Jacques Lamarre

Jacques Lamarre was born in Jonquière in 1943. He obtained a bachelor of arts degree and a B.Sc.A. in Civil Engineering from Université Laval in Québec City. He also completed Harvard University’s Executive Development Program.

He began his engineering career in 1967 with Lavalin, a Montréal-based global engineering and construction company. Until the mid-1990s, he held a series of senior executive positions, overseeing and project managing some of the company’s most highly visible and prestigious projects in Canada and around the world.

In November 1994, he was appointed Executive Vice-President, SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. (TSX: SNC), a Canadian-based global engineering and construction company. In May 1996, Jacques Lamarre was named President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company.

In the years following his appointment, and despite global market uncertainties and challenges facing the engineering and construction industry worldwide, SNC-Lavalin maintained a high performance level and continuous growth: in terms of net income, from $37 million in 1996 to $150.3 million in 2006; in revenues, from $1.4 billion in 1996 to $5.2 billion in 2006; and in market capitalization, from $600 million in 1996 to $4.8 billion in 2006. Under Jacques Lamarre’s leadership, SNC-Lavalin maintained its position as a world leader in niche sectors of the global market – in the areas of oil and gas, power, infrastructure, environment and water, operations and maintenance, mining and metallurgy, and agrifood.

Jacques Lamarre is an Officer of the Order of Canada. In November 2006, he received the Conference Board of Canada’s Honourary Associate Award. In November 2004, he was named Canada’s Outstanding CEO of the Year by Caldwell Partners International and, in 2003, CEO of the Year by Canadian Business magazine.

Jacques Lamarre is a founding member of the Commonwealth Business Council and he was named Chair of the Council for 2006–2007. He is past Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Conference Board of Canada, a Director of the Royal Bank of Canada, a member of the World Economic Forum and a founding member of the Forum’s Governors for Engineering and Construction (E & C).

He is a member of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, the Engineering Institute of Canada, the Association of Consulting Engineers of Canada and the Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec.

Jacques Lamarre has received honourary doctorates in Engineering from the University of Waterloo in Ontario and the University of New Brunswick.

Jacques Lamarre was inducted into the Academy of Great Montrealers in the Economic category in 2007 and was named a Commander of the Ordre de Montréal in 2016.