Antalya, 13 November 2015 – At Towards 2020, the Alliance’s 2015 global conference and general assembly, taking place in Antalya, Turkey, members elected Ms Monique F. Leroux, as their President. Ms. Leroux is the Chair of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer of Desjardins Group, the leading co-operative financial group in Canada and the sixth strongest financial institution in the world. During her term, Desjardins Group has shown sustained growth reaching assets of $250 billion while remaining strongly committed to its co-operative values.

Ms. Leroux also chairs the boards of directors of Caisse centrale Desjardins, Desjardins Financial Corporation and the Desjardins Foundation, in addition to her role as the chief executive officer of Desjardins Group and its subsidiaries. She also sits on the board of Crédit industriel et commercial (CIC), a subsidiary of Crédit Mutuel.

As chair of the CQCM (Quebec association of cooperatives), Ms. Leroux launched an ambitious plan to grow the co-operative movement by 20,000 jobs by 2020. She also contributed to the creation of CMC (Canada), a large national co-operative association. Very active as a board member of the Alliance, Ms Leroux chairs the IARAC committee. She is also a member of the executive committee of EACB and CIBP as well as founder and chair of the board of the Quebec International Summit of Cooperatives. Ms. Leroux has received numerous honours, including the Order of Canada, the Chevalier of the Légion d’Honneur (France), the Woodrow Wilson Award (United States), personality of Francophonie économique, and holds honorary doctorates from eight Canadian universities. She was recently inducted as a Fellow of the Institute of Corporate Directors for her outstanding leadership in business and governance. Also committed to public policy, Ms. Leroux is a member of the Canadian Prime Minister’s Advisory Committee and participates in the B20 and B7/G7. Ms. Leroux supports a host of not-for-profit organisations and chairs the Desjardins Foundation committed to young people education. Ms. Leroux, on her election: “I am profoundly honoured and moved to have been elected President of the International Cooperative Alliance. My thanks go out to our members across the world. I thank them for their support and the trust they invest in me.”