Company

Germain Lamonde, founder of EXFO, is Executive Chairman of the Board and served as the company's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for over 30 years. During his tenure as CEO, Germain grew the company from the ground up, turning it into a global leader in the communications test, monitoring and analytics market and the world's #1 fiber/high-speed testing company, with customers in 100+ countries. Today as Executive Chairman,Germain leads EXFO's acquisitions strategy and is actively involved in defining the company's growth and investment strategies, strategic direction and corporate governance policies. Germain has served on the board of directors of several public and private organizations, fulfilled numerous speaking engagements, and received several industry awards for his leadership, innovation and global development and was named EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2018 Canada. He is presently Chairman of ENCQOR, the Canada–Quebec-Ontario partnership focused on research and innovation in the field of 5G/IoT innovation and serves on the Board of QG100 – a CEO development forum. Germain holds a bachelor's degree in engineering physics from Polytechnique Montréal and a master's degree in optics from Université Laval in Québec City. He is a graduate of the Ivey Executive Program at Western University in London, Ontario, and is also a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering.

Philippe Morin was appointed Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of EXFO in April 2017 and is responsible for the Corporation's strategy and financial directions, goals and results. He has more than 30 years of experience in the telecommunications industry and joined EXFO in November 2015 as Chief Operating Officer (COO) leading the company's global sales leadership, market development, and product strategy. Before joining EXFO, Philippe was Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Field Operations at Ciena. He previously held senior leadership roles at Nortel Networks, including President of Metro Ethernet Networks and Vice President and General Manager of Optical Networks. Philippe holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Université Laval in Quebec City, Canada, and a master's degree in business administration (MBA) from McGill University in Montreal, Canada.

François Côté was appointed a member of our Board of Directors in January 2015. Mr. Côté is a director as a full-time occupation, for corporations in the public, private and non-profit sectors, bringing his expertise in strategy, M&A, governance and passion for growth. Mr. Côté held a variety of executive positions at Bell Canada prior to becoming President and Chief Executive Officer of Emergis. Following the acquisition of Emergis by TELUS in January 2008, he was appointed President of TELUS Quebec, TELUS Health and TELUS Ventures. In this role, Mr. Côté was responsible for broadening TELUS Quebec's presence and driving the company's national health strategy through timely investments in information technology and innovative wireless solutions. Mr. Côté holds a bachelor's degree in Industrial Relations from Laval University. In 2007, he was named Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young, in the Corporate Restructuring category for the province of Quebec. Mr. Côté serves on the boards of Purkinje, a Montreal health IT growth company as Chairman, Aspire Food Group, HZB Pharma Canada also as Chairman and Diagnos Inc. a new publicly listed company on the TSX Venture Exchange. Mr. Côté also serves on the Advisor Committee of Groupe Morneau.

Germain Lamonde, founder of EXFO, is Executive Chairman of the Board and served as the company's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for over 30 years. During his tenure as CEO, Germain grew the company from the ground up, turning it into a global leader in the communications test, monitoring and analytics market and the world's #1 fiber/high-speed testing company, with customers in 100+ countries. Today as Executive Chairman,Germain leads EXFO's acquisitions strategy and is actively involved in defining the company's growth and investment strategies, strategic direction and corporate governance policies. Germain has served on the board of directors of several public and private organizations, fulfilled numerous speaking engagements, and received several industry awards for his leadership, innovation and global development and was named EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2018 Canada. He is presently Chairman of ENCQOR, the Canada–Quebec-Ontario partnership focused on research and innovation in the field of 5G/IoT innovation and serves on the Board of QG100 – a CEO development forum. Germain holds a bachelor's degree in engineering physics from Polytechnique Montréal and a master's degree in optics from Université Laval in Québec City. He is a graduate of the Ivey Executive Program at Western University in London, Ontario, and is also a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering.

Philippe Morin was appointed Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of EXFO in April 2017 and is responsible for the Corporation's strategy and financial directions, goals and results. He has more than 30 years of experience in the telecommunications industry and joined EXFO in November 2015 as Chief Operating Officer (COO) leading the company's global sales leadership, market development, and product strategy. Before joining EXFO, Philippe was Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Field Operations at Ciena. He previously held senior leadership roles at Nortel Networks, including President of Metro Ethernet Networks and Vice President and General Manager of Optical Networks. Philippe holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Université Laval in Quebec City, Canada, and a master's degree in business administration (MBA) from McGill University in Montreal, Canada.

