Madeleine Paquin, President and CEO of Logistec, has been named CEO of the Year by Quebec business publication Les Affaires in its medium-sized business category (for companies with earnings of $2 billion or less).
“Business is based on logic. One step at a time, we have built something solid and sustainable,” Ms. Paquin said in an interview with Les Affaires. “Opportunities don’t come out of the blue; you have to identify them and go after them. If we see a market with strong potential, we build a network of partners so that we can participate. We’ll slightly adjust this approach when appropriate, but have rarely deviated from our strategy in recent years.”
Since 1996 Madeleine Paquin has been President and CEO of the organization that was founded by her father in 1952, and that has since evolved into Quebec’s largest stevedoring company with considerable operations in other provinces and the U.S., and which has diversified into environmental remediation and water mains rehabilitation.
Les Affaires selects its winners with the assistance of a jury of nine independent professionals who examine a leader’s vision, innovation and, most importantly, the ways in which they have executed their business strategy. Awards are presented annually to Quebec-based public companies, and this is the first year in which multiple awards were presented.
“By having two categories (for large and medium-sized businesses), we avoid seeing excellent leaders overshadowed by multinational corporations. It’s quite difficult to compare a company with $300 million in revenues to Alimentation Couche-Tard or CGI, who were our winners over the past two years. With two categories, both types of businesses will now be recognized,” said Les Affaires.