Board Members

Richard Drouin C.C., O.Q., Q.C., Chair

Richard Drouin is counsel in the law firm of McCarthy Tétrault llp . He is the Chairman of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation. Earlier, he was the Chairman and CEO of Hydro-Québec and until recently Chairman of Abitibi-Consolidated and Stelco Inc. He received his undergraduate degree from l'Université de Montréal and his law degree from l'Université Laval in Québec City.

He sits on the boards of Aéroports de Montréal, American Superconductor Corporation, BAA (British Airports Authority), Gesca (French daily newspapers), and President's Choice Financial. Mr. Drouin is a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society.

Mr. Drouin is companion of the Order of Canada and officer of L'Ordre national du Québec. In 1993, he was awarded an honorary degree by the Université Lumière in Lyon, France. He is Honorary Consul for Great Britain in Québec City. In 2002, he was nominated the Energy Person of the year by the Energy Council of Canada.

Stéphane Bertrand, Executive Director

Since November 2007, Stéphane Bertrand has held the position of Executive Director of the World Energy Congress – Montréal 2010.

Prior to that, between 2003 and 2007, he was Principal Private Secretary to the Premier of Québec. As part of his duties he contributed directly to formulating government policy and establishing the provincial budget.

Stéphane Bertrand worked at Gaz Métropolitain for a number of years, holding the positions of Manager, and then Vice President, Communications, Public and Government Affairs. Prior to that, he was a consultant with a communication consulting firm in Montréal where he was in charge of two major gas pipeline projects, and also served as Vice President, Planning and Development at Société financière des Caisses populaires Desjardins. He was also Principal Private Secretary and Economist, Responsible for Press Relations in the Office of the Deputy Minister for Finance and Privatization and in the Office of the Minister of Cultural Affairs for Québec.

The holder of a Master's Degree in Economics from Université de Montréal, Stéphane Bertrand is a member of the Board of Directors of the Public Relations Chair at UQAM and the Foundation of Stars. He also sat on the board of directors of Carbone 14, was Chairman of the Fondation des Jeux du Québec, the Public Affairs Committee of the Canadian Gas Association, and sat on the Board of Directors of Info-Excavation and the Pipeline Association.

André Boulanger, Treasurer

Mr. Boulanger joined Hydro-Québec in July 2003 as President of Hydro-Québec Distribution. In this capacity, he is responsible for the reliability of the distribution system and providing a secure supply of electricity for some 2.9 million customers. The division, whose assets total more than 10 billion, employs 7,800 people, and operates a grid of 108,344 km of distribution lines and 24 thermal power plants that supply power to off-grid systems in outlying regions.

Starting his career as an engineer for Bell Canada in 1975, Mr. Boulanger then worked as a project manager in energy conservation for J.M. Lagacé et associés, consulting engineers, from 1975 to 1981. From 1981 to 1983, he served as Section Head, Energy Conservation, for Roche Consulting Group.

In 1983, Mr. Boulanger joined Gaz Métropolitain and Company, Limited Partnership, where he held a variety of strategic management positions over 20 years.

André Boulanger received his bachelor's and master's degrees in Science from Université Laval in 1974 and 1976, respectively. After obtaining a doctoral fellowship, he studied for one year at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. In the summer of 1995, he studied business management at the University of Western Ontario's Richard Ivey School of Business in London, Ontario.

Mr. Boulanger is Chariman of the Board of Pro Musica. He is also a Director of the Institut du cancer de Montréal and of Le Domaine Forget, an international music school.

Marie-José Nadeau, Director

Marie-José Nadeau is a graduate of University of Ottawa, where she obtained a bachelor of law degree in 1975 and a master's degree in public law in 1980.

Ms. Nadeau was admitted to the Québec Bar and articled at the Supreme Court of Canada. She practiced law in the federal public service for 10 years, focusing mainly on administrative law, before joining a private law firm.

In 1987, she joined the Québec government and held various strategic positions at the provincial ministries of the environment and of energy and resources.

Ms. Nadeau joined Hydro-Québec in 1993. She served as Corporate Secretary and, subsequently, Executive Vice President – Human Resources. She now holds the position of Executive Vice President – Corporate Affairs and Secretary General. In this capacity, she is in charge of strategic planning, legal affairs, communications and public affairs, government and institutional affairs, industrial security as well as environment. She also acts as Secretary for the Boards of Directors of Hydro-Québec and its subsidiaries.

