Charles Sirois

Last updated

Charles Sirois
CM CQ
Born (1954-05-22) May 22, 1954 (age 70)
Chicoutimi, Quebec, Canada
Education
OccupationBusinessman
Political party Coalition Avenir Québec

Charles Sirois, CM CQ (born May 22, 1954) is a Canadian businessman. He is the founder, controlling shareholder, chairman and CEO of Telesystem Ltd., a Canadian private equity firm. Effective from March 1, 2017, he has been the CEO and chairman of OnMobile Global Ltd, India [1]

Contents

In 2011, he co-founded (with François Legault) a social and economic liberal centre-right political party, Coalition Avenir Québec.

Early life and education

Born in Chicoutimi, Quebec, he earned a bachelor's degree in Finance from Université de Sherbrooke and a master's degree in finance from Université Laval. He is the father of François-Charles Sirois and grandfather of Maxime Sirois.

Business career

Sirois has had a long career in corporate management. He is currently a director of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Cossette Communication Group and Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal. [2] He led BCE Mobile Communications from 1988 to 1990 as its chairman and CEO. Subsequently, he was chairman and CEO of Teleglobe, the leading provider of international long-distance and broadband services in Canada. He also served as chairman of Telesystem International Wireless, and founded and was chairman of Microcell Telecommunications, a GSM cellular provider in Canada best known for its Fido brand name. He was also a member of the G8 Dot Force, of the National Broadband Task Force, and was a founding member of the Washington-based Global Information Infrastructure Commission (GIIC).

Sirois is known within investment circles for his purchase of Excel Communications in 1998. Excel, which was a reseller of residential long-distance services, relied on door-to-door sales and multi-level marketing. While Sirois was able to sell Teleglobe to Bell Canada in 2000 at a price of $6.5 billion, the subsequent bursting of the internet bubble and telecom bust forced Teleglobe into bankruptcy in 2002 and the writedown of $2.1 billion of Excel.[ citation needed ]

Sirois is one of the founding partners of Enablis and has served as its chairman and chief executive officer from inception.

Sirois had a net worth of C$1.2 billion in 2015. [3]

Honours

In 1994, he was made a member of the Order of Canada in recognition for being "a visionary in the area of intercontinental communications". [4] In 1998, he was made a Knight of the National Order of Quebec. [5]

He holds honorary doctorates from Université du Québec à Montréal, University of Ottawa, Concordia University, Université Laval and the École de technologie supérieure.

Published work

In 1995, he published a book on the information highway entitled "The Medium and the Muse" ( ISBN   0-88645-175-2). In his second book, published in June 2000, "Organic Management: Creating a Culture of Innovation" ( ISBN   0-00-200053-9), Sirois shares his management philosophy, along with his vision of the new economy.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Telus</span> Subsidiary of Telus Corp, a Canadian telecommunications company

Telus Communications Inc. (TCI) is the wholly owned principal subsidiary of Telus Corporation, a Canadian national telecommunications company that provides a wide range of telecommunications products and services including internet access, voice, entertainment, healthcare, video, smart home automation and IPTV television. The company is based in the Vancouver, British Columbia, area; it was originally based in Edmonton, Alberta, before its merger with BC Tel in 1999. Telus' wireless division, Telus Mobility, offers UMTS, and LTE-based mobile phone networks. Telus is the incumbent local exchange carrier in British Columbia and Alberta. Its primary competitors are Rogers Communications and Bell Canada. Telus is a member of the British Columbia Technology Industry Association.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Université Laval</span> Public research university in Quebec City, Canada

Université Laval is a public research university in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. The university traces its roots to the Séminaire de Québec, founded by François de Montmorency-Laval in 1663, making it the oldest institution of higher education in Canada and the first North American institution to offer higher education in French. The university, which was founded in Old Québec, moved to a new campus in the 1950s in the suburban borough of Sainte-Foy–Sillery–Cap-Rouge. It is ranked among the top 10 Canadian universities in research funding and holds four Canada Excellence Research Chairs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HEC Montréal</span> Business school located in Canada

HEC Montréal is a bilingual public business school located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1907, HEC Montréal is the graduate business school of the Université de Montréal and is the first established school of management in Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BCE Inc.</span> Canadian telecommunications and media company

