NanoQuébec Announces Five New Directors

The structural reorganization begun by NanoQuébec last July with the hiring of Dr. Robert Crawhall as President and Chief Executive Officer continues with the appointment of a new board of directors and the addition of new members at the annual general meeting, held in Montreal last month.

The appointments have been made with a view to representing the organization’s high-priority areas of activity. NanoQuébec plays a major role in planning and giving structure to the province’s nanotechnology sector, with the aim of increasing the impact of nanotechnology on the Quebec economy and fostering cooperation between key research groups in universities and the private sector.

NanoQuébec’s priorities include positioning Quebec nationally and internationally as a leader in nanotechnology development and accelerating technology transfer in the fields of industrial biomaterials and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS).

Jean Bourbonnais, of the Société générale de financement du Québec, has been reappointed for a second term as chair of the not-for-profit organization’s board. “With these changes, NanoQuébec has taken an important step in its positioning strategy, in which new standards of excellence set by nanotechnology will improve Quebec’s economic competitiveness in a sustained, responsible manner,” he explained.

The new directors

Representatives of five organizations have joined the NanoQuébec board in order to provide renewed expertise, to complement the other directors, and to support the work of the President and Chief Executive Officer. The new directors are:

• Dr. Claudine Simson, Executive Vice-President and Chief Technology Officer at LSI Logic Corporation, a leading provider of integrated-circuit and software systems. Before joining LSI Logic, Dr. Simson worked for Motorola, where she was technical director of the semiconductor business unit and for Nortel Networks, where she was vice-president of technology solutions for advanced telecommunications;
• Benoît Balmana, Executive Vice-President and Vice-President, Sales, Marketing and Customer Service at Nanoledge, a manufacturer of high-performance resins specializing in the integration of nanoparticles into composites and in the development of environmentally responsible materials;
• Dr. Blaise Champagne, NRC representative and Director General of the National Research Council’s Industrial Materials Institute (IMI), an international-calibre R&D centre dedicated to the Canadian materials processing and fabrication industries as well as being a clearing house for partnerships, knowledge transfer and technological development;
• Claude Jean, Vice-President and General Manager, DALSA Semiconductor, a company recognized as an international leader in the design, development and production of digital imaging products and solutions. Among other things, the firm specializes in the engineering and fabrication of semiconductor components, including MEMS (microelectromechanical systems);
• Dr. Pierre Prémont, FCA, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Fonds québécois de la recherche sur la nature et les technologies (FQRNT), a branch of Quebec’s MDEIE (department of economic development, innovation and expert trade), whose mission includes promoting and providing financial assistance to research and the dissemination of knowledge in fields related to natural sciences, mathematics and engineering.

The organization’s returning directors are: Dr. Maher Boulos, President and CEO of Tekna Plasma Systems; Jean Bourbonnais, Manager, Investments for the information and communication technology group, Société générale de financement du Québec; Dr. Isabelle Deschamps, professor and director of CITE-ETS (Centre d’innovation et de transfert d’expertise, École de technologie supérieure); Jacek Mlynarek, President and CEO of Groupe CTT; and Stéphane Rousseau, Senior Vice-President, Specialty Publication Papers at Kruger.

The members of the University Liaison Committee who sit on the NanoQuébec board are Dr. Edwin Bourget, Vice- Dean, Research at Université Laval and Dr. Denis Thérien, Vice-Principal, Research and International Relations at McGill University. Dr. Mohamed Chaker, Professor and Director, INRS-Energy, Materials and Telecommunications also sits on the board as chairman of the Scientific Affairs Committee.

Sylvie Dufort, Business and Communications, NanoQuébec is the board’s recording secretary. Finally, Dr. Geneviève Tanguay, Assistant Deputy Minister in the research and innovation branch at the ministère du Développement économique, de l’Innovation et de l’Exportation (MDEIE) sits as an observer.

NanoQuébec wishes to acknowledge the much appreciated work of two directors who have completed their terms as directors: Sylvie Dillard, director of special projects in the deputy minister’s office at MDEIE, who joined the board in 2007 and who has served NanoQuébec in a variety of capacities since its founding; and Robert Massé, Vice- President at Anapharm, a director since 2003.