Paul Desmarais Jr. OC, OQ, is Chairman of Power Corporation, a position he has held since 1996. He previously served as Co-Chief Executive Officer of Power Corporation from 1996 until his retirement in February 2020.
He also serves as Chairman of Power Financial and is a director of many Power Corporation group companies in North America, including Great-West Lifeco, Canada Life, Empower Retirement, Putnam Investments, IGM Financial, IG Wealth Management and Mackenzie. In Europe, he is Chairman of the Board of Groupe Bruxelles Lambert and a director of SGS. He was a director of LafargeHolcim until 2020 and of Total until 2017.
Mr. Desmarais is Chairman of the Board of Governors of The International Economic Forum of the Americas (Canada), a Trustee of The Brookings Institution, Co-Chair of the Brookings International Advisory Council and a member of the Brookings Executive Committee (Washington), a member of the Global Board of Advisors of the Council on Foreign Relations (United States), a member of the Global Advisory Council of Harvard (United States), a member of The Business Council (United States) and of The Business Council of Canada. He is also active on a number of philanthropic advisory councils.
In 1994, he received the Insigne d'Officier de l'Ordre de la Couronne of Belgium. In 2005, he was named an Officer of the Order of Canada and he received the Executive of the Year Award from the Academy of International Business. In 2009, he was named an Officer of the Ordre national du Québec and in 2012, Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur in France. He holds a number of honorary doctorates.
