President of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research and Information on Community Enterprises (CIRIEC-Canada) and Vice-President of CIRIEC International. A member of the Fédération des caisses Desjardins du Québec Council of Representatives, Group Caisses, he is also Secretary of the Fondation pour l’éducation à la coopération and Vice-President of the Board of Directors of Investissement Québec.
Daniel Simard
General Co-ordinator
Non-voting Ex-officio Member of the Board of Directors and Committees
A member of Bâtirente’s Board of Directors since its establishment in 1988, Daniel Simard has been ensuring its general co-ordination since January 1995. From 1978 to 1995, he worked within the CSN in areas of collective bargaining, benefit plans and labour court representation. A Labour Relations graduate of the Université de Montréal, he is a Group-Annuity Advisor registered with the Autorité des marchés financiers du Québec. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the UN Principles for Responsible Investment. He represents the CSN on the International Trade Union Confederations’ Committee on Workers’ Capital. He was also a member of the Board of Directors of SSQ Life Insurance Inc. from 1994 to 2005, where he was called upon to chair both the Audit Committee and the Ethics Committee.
Louise Charette
Board Member
Investment Committee Member
An Economist by training, Ms. Charette is an experienced pension fund manager. She was Manager, Administration of Assets, at Alcan Inc. from 1990 to 2007. She had previously held various positions with Gestion Placements Desjardins and, in the 1980’s, with the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec. Since 2008, Ms. Charette has been consulting with various organizations in the areas of portfolio management and governance. She is a member of the Board of Director of the Mouvement d’éducation et de défense des actionnaires (Médac).
Andrée De Serres
Board Member
Audit Committee and Governance Committee Member
Andrée De Serres is a Tenured Professor in Governance, Ethics and Finance, and Manager of the Executive MBA program specialized in Financing, at the École des sciences de la gestion (ESG) of the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). A practicing lawyer since 1980, she has worked in business law in private firms and in various financial institutions. She holds a Ph.D. in Administration as well as an MBA, a DSA and an LL. B. Her teaching and her research cover governance and the strategic management of financial, ethical, social and environmental risks in financial corporations and co-operatives, investment funds and micro-credit, as well as legal and financing packages, especially in cases of public infrastructure take-overs. She is the Founder and the Co-director of the Groupe international de recherche en éthique financière et fiduciaire (GIREFφ) and a Researcher with the Chair for Social Responsibility and Sustainable Development of the ESG UQAM.
Normand Brouillet
Board Member
Member of the Extrafinancial Risks Management Committee and of the Audit Committee
An Economist by training, Normand Brouillet held several positions within the CSN between1976 and 2009, including Assistant to the CSN Executive Committee, Union Advisor with the Fédération des employées et employés de services publics (FEESP-CSN) and with the Fédération des travailleuses et des travailleurs du papier et de la forêt (FTPF-CSN), as well as Co-ordinator and Senior Negotiator for major rounds of public sector collective bargaining. Mr. Brouillet has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Coopérative des techniciens ambulanciers de la Montérégie (CETAM) since 2001. He also sits on the Board of Directors and on the Executive and Human Resources Committee of SSQ, Life Insurance Company Inc., as well as on the Board of Directors of SSQ, Mutual Management Corporation. A CSN delegate to the 2007 Kenya World Social Forum, he subsequently worked on the committee that organized the first Québec Social Forum, also held in 2007. Mr. Brouillet was appointed to the Bâtirente Board of Directors in 2010.
Serge Fournier
Board Member
Audit Committee Member
Serge Fournier has been responsible for the Benefits Committee and Treasurer of the Fédération du commerce CSN since 1998, after being Treasurer of the Conseil central de la CSN de Québec-Chaudière-Appalaches. He was an active member of the Syndicat des travailleurs et travailleuses des Épiciers-unis Metro Richelieu (Québec) for twenty years, of which he was in turn President and Vice-President. He was involved for many years in the work of the Comité de retraite syndical and the Comité des assurances of his union.
Néjia Chehidi
Board Member
Member of the Member Services Committee
Néjia Chehidi was elected as a Board member by group representatives at the 2011 annual meeting. She has since become a member of the Member Services Committee. The President of her base union, the Syndicat des travailleuses et travailleurs de de l'hôtel Le Reine Elizabeth - CSN, Ms. Chehidi has been locally responsible for their retirement plan since 2005. She is also a member of the Fringe Benefits Committee of the Fédération du commerce – CSN.
