Even though he has just accepted an important position in a New York firm, Louis Vachon does not intend to leave Quebec. And it is here that the former big boss of the National Bank (BN) would like to develop an “entrepreneurial” project.
“I think that the fundamental characteristics of the Quebec economy remain very good. That’s why I’m not moving and why I want to continue to get involved in the local economy,” said Mr. Vachon yesterday.
Aged 59, Louis Vachon retired from National Bank at the end of October after 14 years as CEO. Yesterday, he became an operating partner at investment firm JC Flowers, which manages US$5 billion in assets.
“One of the interesting things about this offer is that it’s for 50% of my time. […] It gives me time to [siéger à des] boards of directors and maybe another project that I haven’t chosen yet, but which could be entrepreneurial,” explained Mr. Vachon, without saying more about it.
From 2017 to 2020, JC Flowers was a shareholder of the Montreal institution Financière Fairstone, a transaction in which National Bank Financial participated.
At JC Flowers, Louis Vachon will focus on transactions outside of Canada, to avoid potential conflicts with his former employer, for whom he will remain an advisor until the end of 2022.
Worried about Ukraine
Asked about the rout that has plagued the stock markets for a little over a week, Mr. Vachon was worried.
“I think the market was neglecting geopolitical risk a bit last week, but now people have woken up. […] It is certain that the risk premium will increase exponentially if Russia returns to Ukraine. We can think that the conflict will remain regionalized, but the history books are filled with regionalized conflicts which extended in the months which followed”, affirmed the enthusiast of military strategy.