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Jean-Marc Eustache, chairman of the board, president and chief executive officer of Transat A.T. Inc., is pleased to announce the appointments of Raymond Bachand, Susan Kudzman and Tony Mignacca to the company’s board of directors.
“Each of these three new members brings to the table an outstanding track record and a wide range of skills, which will be invaluable assets for the other board members as well as our entire shareholder community,” Eustache commented.
At the company’s Annual and Special Meeting of Shareholders, the eleven candidates for the Transat director positions were elected by a majority of votes cast by shareholders or their proxies attending the meeting. The Transat Board of Directors now consists of Jean-Yves Leblanc (Lead Director since 2012), Raymond Bachand, Louis-Marie Beaulieu, Lina De Cesare, Jean Pierre Delisle, W. Brian Edwards, Susan Kudzman, Tony Mignacca, Jacques Simoneau, Philippe Sureau, and Jean-Marc Eustache, co-founder of Transat, and its chairman of the board, president and chief executive officer.
Eustache also thanked the outgoing members of the board, Messrs John Thompson and Dennis Wood, for their outstanding contributions and many years of service to the company.
Three new appointments
Raymond Bachand has a Doctorate in Business Administration from Harvard University and has held several key positions in Quebec public life. He taught at the École des hautes études commerciales de Montréal and subsequently entered politics, serving as chief of staff to the Quebec Minister of Labour and Manpower from 1977 to 1979, and then as special secretary to the Premier of Quebec until 1981.
Following that initial stint in politics, Bachand returned to the private sector, serving as vice-president of Métro-Richelieu and then Culinar, before going to work for the Fonds de solidarité FTQ in 1994. He became its chief executive officer in 1997 and held that post until 2001. He then spent three years as president of the consulting firm SECOR before returning to provincial politics in 2005. He was elected that year under the banner of the Liberal Party of Quebec and later appointed Minister of Economic Development, Innovation and Export Trade, an office he held until 2009. He subsequently became Minister of Finance, in 2009, and then served concurrently as Minister of Revenue from 2010 to 2012. He later held other political positions and eventually retired from public service on Sept. 13, 2013. On Jan. 20, 2014, he joined the law firm Norton Rose Fulbright as strategic advisor.
Susan Kudzman is an actuary and specialist in risk management and human resources. She is currently a partner at Mercer Canada, where she was hired in 2011 to head the risk management practice. She was previously executive vice-president and chief risk officer at Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, where she worked from 2005 to 2010. Prior to that, she held executive positions at BCE Emergis Inc. and Laurentian Bank. Kudzman sits on a number of boards of directors, including those of AtmanCo, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal and the Montreal Heart Institute Foundation. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Actuarial Science and is a fellow of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries (FCIA), a fellow of the Society of Actuaries (FSA) and a certified enterprise risk analyst (CERA).
Tony Mignacca has been chief executive officer and chairman of the Board of SAIL Outdoors Inc. since 2009. He also served as chief executive officer and chairman of the Board of Ski-Mode Bernard Trottier Inc. from 1995 to 2008, and, during that period, acquired Baron Sport and SAIL Outdoors. In 1997, he was also a co-shareholder of Groupe Conseil Strator Inc., a consulting firm in the retail, distribution and service field, whose main client was Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec. From 1991 to 1994, he was president and chief executive officer of Sports Experts Inc., the Canadian leader in sporting goods and sportswear. Mignacca is a member of the Boards of Directors of the Canadian Sportfishing Industry Association (CSIA) and La vie en rose.
