André Duchesne was president and CEO of the Association des industries forestières du Québec from 1983 to 2002 and president of the Quebec order of forest engineers. In 2002, he was awarded the gold medal of the order of forest engineers, and this past May he received the 2008 pulp and paper award of excellence from the Quebec Forest Industry Council for having “contributed greatly throughout his career to the growth of the pulp and paper industry.” He was also a member of the executive committee of the Conseil du patronat du Québec from 1991 to 2002. He has been an economic consultant and provided the MEI with his vast knowledge of the forest industry. 

F. Pierre Gingras is a specialist in industrial engineering. He worked for 31 years in the construction of hydroelectric projects, including 17 as division manager for the planning and estimation of major projects. He was therefore intimately involved in the Manicouagan, Aux Outardes and James Bay complexes, in addition to his contributions to the refurbishment of many other works. He also directed evaluation and concept studies for a multitude of other projects. Since his retirement in 1997, Mr. Gingras has remained active in the field and contributed to studies for over 50 projects with various consultants, developers and Aboriginal councils. Collaborating with various experts, he sometimes takes part in the presentation of briefs submitted to the provincial government’s public hearings office on the environment, the Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement (BAPE). (High resolution photograph)

Adrien D. Pouliot obtained his law degree from the Université de Sherbrooke in 1979 and practised commercial law with the Ogilvy Renault firm until 1984. He then joined family broadcasting company CFCF Inc., becoming chief operating officer in 1989 and serving as chief executive from 1993 until the company’s sale in 1996. Mr. Pouliot was principal shareholder and president and CEO of Entourage Solutions Technologies from 1999 to 2005. He is currently President and Chief Executive Officer of Draco Capital Inc., a private equity fund. Mr. Pouliot was Chairman of the MEI Board from 1999 to 2007.

After a busy career in Gynecology and Obstetrics at the Montreal General and Royal Victoria Hospitals in Montreal, and as Associate Professor at McGill’s Faculty of Medicine, Dr J. Edwin Coffey has recently exchanged his scalpel for the pen. A graduate in Arts from Mount Allison and in Medicine from McGill, he took his speciality training at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. He has had a longstanding interest in political, economic and legal philosophy and has been an influential leader in the councils of Quebec and Canadian Medicine. He is a former President of the Quebec Medical Association and has served on the Board of the Canadian Medical Association and its Working Group on Health Care Financing in Canada.

Based on supporting data, the Swedish author Johan Norberg shows in Plaidoyer pour la mondialisation capitaliste that the opening up of trade and international capital flows is an indicator of progress, especially for the world’s less fortunate. In a systematic way, he refutes the arguments of those who oppose free trade and capitalism. Featured in several prestigious newspapers and magazines such as the Financial Times, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and The Times, the work of Johan Norberg was awarded the Anthony Fisher International Memorial Award in 2002, a prize that rewards the remarkable works published by independent institutes of research in public policy. The MEI, in collaboration with les Editions Saint-Martin, has made this significant contribution to the debate on globalization available to French-speaking readers.

Sally C. Pipes is President and CEO of the San Francisco Pacific Research Institute, on e-commerce and the tax system.

Etienne Bernier, Jr. Eng., M. Sc., is a Chemical Engineering Ph. D. student at École Polytechnique de Montreal, with awards from the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council and the Fonds de recherche sur la nature et les technologies. He has joined the Interuniversity Research Centre for the Life Cycle of Products, Processes and Services (CIRAIG) in 2005. He holds a master’s degree in Physics from the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières and a bachelor’s degree in Engineering Physics from Polytechnique. His main study interests are energy systems efficiency and the relationship between thermodynamics and the environment.