Board of directors
Éric St-Pierre, President
Eric is Executive Director of the Trottier Family Foundation, a large private philanthropic foundation in Canada with a focus on climate change mitigation, science, and education. Much of his work is focused on strategic and effective philanthropy and creating opportunities for innovation and collaboration. He sits on the board of the Environmental Funders Canada and the Clean Economy Fund. Eric was previously a lawyer and mediator.
Amélie Laframboise, Vice-president
Amélie, CPA, is Responsable soutien aux élus, Economic Development, Office of the Mayor and Executive Committee for the City of Montreal. Amélie worked for nearly 20 years as an investment analyst with Fondaction CSN. She holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Management. In recent years, she has been very active as a development manager in the field of climate change, particularly in the context of renewable energy and energy efficiency. She is also involved, as a board member, in various organizations in the environmental sector, including Équiterre, AQME, and C3E.
Alain-Olivier Desbois, Treasurer
Alain-Olivier, B.Com, CFA, is passionate about impact investing and helping technology start-up innovators to become leaders of change. Through incubation-acceleration and coaching programs, he is building communities ready to support social and environmental impact enterprises and the development of sustainable business models. Alain-Olivier has 20 years of experience in investment and business financing. He spent the last 15 years in the start-up and Cleantech Venture Capital industry. He is the founder of Espace Inc, an entrepreneurial accelerator, and the founder and CEO of Elements Financial Inc and senior advisor for SVX, Invest for Impact.
Bertrand Fouss, Secretary
Bertrand is Project Director at Coop Carbone. He coordinates a team that develops collaborative projects reducing green gas emissions, particularly in the agri-food, transportation, and energy industries. He is also the president and co-founder of Solon, a citizen organization that aims to implement and create desirable living spaces without the dependence on carbon, prioritizing collective and local projects in different fields (energy, transport, object sharing). Bertrand holds degrees in Engineering and Journalism, as well as an MBA. He also served as administrator on the Conseil régional de l’environnement de Montréal.
Mathieu Charbonneau, Director
Mathieu holds a BA in Urban and Social Geography from UQAM and an MBA from UQAM’s School of Management Sciences. After teaching geography at Collège de Maisonneuve, he joined the Association québécoise du transport et des routes (AQTr) in 2004 as technical director. In 2007, he became director of TransForm, the AQTr Training Centre, and then went on to become assistant general manager of AQTr in 2009. In December 2012, he was appointed executive director of the Logistics and Transportation Metropolitan Cluster of Montreal, CargoM. He sits on a number of committees, including Greater Montreal’s municipal committees on urban mobility and employment and was recently appointed to the Multisector Strategic Taskforce of the Palais des congrès de Montréal.
Philippe Dunsky, Director
Philippe Dunsky brings three decades of experience focused on accelerating the clean energy transition. His firm advises governments, utilities and others across North America in the areas of energy efficiency, renewable energy, and clean mobility. With nearly 40 full-time experts on hand, Dunsky focuses on quantifying the technical, economic and market opportunities for clean energy solutions at scale; designing go-to-market strategies to accelerate adoption; and evaluating their performance with a view to continuous improvement. His clientele spans every Canadian province, bar none, and about half of U.S. states.
In addition to leading his firm (and to his role with the Climate Fund), Philippe contributes to public policy through his involvement on a number of volunteer boards and committees. He is notably co-Chair of Efficiency Canada; a director of the Canadian Renewable Energy Association; and recently chaired the Quebec Government’s Electrification Working Group. He previously served on the Government of Canada’s energy thought leaders’ council, Generation Energy, and on the Governing Council of the Canadian Green Municipal Fund, among other appointments.
Laurence Lavigne Lalonde, Director
As Councillor for the Ville de Montréal, Laurence sat and participated in the implementation of roundtables and spaces for citizen participation. Through these experiences, she developed a passion for understanding and analyzing the different modes of citizen participation, the social and solidarity economy, the environment, the fight against poverty, and social inclusion. She sits on the Executive Committee of the Ville de Montréal, where she helps lead the city’s ecological transition and resilience work, overseeing the Bureau Transition Écologique, and is involved with l’Espace pour la vie. Laurence has both a Master’s in International Development and international development experience.
Natalie Voland, Director
Natalie has been working outside of the traditional real estate sector for the last 20 years. With her social work background, she has created a unique vision to use real estate projects as a tool of economic development and urban regeneration. As a Quebec leader in social innovation through “Benefit Corporation Certification” based on triple bottom line practices, Natalie works collaboratively with strategic partners to redevelop areas, notably the South West of Montreal. Natalie is a board member for Femmessor Montreal and the Quartier d’Innovation (initiated by McGill University and ETS), as well as a member of the Table d’action en entrepreneuriat de Montréal, the Comité consultatif sur le climat de Montréal, and the C40 Initiative of Montreal as a Women4Climate Mentor. She has also taught the Yield Development Paradigm at the Harvard School of Public Health – Center for Health and the Global Environment.
Suzy Peate, Director
Suzy has been working in urbanism for almost twenty-five years. Since 2007, she has worked in the Metropolitan Land Use Planning Department of the Montreal Metropolitan Community – a planning, coordinating, and financing organization that brings together 82 municipalities. She is closely associated with the development, drafting and implementation the first Metropolitan Land Use and Development Plan (PMAD) which dictates the orientations, objectives and criteria for the planning and development of the Greater Montreal for the 2031 horizon. She also led the implementation of the CMM’s TOD (Transit Oriented Development) program and project office. Now executive coordinator at the Metropolitan Planning Department, she coordinates and directs the Planning, Transport and Environment departments. Suzy is a urban planner and sits on the board of directors of the Council for Canadian Urbanism.