2 September 2016

During an awards ceremony at the Club de golf du Mont Orford, the Dobson-Lagassé Entrepreneurship Centre and Sherbrooke Innopole highlighted the contributions of mentors to the development of Estrie region businesses, specifically honouring the work of 43 mentors involved in their organizations’ mentoring groups for entrepreneurs. This is the first time that the two mentoring groups have joined forces, at a single event, to recognize the work of these business people who voluntarily share their experiences with other entrepreneurs.

Attending the event were the Mayor of Orford Township, Jean-Pierre Adam; the Mayor of Sherbrooke, Bernard Sévigny; the prefects of the Estrie MRCs; Réseau M’s Administrative Manager , Jérome Gagné; and the co-lead mentors of the two groups, Daniel Lacombe, Pierre Bélisle, Barry Hull, and Guy Falardeau; as well as a number of other dignitaries and guests. The mentors honoured were presented with an award from the Fondation de l’entrepreneurship—Réseau M’s recognition program:

DIAMOND: 5 mentors
Hugh Bieber, Claude Denis, Guy Falardeau, Barry Hull, Luc Riendeau

GOLD: 4 mentors
Michel Le Prohon, Robert Messier, Van Hien Nguyen, Pierre-Claude Roy

 SILVER: 4 mentors
John W. Arsenault, Jean Cloutier, Jean-Yves Lefebvre, Carole Rudzinski

 BRONZE: 7 mentors
Gilles Blais, Michèle Desmarais, Jean-Marc Gagnon, Michel Gagnon, Marie-Josée McGowan, Bruno N. Morin, Marc Rolland

Pierre Bélisle and Daniel Lacombe (cochiefs mentors, Sherbrooke Innopole), Hugh Bieber, Claude Denis, Barry Hull, Luc Riendeau, Guy Falardeau et Jérome Gagné (Administrative Director of Réseau M)

The selection criteria for the various levels of recognition include the number of mentees with whom the mentor has been paired, the professional development workshops in which he or she has played a role, and his or her degree of involvement in promoting mentoring at the local, regional, and national levels.

An Attestation award, which recognizes the training and business experience of new recruits, was presented to 23 new mentors: Mercedes Becerra, Pierre Bernard, Maurice Bernier, Pierre Cameron, Roger Charbonneau, Réal Desautels, Guy Dionne, Éric Dubé, Michèle Gagné, Daniel Giroux, Roger Goyette, Keenan LaPierre, Sylvain Larouche, Lise Le Prohon, Michel Lesage, Réal Létourneau, Denis Roy, Marcel Royer, Yves Royer, Mohamed Soulami, Michel Tessier, Mariam Tounkara, and Art Zentner.

 “Both statistics and testimonies from mentees have confirmed that the mentoring of entrepreneurs makes a true difference in a business’s success rate. Our mentors are an important asset in the region’s economic development; they should be proud,” enthusiastically noted Suzanne Fournier, Coordinator of the Sherbrooke Innopole Business Mentoring group.

To simplify access to mentoring in the Estrie region, last fall the two groups created the portal gomentor.ca, which informs entrepreneurs of the benefits they can gain from business mentoring, regardless of their age or their business’s development stage.

“I am convinced that mentoring plays a very valuable role in the success of our entrepreneurs. Through the numerous video testimonies from entrepreneurs who have benefited from mentoring and are part of this new portal, we plan on increasing awareness of this service so that even more people can benefit from it. All the details on signing up for this mentoring adventure are available on the portal,” noted Dominique Labrecque, who coordinates the Dobson-Lagassé Entrepreneurship Centre’s mentoring program.

Source: Sherbrooke Innopole and Dobson-Lagassé Entrepreneurship Centre