Ms. Nadeau is a member of the Board of Churchill Falls (Labrador) Corporation Limited. She sits on the Board of the Energy Council of Canada where she holds the position of Vice Chair. She chairs the Communications and Outreach Committee of the World Energy Council where she is a member of the Board of Directors. She also chairs the Board of Directors of the Fondation Hydro-Québec pour l'environnement.

Ms. Nadeau is Vice President of the Board of Directors of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of Metro Inc., the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts, and CÉRIUM, and international studies and research centre at Université de Montréal. She was formerly Chair of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Electricity Association for the year 2000.

John R. Muir, Director

John R. Muir is Director, Canadian Energy Policy.  In this role, John is responsible for dealing with Federal, Provincial and Municipal Governments in support of GE Energy’s Canadian businesses (which include Power & Water, Energy Services and Oil & Gas).

John has over 30 years experience in the power generation industry.

John started his career with Westinghouse in 1977 and held increasingly responsible positions in Sales, Marketing, Engineering, Customer Service and Information Management.

John joined GE in 1990, initially responsible for Power Generation Sales, then adding responsibility for Services Sales in 1997 and becoming Country Executive for GE Energy in 2000 when he was responsible for all of GE Energy’s commercial activities and growth agenda in Canada.  John assumed his current duties in March 2009.

John is very active in several industry organizations.  He is Chair of the Energy Council of Canada and is active in the Canadian Electricity Association, the National Electricity Roundtable and the Energy Policy Institute of Canada.

John has a B.A.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Waterloo.  John and his wife, Karen, reside in Burlington, Ontario and have two grown children.

Andrew Stephens, Director

Andrew Stephens was appointed Senior Vice-President, Corporate Relations of Petro-Canada in 2007. In this role, he leads Petro-Canada's human resources and communications with internal and external stakeholders. As a member of the Executive Leadership Team, Mr. Stephens also contributes to the strategic leadership of the Company.

Mr. Stephens began his career in 1977 as a Process Engineer with Gulf Oil Canada at the Port Moody refinery, focusing on projects, planning and economic evaluations. Since joining Petro-Canada as a Process Engineer in 1979, Mr. Stephens has held senior leadership roles in the upstream, Downstream and Shared Services business units. He has been an Officer of Petro-Canada since 1993.

Mr. Stephens holds a Bachelor of Applied Science degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Waterloo. He is a member of the Association of Professional Engineers, Geologists and Geophysicists of Alberta.

Mr. Stephens has served on the Board and as President of the Youth Science Foundation, and is the past Chair of the Energy Council of Canada.

Élie Saheb, Permanent Guest

Élie Saheb copleted a B.Sc. and an M.Sc. in engineering at the University of Kansas. In 1973, he received a Ph.D. in applied science from the École polytechnique de Montréal.

After completing his master's degree, Mr. Saheb began his career as a designer for the synchrocyclotron particle at the Enrico Fermi Institute, affiliated with the University of Chicago.

Mr. Saheb joined Hydro-Québec in 1974 as an engineering specialist at Gentilly-2 nuclear generating station. From 1983 to 1990, he worked as a researcher and then Project Manager at Hydro-Québec's research institute. From 1990 to 1994, he was Project Manager for the Bécancour and Tracy thermal generating stations.

Fro 1994 to 1996, Mr. Saheb was in charge of all projects in the Lower St. Maurice valley, which included Shawinigan-2, Shawinigan-3, La Gabelle and Grand-Mère generating stations, as well as Tracy thermal plant.

From 1996 to 1997, he was Project Manager of a 1,250-MW thermal plant at Jorf Lasfar, in Morocco. This BOT project was carried out by the CMS-ABB consortium.

In July 1997, Mr. Saheb was appointed General Manager – Installation Projects and President and Chief Executive Officer of Société d'énergie de la Baie James (SEBJ). In November 1999, he was appointed Executive Vice President – Engineering, Procurement and construction, in addition to his responsibilities as President and Chief Executive Officer of SEBJ. In June 2001, when the former group was transformed into a division, he became President of Hydro-Québec's Engineering, Procurement and Construction division. From 2002 to 2003, in the context of major initiative in developing new hydroelectric projects, Mr. Saheb devoted his time entirely to his duties as president and Chief Executive Officer of SEBJ.

In October 2003, Mr. Saheb was appointed President of Hydro-Québec Technologie et développement industriel. In February 2006, he was named Executive Vice President, Technology, with responsibility for Hydro-Québec's research institute, telecommunications and information technology throughout the company, development of technology, and the subsidiary Hydro-Québec IndusTech.