Visionary insurance executive Louis Gagnon (EMBA ’97, DUniv. ‘26), CEO of Intact Financial Corporation’s Canadian operations, remembers the exact moment that changed his life when he was a graduate student at the Telfer School of Management (then Faculty of Administration).
It was the mid-1990s. Louis had started his Executive MBA a couple of years after the program first launched in 1992, having been drawn to the flexibility to study while working. At the time, Louis had been transferred to the National Capital Region from Montreal, and he was planning to start his own business after completing the MBA.
With the support of one of his professors, he worked on a summer research project—a paper exploring the intersection of finance and insurance.
“At the time, I was a very small broker in Gatineau,” says Louis. “After I completed the project, I sent it to three CEOs from different insurance companies, and one called me back. It was a turning point, not just in my career but in my life.”
He graduated in 1997 with his EMBA, and the summer research project remained a highlight.
“That paper created momentum that gave me the possibility of being where I am today. Since then, I’ve always been grateful for the University of Ottawa.”
In 2007, with ten years of entrepreneurship under his belt and a growing interest in how to improve organizations, Louis faced another important crossroads: he considered pursuing a PhD in organizational behaviour.
“Organizational behaviour has always been the place where I thought I would be,” he reflects. “It’s so important to understand people—and not just in business, but any kind of organization. That has always been my passion.”
Instead of doctoral studies, he ultimately chose to accept an opportunity to join ING Canada, which became Intact Financial Corporation. And the rest, as he says, is history.
Today, with organizational behaviour and employee wellbeing remaining at the center of his values, Louis continues to champion the field through the many projects that Intact supports, including Telfer’s Triple I Lab and the behavioural researchers whose work explores diversity, mental health and social interaction, among other areas.
As a member of Telfer’s Strategic Leadership Cabinet from 2021 to 2024, Louis also advocated for bilingualism and uOttawa’s focus on preserving and developing the Francophonie. Research and education remain a strong area of interest for him, and he supports Intact’s philanthropic initiatives in adaptation & preparedness as well as community health.
In recognition of his contributions to the University of Ottawa, his profession, and society at large, Louis received an honorary doctorate in summer 2026.
.jpg)
