19 February 2021

PRESS RELEASE – During the virtual Moment Mentoras l’humain en tête, le cœur en fête gala, organised by the Réseau Mentorat, Sherbrooke Innopole acknowledged the essential contribution of mentors to the development of local businesses and honoured more specifically 20 mentors from their mentoring cell for their work with entrepreneurs.

One of the Sherbrooke mentors, Daniel Lacombe, was a finalist for the Aline and Marcel Lafrance prize which honours a mentor who has shown leadership, innovation, dedication, and engagement for many years in mentoring for entrepreneurs and Québec entrepreneurship. Although Mr. Lacombe has not been awarded the prize, the Réseau Mentorat commended his implication over the last 11 years, during the first part of the evening which brought together over 500 participants from mentoring cells around Québec. Since the prize has been awarded in 2010, it is the second time a Sherbrooke mentor is among the three finalists.

Daniel Lacombe was a head mentor and an associate head mentor in the Sherbrooke Innopole cell from 2013 to 2018. He was involved at the local, regional, and national levels. On top of managing his own business, Solti solutions TI, he offers individual coaching to entrepreneurs and cohosts a group mentoring cohort all the while taking part in mentoring training activities and promotion.

In the regional part of the gala that followed, 20 mentors received 27 prizes from the Réseau Mentorat recognition programme, of which the Sherbrooke Innopole cell is a member.

DIAMOND: 4 mentors
Pierre Bélisle, Yves Labrie, Daniel Lacombe, Pierre-Claude Roy

GOLD: 10 mentors
Pierre Bélisle, Ghislain Demers, Michèle Desmarais, Michel Gagnon, Yves Labrie, Daniel Lacombe, Pierre-Stéphan Lafrance, Jean-Pierre Lavallée, Bruno N. Morin, Carole Rudzinski

SILVER: 9 mentors
Gilles Blais, Jean D. Desmarais, Daniel Giroux, Pierre-Stéphan Lafrance, Jean-Pierre Lavallée, Bruno N. Morin, Pierre Roy, Michel Tessier, Christiane Veilleux 

BRONZE: 4 mentors
Pierre Cameron, Daniel Giroux, Réal Létourneau, Marcel Royer

 Now, 41 mentors are members of the Sherbrooke mentoring cell for entrepreneurs. They coached 50 mentored entrepreneurs in 2020.

“There are numerous benefits to mentoring, among which having someone to talk to which is more important than ever for entrepreneurs to break isolation during the current context of the pandemic, said Josée Fortin, CEO of Sherbrooke Innopole. Mentors are a precious resource in helping entrepreneurs develop their full potential, thus contributing to the health and vitality of the local economy; it is a virtuous circle! Sherbrooke Innopole is proud to count on the competence, diversified experience, and volunteer dedication of those passionate people who pay it forward. ”

“Business mentoring is among one of the most useful tools for those who wish to launch their business. The 20 mentors’ generous engagement is invaluable in the current economic context which has been deeply affected by the pandemic”, said the mayor of Sherbrooke, Steve Lussier.

The selection criteria for the various levels of recognition include, among others, the number of mentees, development workshops mentors took part in, as well as their level of implication in promoting mentoring on the local, regional, and national scale.

For more information on the mentoring for Sherbrooke entrepreneurs programme, visit sherbrooke-innopole.com/en/services-entreprise/mentorat-pour-entrepreneurs/

About Sherbrooke Innopole
Sherbrooke Innopole is the City of Sherbrooke’s economic development organization whose mission is to accelerate the development of businesses from the five key sectors – Advanced Manufacturing, Cleantech, Information Technologies, Life Sciences and Micro-Nanotechnologies – and to ensure that Sherbrooke has an attractive and innovative business environment.

Source: Sherbrooke Innopole