Alain Leclerc

An economist and management expert, Alain has extensive experience running cooperative organizations and public bodies. Having served in turn as an elected official and an executive, he has a thorough command of governance tools, business diagnostics and the strategic development process. He has led and supported cooperatives in a range of sectors, at the local, national and international levels. He headed a network of several hundred employees across 4 countries and 5 Canadian provinces. Among other things, he set up three separate investment funds for acquiring businesses, and in that role steered the acquisition of some forty companies.

Over the course of his career, he has helped found half a dozen cooperatives and created several private businesses.

Committed to developing cooperatives and democratically governed businesses for the benefit of people in the Global South, he chaired Québec’s largest international development NGO, which brings together most of Québec’s cooperative and mutual sectors. In that capacity, he took part in more than fifteen support missions to organizations in South America, Asia and West Africa.

At the Université de Sherbrooke, he taught business strategy to MBA students, finance and management for cooperatives to graduate students in public management, and project management to undergraduate administration students. In that role, he guided around ten businesses of all sizes and sectors through diagnostics leading to a strategic plan. He also supervised students writing their master’s theses.

A recognized trainer and expert, he is regularly called upon to work with various cooperative sectors.

In 2011, he received the highest distinction of Québec’s cooperative movement for his outstanding contribution to cooperative development.