Patrick Jean
Board Member
Member Services Committee Member
Patrick Jean joined the Executive of the Syndicat national des employés du papier de Candiac (CSN) in 1983, and has been responsible for its retirement plan since 1987. He has also been active within the Executive Committee of the Conseil central du Haut-Richelieu (Montérégie) for many years. His experience led him to become a Bâtirente Board Member in 2004. Delegates at the 2011 annual meeting re-elected him for a third Board mandate.
Nathalie Arguin
Board Member
Member of the Member Services Committee
The Secretary General of the Fédération des employées et employés de services publics - CSN, Nathalie Arguin was appointed to the Bâtirente Board Directors in June 2011 by the Executive Committee of the CSN. She has since become a member of the Member Services Committee. Through her responsibilities within the FEESP-CSN, she was involved in the establishment of the Bâtirente sectoral retirement plan for organizations in the community, associative, non-profit and local development sector. Since 2007, as an active member of the FEESP CSN, she has also been taking part in the work of various committees. From 1996 to 2009, she was a member of the Executive Committee of her base union, the Syndicat des employées et employés de la Société des casinos du Québec - CSN, of which she has been a member since its creation in 1995.
Alain Lampron
Board Member
Governance Committee Member
Alain Lampron was elected President of the Fédération de la métallurgie CSN in 1994, after being its Secretary for four years. A long-standing active union member, he previously held various union positions such as President of the Syndicat des travailleurs de l’aluminerie Alcan de Shawinigan (1983-1994) and of the Conseil central de la CSN de Shawinigan (1985-1990). A member of the Board of Directors of Fondaction for five years, he is also the President of its Audit Committee. He has a seat on the Sustainable Development Committee of Alcoa Aluminum Smelter.
Jean-Paul Thibault
Board Member
Investment Committee and Extrafinancial Risks Management Committee Member
Jean-Paul Thibault has been an active member of the Syndicat national des produits chimiques de Valleyfield (CSN) for thirty years. He took part in the implementation of the Bâtirente retirement plan at the General Dynamics plant (previously Expro) in 1987. He joined the Comité Bâtirente in 1999.
Committee Mandates
Over the past few years, Bâtirente specified new terms of reference for fiduciary duties that foster sound risk management, service development and profitability. Internal governance rules ensure that all committees always include at least one group representative. The goal of committees is to make Bâtirente’s Board of Directors more efficient and to facilitate in-depth discussions. Committees have the power to make recommendations.
The Investment Committee monitors and reviews investment policies, management mandates and optimization strategies for diversified fund asset allocation. It regularly monitors managers’ financial operations, management mandates and performances, assessing the relevance of the investment fund mix and the introduction of new asset categories or of new management mandates.
The Audit Committee assures the Board of Directors of a presentation of financial information that faithfully reflects activities and operating results, of the adequacy and efficiency of the controls implemented by management, and of the efficacious, efficient and economical conduct of business.
The Member Services Committee assures the Board of Directors of the relevance and the quality of the services offered and of the adequacy and the appropriateness of information, reviews the fee and service policy, conducts studies on member needs, supports the development of training policies for group agents and reviews the main contracts.
The Governance Committee assesses the operation of the Board and of the committees, makes recommendations to improve their efficiency, and has been given mandates including the development of a rule on ethics and professional conduct and the monitoring of its application.
The Extrafinancial Risks Management Committee assures the Board of Directors of the updating of the Lignes directrices sur la gestion des risques extrafinanciers, monitors the conformity of the exercise of voting rights, assesses ESG performance in investment activities and checks the quality of Bâtirente’s performance reporting.
EXTERNAL MEMBERS
Yvan Duceppe
Audit Committee Member
Yvan Duceppe graduated from the École des hautes études commerciales de Montréal in Business Administration specializing in Public Accounting and Finance. In 1991, he joined MCE Conseils as Finance and Administration Advisor. As such, he plays a role in interventions regarding corporate financial situations and turnarounds, business plan development and work co-operative development. A member of the Ordre des comptables agréés du Québec, he has been sharing his expertise with Bâtirente as an Audit Committee external member since 2007.
Jean-Jacques Pelletier
Investment Committee Member
Jean-Jacques, who holds a Master’s degree in Philosophy from the Université Laval, has now retired after teaching philosophy for thirty-four years at the Lévis-Lauzon CEGEP. He has been active for more than twenty years with various investment committees, such as those of the RREGOP, the CSN and the Fiducie globale des régimes de retraite of Québec City. Keenly interested in pension fund financial management, he just published a reference book on the subject entitled Gestion financière des caisses de retraite with collaborators Carmand Normand, Marc Veilleux and Claude Lockhead.