Mr. Desmarais is Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer of Power Corporation and Co-Chairman of Power Financial. Prior to joining Power Corporation in 1981, he was with S.G. Warburg & Co. in London, England, and with Standard Brands Incorporated in New York.
He is a director of numerous Power group companies in North America, including Power Financial, Great-West Lifeco, Great-West Life, Great-West Life & Annuity, London Life, Canada Life Financial, Canada Life, Crown Life, Putnam Investments, IGM Financial, Investors Group, and Mackenzie Financial. He is also Vice-Chairman of the Board and Executive Director of Pargesa, and a director of Groupe Bruxelles Lambert, GDF Suez, Total, and Lafarge.
Mr. Desmarais is a member of the International Council and a director of the European Institute of Business Administration (INSEAD), Chairman of the Board of Governors of the International Economic Forum of the Americas, and a trustee and Co-Chair of the International Advisory Council of the Brookings Institution in Washington. He is the founder and a member of the International Advisory Board of the McGill University Faculty of Management in Montréal and the founder and a member of the International Advisory Committee of École des hautes études commerciales (HEC) in Montréal.
Mr. Desmarais is also involved in various charitable and community activities in Montréal. He obtained a Bachelor of Commerce from McGill University and an MBA from INSEAD, and he received honorary doctorates from Université Laval and the Université de Montréal. In 2005, he was named an Officer of the Order of Canada and, in 2009, an Officer of the National Order of Québec.