Essential player in the economic life of Québec and Canada for decades, Jacques Bougie worked in the development of the aluminium industry at Alcan from 1974, where he became the President and Chief Operating Officer in 1989, then Chief Executive Officer from 1993 until 2001. He made Alcan the main supplier of aluminum to General Motors and led the greatest expansion in the history of Alcan, with the acquisition of AluSuisse, and laid the groundwork for the acquisition of the French group Péchiney in 2004. Over the years, he has been a member of the Board of Directors of many companies and organizations, including the Royal Bank of Canada, Nova Chemicals, McCain Foods, Bell Canada, BCE Mobile Communications, and he was Vice Chairman of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives. Since March 2004, he has chaired the International Advisory Committee of the information technology consulting company CGI.

A graduate in Law at the Université de Montréal and in Business Administration at the École des Hautes Études Commerciales of the l’Université de Montréal, Mr Bougie received an honorary doctorate from the Unversité de Montréal in 2001. In 2002 he became an associate professor in the Department of Management at HEC, where his contribution deals with issues of international management, governance and in particular, the transfer of management practices of private enterprise to community organizations.

As an active community volunteer and business leader, Mr Bougie is a member of the Board of Directors of the Foundation of Greater Montreal. He co-chaired the Centraide of Greater Montreal Campaign in 2001.