Spring Summit & AGM 2022

Renée quickly rose through the ranks at STM to become the first female Director of Bus Maintenance. While in this role, Renée earned a reputation as an exemplary servant leader with a strong capacity to understand operational issues and manage and engage multiple teams.

Renée went on to become the Executive Director of Bus Services for STM in 2014, where she led a team of more than 5,300 employees and oversaw a fleet of 1,800 buses delivering both regular and paratransit bus services throughout the city of Montréal. She helped develop the future strategy for the STM’s electric bus network and negotiated a strike-free seven-year convention with the driver’s union, which she considers to be one of her greatest accomplishments. 

In 2018, Renée received the Mercuriades Outstanding Woman in Leadership Award from the Fédération des chambres de commerce du Québec. She was also the first female bus committee chair of the International Association of Public Transit (UITP) where she has a seat at the executive board as Chair of Bus Division and is a member of the Ordre des ingénieurs du Quebec. 

Most recently, Renée has taken on the role of General Manager of Transit Services with OC Transpo at the City of Ottawa, where her experience and perspective continue to be an asset as she leads Ottawa’s public transit system through a period of significant change with the continued expansion of light rail service.

Sarah Houde spent her early career as a communications and public relations director in the private and non‑profit sectors before becoming executive director of Youth Fusion, a pan‑Canadian charity that doubled in size in its three years under her leadership. She then joined private equity firm XPND Capital as vice president of public and government affairs, steering a number of transport electrification projects. In the fall of 2017 she was named CEO of Quebec’s new cluster for electric and smart transportation and was tasked with positioning the province as one of the sector’s global leaders.

Ms. Houde holds a bachelor’s and a master’s in political science and a graduate management diploma.

Emmanuelle has over 20 years of management experience in both the private and public sectors. She joined Nova Bus and Prevost, part of the Volvo Group, in 2013.

She has been named in the Top 100 of the most powerful women in Canada in 2021 by WXN, the Women’s Executive Network. She has also been selected as one of the winners of the 2022 Canadian Clean50 Awards, recognizing the 50 individuals who have made the greatest contribution to the cause of sustainable development and clean capitalism in Canada over the past two years.

Emmanuelle sits on several Canadian and American boards, including the Quebec’s Federation of Chambers of Commerce (FCCQ), CUTA (Canadian Urban Transit Association, APTA (American Public Transit Association) and is the Chair of the board of Propulsion Quebec, the Quebec’s electric and intelligent vehicle cluster. She has also served on the board of several other organizations.   She is regularly invited as panelist and speaker in conferences in North America to discuss a wide variety of topics.

Prior to joining Volvo Group, Emmanuelle worked in different organizations in the manufacturing, medical, aerospace, software, municipal and university fields, where she held roles in legal, regulatory affairs and sales operations.

Benoît Carrier is Director of the Transportation System Design and Integration Division at the Québec City tramway project office. He is responsible for technical coordination of the design work and integration of the transport infrastructure and systems related to implementation of the tramway project.

Benoît Carrier holds a master’s degree in land use planning and regional development from Université Laval and has been in charge of planning major public transit projects for Réseau de transport de la Capitale and the City of Québec for 12 years.