Yanick Gervais has been officially named president and CEO of Olymel, succeeding Réjean Nadeau, who passed away from cancer on October 14.
Gervais had already been appointed as interim CEO on October 7, as Nadeau was unable to perform his duties.
Until now, Gervais had held the position of senior vice president, operations at Olymel and was responsible for managing over 30 pork and poultry processing plants, mostly in Quebec, but also in Ontario, Alberta and New Brunswick. He was also overseeing the company’s logistics and engineering departments.
Gervais joined Olymel in 2016 following the acquisition of La Fernandière, a company based in Trois-Rivières specializing in sausage production, of which he had been co-owner and CEO since 2005.
“I humbly accept to take over Olymel’s leadership, Canada’s leading agriprocessing company, to further its growth and success, which my predecessor Réjean Nadeau did with such passion. What I learned over the past few years from this outstanding entrepreneur will undoubtedly guide me. I want to thank the members of Olymel’s board of directors for their trust. It will be my duty to preserve the legacy of hat has been built in Quebec over the past thirty years, which then spread throughout Canada and made our products travel around the world. I will have the privilege and assurance of being able to rely on the wise counsel of our owners and on the valuable experience and skills of my fellow management colleagues. I will be attentive to our 14,000 employees who are critical to our success. I will also strive to keep having constructive 2 discussions with our suppliers and partners in both the pork and poultry sectors in the future, while pursuing what I hope will be mutually fruitful business relationships with our customers,” said Gervais.
Gervais, 42, is married, has three daughters and is from Trois-Rivières. He is trained as an accountant and tax specialist, CPA, CA, and holds a graduate diploma and a bachelor’s degree in Accounting from the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, as well as a master’s degree in Taxation (MTax) from the Université de Sherbrooke.
