Lessons in leadership after tragedy thrust her to the helm of a family logging business

Toronto Star

10-05-2025

I could have done the interview by phone, but I've always found that in-person meetings mean you learn a lot more, not just about the topic, but also about the individual.
So when I asked Guylaine Saucier for an interview and she invited me to her apartment on Montreal's Sherbrooke Street West, I jumped at the chance.
Saucier, as chair of the joint committee on corporate governance sponsored by the Toronto Stock Exchange, the Canadian Venture Exchange, and the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants, in 2001 had just produced a report called 'Beyond Compliance: Building a Corporate Culture.'
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As a result, she was not only the most important woman in business, but also the most important person in business.
For our interview, Saucier chose her favourite room, the library. Shelves were lined with books, a table groaned under documents, and all the technological elements of the modern home office were close at hand.
But the colour! The room was painted tomato, a hue that bespoke not only a great deal about Saucier's taste in decor but also her passionate attitude to life.
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Saucier was petite with brown hair, wore a checked jacket, and had a smile that was unforced, one of those executives whose warmth was as all-pervasive as her power.
When it came to her approach to governance, Saucier told me she was a gradualist.
'I want to get people to change. What is the best way to convince them to change their behaviour? Is it in being totally radical? Or is it saying we'll adopt reasonable positions where people will have a quicker buy-in?'
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Everyone on the governance committee agreed that new rules were difficult to devise that applied fairly to companies of every size and circumstance.
'People who know me will tell you that I like everything to move more quickly. That's my personal bias,' said Saucier. 'But when you want to change a culture, it's going to take time. There's what I would call a digestion process. You have to allow time for that, like it or not.'
Out of curiosity, I later looked up the meaning of her name. The saucier makes sauces in the kitchen of a great chef. Just as such a role requires a deft touch, so does guiding corporate governance. In Saucier's mind, the prime work of any board is selecting the company's chief executive officer.
'If you are successful in choosing the right CEO for the right time, everything else will fall into place. If this first building block is not there, no board can replace the work of the CEO. In the end, it's a question of judgment. How would you regulate that?'
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Saucier's family business background helped form and frame her views. In 1975 her father was killed in a plane crash. Her five brothers and sisters picked Guylaine, at twenty-nine the eldest sibling, to run the family sawmill business, Saucier Forest Products in Abitibi, in northwest Quebec.
Saucier, a chartered accountant, had been the company comptroller for four years. Suddenly she was chairman, president, and chief executive, not to mention the only female boss in an all-male industry. Her tenure turned out to be a notable success. By the time the family business was sold in 1988, employment had tripled to 1,200 and sales had reached $85-million.
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Corporate governance was not yet in vogue, but Saucier put into practice at the family firm some of the elements that have since gained wide acceptance. For example, she expanded the board beyond family to include outside directors.
It also seemed elementary to me that a woman was better suited than most men for a leadership role. Women's egos don't need as much feeding. And, as an entrepreneur, Saucier knew the last thing a company required was more regulation. As a result, when she accepted the role as chair of the joint committee, she already had a thesis in mind.
'I wanted to deal with behaviour, not structure. If a shareholder isn't pleased, he can sell. If enough of them sell, somebody will get the message. This is how we try to change behaviour. I don't think you change behaviour through regulations.'
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Over time, her views have mostly come to pass. Better to have boards do the right thing, not just follow rules. The stature Saucier gained meant that she served on a wide range of boards from Bank of Montreal to CBC.
Not that she would pat herself on the back.
'I don't have a huge ego for these kinds of things,' Saucier said. 'I have some principles that are very important. When you are managing other people's money, you are accountable to them. I believe that better governance will result in better performance.'
And better leaders to show the way. Lessons for life learned long ago while logging.