BCE Inc., an abbreviation of its former name Bell Canada Enterprises Inc., is a publicly traded Canadian holding company for Bell Canada, which includes telecommunications providers and various mass media assets under its subsidiary Bell Media Inc. Founded through a corporate reorganization in 1983, when Bell Canada, Northern Telecom, and other related companies all became subsidiaries of Bell Canada Enterprises Inc., it is one of Canada's largest corporations. The company is headquartered at 1 Carrefour Alexander-Graham-Bell in the Verdun borough of Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KPN</span> Dutch multinational telecommunication and internet company

KPN is a Dutch telecommunications company. KPN originated from a government-run postal, telegraph and telephone service and is based in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Cogeco Inc. is a Canadian telecommunications and media company. Its corporate offices are located at 1 Place Ville-Marie in Montreal, Quebec. The company is structured into three strategic business units (SBU); Cogeco Connexion, Breezeline, and Cogeco Media. The company provides a range of telecommunication products and services including cable television, radio and television broadcasting, telephony, and Internet services in Ontario and Quebec in Canada, and in thirteen states along the east coast of the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laval Titan</span> Ice hockey team

The Laval Titan was one of the names used by a junior ice hockey team in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) franchise that played in Laval, Quebec, Canada, between 1971 and 1998.

Paul Desmarais Jr. is a Canadian businessman and philanthropist. He has been the chairman and co-CEO of Power Corporation of Canada since 1996.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pierre Karl Péladeau</span> Canadian politician

Pierre Karl Péladeau, also known by his initials PKP, is a Canadian businessman, billionaire and former politician. He was also the MNA for Saint-Jérôme. Péladeau is the president and CEO of Quebecor Inc. He used to own Sun Media Corporation. Péladeau is seen as a "strong Quebec nationalist" and an influential businessman in Quebec.

Charles E. Beaulieu, is a Canadian academic, civil servant, and businessman.

Urgences-santé is the statutory public emergency medical service for the islands of Montreal and Laval, Quebec. The corporation operates a fleet of 165 vehicles and employs over 1,300 people, including 891 professional paramedics. Urgences-santé is one of the largest paramedical services in Canada.

Richard R. Drouin, is a Canadian lawyer and businessman.

Lionel Boulet, was a Canadian engineer, academic, and utilities executive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Esdras Minville</span>

Esdras Minville was a Canadian writer, economist and sociologist. He served as the Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Université de Montréal, and was the first French-Canadian to serve as head of HEC Montréal. A staunch defender of Catholic social doctrine, Minville helped to found several co-operatives in the province.

Luc Vinet is a Canadian physicist and mathematician. He was former rector of the Université de Montréal between 2005 and 2010. He is the CEO of IVADO, created in 2015 since August 2021.

Jean-François Simard is a teacher and Quebec provincial politician and Cabinet Minister. He was a member of the National Assembly of Quebec (MNA) for the riding of Montmorency from 1998 to 2003, representing the Parti Québécois. He served as a delegate minister for over a year in the Cabinet of Quebec Premier Bernard Landry.

The National Broadband Task Force was an initiative of the Government of Canada whose mandate was established in 2001 by the Canadian Minister of Industry, at that time Brian Tobin.

Michael Neuman is a Canadian-born executive who has managed telecommunications and broadcast television companies in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. He is the founder and CEO of WorldLinx Telecommunications Inc., and founder of MediaLinx which formed the ISP Sympatico. He was CEO of satellite TV provider Bell ExpressVu and acted as President of Bell Mobility where he joined forces with Sir Richard Branson to launch Virgin Mobile Canada. He was President of Fortune 300 company EchoStar, which operates DISH Network in the U.S., and CEO of British telecom outfit iaxis prior to its sale to Dynegy Inc., in 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Le Hir</span> Canadian politician

Richard Le Hir was a French-born Canadian politician, lawyer and management consultant living in Quebec. He represented Iberville in the National Assembly of Quebec as a member of the Parti Québécois and served in the Quebec cabinet.

References

Business positions
Preceded by Chair of the Board of CIBC
February 26, 2009– April 23, 2015
Succeeded by