Doctoral students have the full admiration of Sophie Brochu, who stopped her studies after her bachelor’s degree in economics at Laval University. “I finished it with difficulty and misery,” she said frankly in a telephone interview. I hated studying economics in the abstract. But in my last year of baccalaureate, I took an optional course in energy economics and I fell in love with this world. I never got out.”
The former CEO of Hydro-Québec who spent 22 years at Énergir, including 12 as president and CEO, has high regard for people who manage to devote the necessary efforts, time and energy to perfect their understanding of a subject, a profession, a science up to the doctorate or postdoctorate. “These are human capacities that are considerably beyond me,” she says.
Sophie Brochu will be visiting the University of Montreal on December 2 to speak to postgraduate students. What does she want to tell them? Many things, but above all she doesn’t want to sell the punch of her conference.
“I can still say that, during my career, I have managed to identify what our organizations, our institutions and society need. That doesn’t mean I’m right, but that’s what I want to share with them,” she says.
While many people may wonder about the opportunities for doctoral studies beyond teaching and research, Sophie Brochu wants to deliver to the audience a message where serenity and ambition will not conflict.
“We can be trained in a given science and apply this knowledge and this intelligence more widely in a completely different environment which will be enriched by this science,” declares the woman who upon arriving at Hydro-Québec saw many people with a doctorate and a postdoctoral position in different sectors of activity.
An exceptional journey
Born in Lévis, Sophie Brochu comes from a family of business people. She chose a completely different path by entering interpretation at the Conservatory of Dramatic Art of Quebec. Although she loved this world very much, she ultimately realized that she was not an artist. It was then that she opted for economics at Laval University. She began her career in 1987 at the Société québécoise d’initiatives nationaux as a financial analyst and was named vice-president there in 1992. She arrived at Gaz Métro (now Énergir) in 1997 as vice-president of development. business and in 2007 she became the first woman to hold the highest position in the organization. She remained there until 2019. In 2020, she was appointed president and CEO of Hydro-Québec, a position assumed for the first time by a woman. She left her position in 2023.
Aged 61, she has always been very active in her community. Among others, she has been involved for many years with Centraide of Greater Montreal and Forces Avenir, an organization that encourages student engagement in the community. She is also co-founder of La ruelle de l’avenir, an organization that fights against school dropouts in the Centre-Sud and Hochelaga-Maisonneuve districts. Also concerned about the place of women in the business world, she was one of the early leaders of L’effect A, an initiative that aims to propel female ambition.
For several years, Sophie Brochu has been a company director. She is a member of the board of directors of CGI, CAE and Saint-Gobain, a French multinational construction products company expanding in Canada.
Member of the Order of Canada, Sophie Brochu received a doctorate of honor cause from HEC Montréal in 2016.
“Career path: the universe of possibilities”, conference by Sophie Brochu
Sophie Brochu, former president and CEO of Hydro-Québec, will give a conference at the MIL campus of UdeM on December 2 at 6 p.m. Entitled “Career path: the universe of possibilities”, this conference is a special edition of the Major talks of the Faculty of Educational Sciences. It is presented as part of the Faisceaux project to promote awareness and the development of transversal skills among the postgraduate student community. The conference will be followed by an interview moderated by Marie-Josée Hébert, vice-rector for research, discovery, creation and innovation. The conference is free, but you must register here.
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