27, 28 & 29 November 2024 in Lisbon
A seasoned entrepreneur and manager, Mario Girard has been President and CEO of the Quebec Port Authority (QPA) since January 2011.
Mr Girard is renowned for his vision and his ability to successfully build and mobilise teams to carry out large-scale projects. A prolific and creative business developer, he has extensive experience in national and international business development.
He was also President and CEO of the Fondation de l'entrepreneurship from 2008 to 2011, where he helped mobilise the business and government communities to improve entrepreneurial performance in Quebec. From 1985 to 2007, he was the founder and CEO of two information technology companies: Nstein Technologies and Gespro Technologies.
Mario Girard is a member of the prestigious World Presidents Organization. A Certified Corporate Director (CCD), Mr Girard has served on the structured boards of several organizations for over 20 years. He is past Chairman of the Association of Canadian Port Authorities (ACPA), Vice-Chairman of the International Association of Cities and Ports ( AIVP) and of the Société de développement économique du Saint-Laurent (SODES), and a member of the boards of the Romeo Dallaire Foundation and the Conseil du patronat du Québec (CPQ).
Elected city councillor for the Montcalm-Saint-Sacrement district of Quebec City in November 2021, Catherine Vallières-Roland is deputy mayor and a member of the Quebec City executive committee responsible for international relations and aboriginal affairs, major events, culture, family and youth.
She represents the Communauté métropolitaine de Québec on the boards of the Société de développement économique du Saint-Laurent, the Table de concertation régionale de Québec pour la gestion intégrée du Saint-Laurent and the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Alliance. She is also a member of the maritime committee of the Union des municipalités du Québec.
With a master's degree in political science from Université Laval, her studies and work have taken her to Geneva, Paris and Barcelona. She is fluent in English and Spanish, as well as French.
From 2004 to 2021, Catherine Vallières-Roland held various positions at the Ministère des Relations internationales et de la Francophonie du Québec. She contributed to the development of relations with countries in Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia-Pacific, as well as with the United States. She was also given the mandate to promote and oversee the implementation of the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions in the Digital Environment at UNESCO. From 2018, she was team leader for human rights and indigenous affairs. In this capacity, she represented the Québec government at the United Nations.
Ms Sabah Zrari is PhD in Political Science (Sciences-Po Paris), M.A in Comparative Societies and Policies (Sciences-Po Paris) and M.Sc in Planning, Local Development and Urbanism (Sciences-Po Paris).She has been living in Chile since 1996. She is a partner and director of OBSERVATORY and FORECASTING and has carried out various studies in the field of port logistics and port-city relations in aspects as diverse as logistics costs, chain performance dashboards, logistic communities or normative and regulatory changes concerning public ports. Sabah Zrari is also Professor of Public Policy at the University of Santiago de Chile and Academic Director of the Diploma "Planning, Management and Governance of Port Cities" of the University of Santiago de Chile. She has published articles on city-port issues and participated as a speaker at numerous conferences and seminars on these issues. She is a member of the Argentine Regional Port Cities Research Network and the Latin American Network of Digital Ports and Collaborators.