L. Jacques Ménard, C.C., O.Q., LLD.
L. Jacques Ménard is Chairman of BMO Nesbitt Burns and President of BMO Financial Group, Quebec.
Mr. Ménard is currently a director of WestJet, Claridge Inc., Stingray Digital, Léger Marketing, the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, the Montreal Alouettes, the Gairdner Foundation, the Macdonald Stewart Foundation and Mobilys Foundation. He is also Chairman of Youth Fusion. Mr. Ménard has recently joined the Board of Directors of the Junior Achievement Canada Foundation, whose mandate is to provide funding, role models and support to Junior Achievement in its efforts to provide financial literacy, entrepreneurship and work readiness education to all young Canadians.
He is Chancellor of Concordia University, his alma mater, and is a member of the Task Force on Competitiveness, Productivity and Economic Progress of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.
Mr. Ménard is a past Chairman of Hydro-Québec, the Investment Dealers Association of Canada and the Task Force on the Sustainability of the Quebec Health Care and Social Services System. He published a first book in 2008, Si on s’y mettait… and in the wake of this book, he established the Groupe d’action sur la persévérance et la réussite scolaires.
Mr. Ménard subsequently published a book on the topic of high school perseverance: Beyond the Numbers… a Matter of the Heart. He also served as Vice-Chair of the Federal Task Force on Financial Literacy.
In 2009, Mr. Ménard received the Public Policy Forum Testimonial Award and was recognized as a Great Montrealer by the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal.
Mr. Ménard is a graduate of Collège Sainte-Marie, Loyola College and the University of Western Ontario (MBA 1970). He has also received honorary doctorates from York University & Glendon College, Concordia University, the Université de Montréal and the Université de Sherbrooke.
Mr. Ménard is Companion the Order of Canada and Officer of the Ordre national du Québec.