What are your best and worst habits?
My best habit is that I wake up very early in the morning, 5 a.m., 5:30 a.m., a good hour before the kids wake up and the day begins. Then, I take a moment, 10-15 minutes, to do a little meditation practice.
My worst habit, I would say, is that I take on myself problems, situations that do not belong to me. Sometimes it becomes heavy to bear, as a parent, as a leader, as a citizen. It creates a context that is not ideal for people, it does not allow them to remain fully in touch with this problem.
What word can you no longer stand?
It’s an expression. It’s “Just wait…”. As in “Wait just a minute!” or “Just wait until I finish my email!” “. I find that with technology, with our faces in our screens, we are often postponing the present moment. “Just wait…” is for taking care of something that is not in front of you in the present moment.
What book do you usually recommend?
If I had to choose one, 21 lessons for the 21st centurye century, by Yuval Noah Harari. He makes a reflection that is both provocative and fair on the emergence of artificial intelligence in a context where there is a crumbling of the social and geopolitical fabric on a global scale, to ultimately ask the question: what is it? what does it mean for us, individually and collectively, to be human in the 21ste century ?
What advice are you glad you ignored?
Early in my career, I was advised by someone who wanted my best, to modulate the tone of my voice, to change the way I speak so that it sounds more like what people expect. Company CEO I speak to.
Which, fortunately, I didn’t do. Today, people are often generous enough to tell me: “I loved the way you spoke so much, I felt your conviction, I felt your passion, I felt your concern. »
Besides emails or text messages, what app can you no longer live without on your phone?
The app Microsoft To Do. This is the place where I can drop the different blocks to get them out of my head. I put them in there, I organize them, and then after that, every day, I’m able to say, “Okay, today, this is what needs my attention.” »
Do you have a favorite item on your desk?
[Elle sort une figurine de Ted Lasso, l’entraîneur attachant de la série du même nom.] Ted Lasso… Where to start? What an extraordinary display of leadership from the heart. A character or coach who was capable of both believing in an extraordinarily rich way in the potential of each individual, and who took complete responsibility for his role, capable of making difficult decisions when his team had to. need. Sometimes I hold my head in my hands and say to myself, “What would Ted Lasso do?” » [rires]
What physical activity do you do?
The race. More at the end of the day or on the weekend, two or three times a week, except in winter. My Italian DNA does not allow me to be outside for more than 15 minutes in Quebec in the winter.
Also, I discovered a virtual platform during the pandemic called The Class, which is a mix of yoga and CrossFit.
What do you do to congratulate or thank someone?
I try to be very precise in the words or gestures I make. It’s one thing to thank in a more generic way, but it’s another to thank by making explicit what this person did, the impact it had. They say that one of the greatest gifts we can give to others is to truly see them for who they are.
A good boss is someone who…
This is someone who will create the space and context for you to become all that you can become. It’s certainly not someone who is going to tell you the right answer, who is going to control you. It’s someone who has an intuition of everything you are capable of becoming, then who will help create the conditions so that you, after that, seize this opportunity.
The ideal retirement?
I am not completely disengaged from my workplace or my professional life. I am still engaged on topics that are important to creating a better world. Also, there is a lot more time and space for the countryside, the river, maybe a few acres of land somewhere, time with my partner, time that has a different texture with my family and friends.
And I managed to free up a lot of time to read.
For brevity and clarity, this interview has been edited.
Who is Valérie Pisano?
Born in Saint-Lambert, on the South Shore, to a father who immigrated from Italy and became an entrepreneur in the manufacturing sector, and a mother born in Ville Saint-Michel who held a management position at Bell Canada.
Obtained a master’s degree in management in applied economics from HEC Montréal in 2005.
Co-founded the Mobïus Project on Bias in 2014, aiming to promote female leadership, of which she became general director.
From July 2016 to April 2018, he held the position of talent director at Cirque du Soleil.
Appointed in May 2018 president and CEO of Mila – Quebec Institute of Artificial Intelligence, founded in 1993 by one of the godfathers of deep learning, Yoshua Bengio, which brings together a thousand researchers and experts, as well as 120 partner companies.
Mother of three girls aged 17, 14 and 12. Her partner also has three daughters, aged 21, 13 and 11.