Pauline D’Amboise is Secretary General and Vice-President of Governance and Sustainable Development at Desjardins Group, the fifth-largest cooperative financial group in the world, with 49,000 employees, 2,500 directors of local and group caisses, and 7.5 million members and clients. Backed by her team, she oversees the organization’s governance, ethics and sustainable development programs.

Her governance contributions include advising Desjardins’s decision-making bodies and the President and CEO on their roles and responsibilities. Pauline supports the organization’s Corporate Governance and Responsible Finance Commission and its Board of Ethics and Professional Conduct. She heads efforts to strengthen Desjardins’s leadership in the transition to a low-carbon economy and the cross-sector integration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria into the organization’s business model. She also manages the Desjardins Foundation and the Alphonse Desjardins Historical Society.

Pauline holds a master’s degree in organizational ethics from Université de Sherbrooke and the title of chartered director (ASC) from Université Laval. She is chair of the board of the Institut Hydro-Québec en environnement, développement et société and chair of Desjardins’s ESG Steering Committee. As part of her community involvement, she sits on various boards of directors and is a mentor with organizations dedicated to personal leadership development. She is an accomplished speaker in her three fields of expertise.