The billionaires in Quebec obviously form a boys’ club, where only one woman, soprano Sharon Azrieli, heir to the family of the same name, managed to slip in. Could we see more in the next few years? Are there any obstacles to their entry into the list? The Press posed the question to six prominent women, some of whom may well join this club one day.
Posted at 6:00 a.m.
At the end of the line, Judith Fetzer, co-founder and CEO of Cook it, a ready-to-cook meal company that has the wind in its sails, bursts out laughing when asked if she will be the first billionaire entrepreneur in Quebec. However, his name came up spontaneously during several interviews.
“I have a few crusts left to eat… For my generation, I’m not sure. As presidents and business leaders, there are about fifteen of us in Quebec with sales figures between 50 and 100 million. It’s very, very far. »
PHOTO HUGO-SÉBASTIEN AUBERT, THE PRESS
Judith Fetzer, co-founder and CEO of Cook it
The new generation of female entrepreneurs, on the other hand, is promising. “I’m very involved in entrepreneurship in Montreal, I’ve met girls coming out of HEC who had led financing rounds. They are really impressive. »
A matter of time
A glance at the list of 12 Quebec billionaires shows one constant: these fortunes were not built overnight.
“Women have had the right to have a bank account since 1964,” recalls Déborah Levy, editor-in-chief of the magazine. Firsts in business, devoted to female entrepreneurship. “Fortunes are built over several generations. It takes time to accumulate wealth. »
Karine Joncas, who launched a range of cosmetic treatments, can attest to this: her company has been in existence for two decades and is far from having reached its full potential. She inherited her business acumen from a great-grandmother who owned a restaurant, a grandmother who opened a convenience store and her mother who ran a hair salon.
PHOTO KARENE-ISABELLE JEAN-BAPTISTE, SPECIAL COLLABORATION
Karine Joncas is the head of a cosmetic care company.
“They were leading women. I really had role models of female entrepreneurship. »
Judith Fetzer pays a similar tribute to her mother, who opened a campsite in the Thetford Mines region thanks to an inheritance, in which she was able to show her sense of organization. “I was 15 years old, I looked after the children, I organized the parties… I had a lot of fun. »
Growing presence
More and more women are going into business, and the last few years seem to mark a turning point. At Anges Québec, where we have invested more than 129 million in 165 companies since 2008, the CEO, Geneviève Tanguay, believes that we have been witnessing the beginning of a cycle for two years.
In the past, about 5% of projects were led by women. Now it’s one in four. These entrepreneurs, within three, five, seven years will eventually find themselves at the head of a notable fortune.
Geneviève Tanguay, CEO of Anges Québec
“We see the first generations of women becoming entrepreneurs, there is an acceleration,” she adds.
She notes that the investment climate in Canada is conducive to these new businesswomen. “We may have multiplied the capital to entrepreneurs by three. But have intentions to start a business increased at the same rate? The answer is no. Who can improve it? It’s largely an invisible population in this field until now, women. »
Obstacles and family
Do women going into business in 2022 still have to face more obstacles? None of the women interviewed clearly reported having had greater difficulties, for example in finding funding, because of their sex.
“At times, the fact that I was a woman was even more of a favorable factor, since I was getting into cosmetics,” says Ms.me Joncas. I did not experience any financing problems, but I was with my spouse. »
That a woman shows ambition, on the other hand, “it still shocks the ears”, estimates Mme Fetzer. “From the start, I conceived of Cook it as a company made to grow. When I talked about these great ambitions to relatives and friends, they said to me: “Yes, but… couldn’t you rather be like Marilou, make napkins?” It made me angry… Me, I wanted to talk about money, big business. »
What many women find, however, is that they generally place more importance on family.
We have been working for a few decades, but we still have children, we are biologically women. We are also caregivers, spouses.
Déborah Levy, editor-in-chief of the magazine Firsts in business
The stereotypical male model of the entrepreneur totally devoted to his work, absent from the family, does not seem to be very attractive for the women interviewed. “The work-family balance, I think it may be more pronounced among women than among men,” says Karine Joncas.
Joëlle Chartrand, who co-founded RenoRun with her husband, Eamonn O’Rourke, in 2016 and who is now the vice-president of culture, believes that she has found a good way to combine the two worlds. “Eamonn and I see all the management work of the business and the family as a whole. There are times he has to work at the company and I have to work at home, and sometimes it’s the other way around. We support each other like that, and we make it work. »
Another model?
The virtual absence of women in the list of billionaires is perhaps due to their choice of companies, says Sévrine Labelle, CEO of Evol, an organization specializing in supporting and financing women-owned businesses.
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, THE PRESS
Sévrine Labelle, CEO of Evol
“Is being a billionaire the way to define success? We see that women are massively embarking on fields where there is less growth: personal services, education, health, in local trade. For some women, yes, it’s important to have a profitable business, but one that makes sense, that grows, but not at the expense of the family. »
Geneviève Tanguay, of Anges Québec, agrees with this analysis and believes that the increased presence of women in business will contribute to changing the criteria for success. “Economic wealth is not the only vector. Having an environmental, social and medical impact is important. I find it reductive that it is only evaluated on an economic level. »