2024-2025 fundraising campaign

Gautier Péchadre is a Partner in the Turnaround and Insolvency Group at RCGT in Montreal. Specialized in the accompaniment of companies in difficulty, he enjoys challenges and knowing that he is making a difference in his community. Member of the Board of Directors of the Joseph-François Perrault Music School Foundation and involved in the United World College movement, he is convinced that education is the key to making our world a better place. As Nelson Mandela said, "None of us, acting alone, can achieve success". With GRIS, we aim to eliminate prejudices one by one, taking one step at a time, one donation at a time.

With a degree in organizational management, Annabelle Cadieux has over 20 years' experience in business management, team management and organizational development consulting. Passionate about developing people's full potential within companies, her mission is to transform workplaces into healthy, fulfilling, productivity-enhancing spaces. Through the projects she leads, she works to create inclusive corporate cultures where everyone feels respected and valued, whatever their origins, gender, sexual orientation or abilities. An agent of change, Ms Cadieux works with GRIS MTL to help promote acceptance of sexual and gender diversity, and to reach out to a clientele at the heart of our future society: youth.

Shawn Salewski has been supporting GRIS in its fundraising campaign for almost 10 years. He is a seasoned entrepreneur and executive with over 20 years of experience. Since 2022, he has been co-owner and general manager of Protection Incendie C.D., a contractor specializing in fire protection and fire alarm systems. A passionate advocate for LGBTQ2+ issues, Shawn is currently Vice-Chair of the CGLCC Board of Directors, and Chair of its Governance Committee. Originally from Ontario, he has lived in Montreal since 2012 with his husband and son.

Clément Andrade is an economic consultant with Pricewaterhouse Coopers. In his professional life, he has actively participated in the Fierté committee to promote the inclusion and acceptability of diversity. In particular, he helped organize the company's participation in the Montreal Pride parade for two consecutive years, moderated a panel discussion on parenting within the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, and contributed to the development of a self-diagnostic tool for companies in partnership with GRIS-Montreal. It was since this last project that he decided to become more involved with the organization, whose mission reflects his values and vision of a more tolerant world.

Nicholas Blach is an attorney at Stikeman Elliott LLP and a member of the Tax Group since 2016. He is involved in his law firm's National Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Committee, where he has been actively involved since 2020. Recently, he helped found the "Pride Alliance," a national affinity group for people at Stikeman Elliott who identify as members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community to share issues affecting the community in an informal forum. For the 2022 Montreal Pride Festival, Nicholas helped organize the Stikeman Elliott Spinning for Pride event, with all proceeds going to GRIS-Montreal. In this role, Nicholas seeks to contribute to the development and implementation of various DCI initiatives, including those aimed at promoting greater understanding and acceptance of 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals in the workplace. Nicholas' commitment to 2SLGBTQIA+ causes is rooted in a deep sense of empathy and a desire to make a difference in the lives of those who have traditionally been marginalized and excluded.

Passionate about teaching and training, Tatiana designs and delivers training courses for a variety of organizations, on a wide range of human resources and management topics. Tatiana is also a lecturer and EDI Associate at Desautels, McGill's Faculty of Management. She teaches a variety of courses including human resources management, multicultural management, organizational behavior and others. Tatiana is dedicated to providing her students with a learning experience that is optimal for their learning process and development. Through her discussions of EDI in her training courses, she sees how intolerance and prejudice often stem from a lack of knowledge, and therefore how education brings a powerful potential for change. She also sees how sexual and gender diversity is still often misunderstood, leading to the all-too-frequent marginalization of people from these communities. So it was with hope and a strong conviction that GRIS can really make a difference that Tatiana chose to get involved this year.

Paul Kry is Associate Professor of Computer Science at McGill University, specializing in physics-based computer animation problems. He appreciates the impact GRIS has in demystifying sexual and gender diversity, and is pleased to support this year's fundraising campaign.

Francis Lafortune is Senior Director, Strategy and Digital Acceleration at the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec. Today, Francis is committed to GRIS Montréal, because it was hearing stories of same-sex families 10 years ago that gave him the courage to come out, start his own family and see the birth of his son in 2023. Although homosexuality was removed from the list of mental illnesses when he was 3 years old, we still hear disturbing talk among young people in high school, but fortunately, a lot of openness too. So it's crucial that we continue to share these stories of sexual and gender diversity in our schools. Every donation enables GRIS to reach more classes and deconstruct prejudice.

Guillaume Sans is a communications and marketing specialist. He has been with iA Financial Group since 2022, where he also holds the role of President of the LGBTQ+ Employee Resources Group. Having evolved in several industries including luxury tourism, urban commercial development and the financial sector, Guillaume has always been committed to helping companies implement an ethical, diverse and inclusive culture. Always involved and motivated, Guillaume believes in working collaboratively and educating groups and individuals to live in a better world where everyone can be themselves, without fear of physical or mental abuse. Getting involved with GRIS-Montréal is important to him in order to combat prejudice and help create tomorrow's society.

Participating in classroom interventions since 2012, I have been able to see the difference that each encounter can have in the lives of young people, regardless of their orientation or gender identity, by demystifying an often taboo subject and putting a face and experience on our reality. I have also been able to see, over the years, the changes in society's mentality and the work we still have to do. It is a privilege for me to join, for an eleventh year, a team of men and women committed to making a difference in the fight against homophobia, transphobia, intolerance and ignorance that still exist. I invite you to generously support us.

Since 2014, Claude Marchand is the President and CEO of the LCI Education network. He joined the organization in 2008, as Director of Marketing, and showed continuous commitment to LCI Education’s vision of growth through numerous acquisitions and successful partnerships with the primary mission of connecting people to opportunity through high-quality education. With now over 3,000 people in the organization as well as thousands of students who graduate from local and international campuses yearly, Claude envisions the LCI Education to become the leader in private education around the world.