Louis Adam is EXFO’s Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). He has over two decades of experience, including 10 years as EXFO’s Head of Marketing during which he led the digital transformation of the department and the company’s marketing strategies. As CMO, Louis is responsible for EXFO’s global marketing, including brand strategy and portfolio positioning, digital marketing and sales enablement. He also oversees business operations and strategic planning.

Louis brings deep expertise in multichannel marketing, digital marketing and business intelligence on a global scale. He also brings experience from the telecom sector, having been responsible for competitive intelligence and new services development at Fido, later acquired by Rogers, a Canadian mobile network operator.

In addition to being a regular speaker at conferences, Louis has taught marketing at the undergraduate and post-graduate levels for more than 15 years. He is an active leader in the business community, including as a business coach with Québec International and as head of the marketing group of QG100 Network, an accelerator of 100 companies collaborating to catalyze the growth of Quebec companies on a global scale. Louis has a master’s degree in marketing from Université de Sherbrooke, in Sherbrooke, Canada. He also holds a certificate in entrepreneurial marketing for product line management from the MIT Entrepreneurship Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Stéphane Chabot joined EXFO in 1998 and leads our field business development function, where he is responsible for maximizing EXFO’s engagement in strategic growth markets and applications related to fiber optic, transport and 5G network testing. Stéphane’s career at EXFO includes seven years as VP, Test & Measurement, where he led four business units to significant growth in incremental market share and revenues. He has also held a range of positions within the product line management organization, working with teams on disruptive innovations for telecommunications service providers, multiple system operators, and hyperscalers. Prior to joining EXFO, Stéphane was a telecommunications officer in the Canadian Armed Forces for six years. He holds a bachelor's degree in space science from the Royal Military College of Canada, and a diploma in business administration from Université Laval in Quebec City.

Suzanne Daneau joined EXFO in October 2019 as Vice President of Human Resources. Heading a global HR team, Suzanne is responsible for developing and implementing the overarching HR strategy under the business plan for the outreach, acquisition, development and retention of talent.

With more than 25 years of experience in well-known organizations that are recognized within their communities, Suzanne has led several strategic transformations and has been involved in numerous acquisitions. She leverages strong business acumen to support senior management and she actively participates in building the organizational capacity and a culture of performance.

Recognized for her expertise in organizational development and talent management, Suzanne is keen about optimizing the role and impact of human resources.

She holds a bachelor's degree in industrial relations from the University of Montreal and is currently studying for a McGill University EMBA. A CRHA member, she is also involved in Women's Governance and the Parity Certification Committee.

Suzanne is deeply committed to the health of children and she is involved as a volunteer with Les Gouverneurs de l’Espoir, a research foundation that helps families through hardships.

Gabriel Duford joined EXFO in June 2020 as Chief Technology Officer. In this role, Gabriel is responsible for EXFO’s technology vision and strategy, as well as the continuous improvement of solution development methodologies to meet the highest standards of innovation and quality.

With more than 20 years’ experience at top-tier software R&D organizations, including over a decade driving their technology and innovation strategies, Gabriel has a proven track record of developing valuable technology in diverse markets and domains. He also brings deep experience in productizing artificial intelligence (AI), making him a valuable advisor to EXFO’s customers on their AI transformation journeys. Gabriel’s accomplishments include co-founding Element AI, an artificial intelligence solutions provider, in 2016. As the company’s Senior Vice President, Platform and Technology, he oversaw all aspects of the creation of the AI platform, products and solutions, including applied research, product strategy, product management and software development. Previously, Gabriel led the software as a service (SaaS) initiative at JDA Software, a leading supply chains solutions provider, and was in charge of technology at JDA Innovation Labs. He has also held senior leadership positions at startups specialized in workforce management software and the video game industry.

Gabriel holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Université de Sherbrooke in Sherbrooke, Canada. He is also a seasoned glider and airplane pilot, flight instructor and aerobatic instructor.

Étienne Gagnon was appointed EXFO’s Senior Vice President, Test and Measurement Division in February 2022 and is responsible for the overall business strategy and operations for the Field and Manufacturing, Development & Research (MDR) markets. He is a noted international business and B2B marketing professional and, over the past 25 years, has held leadership roles in sales team management, marketing strategy implementation and innovation management in high-growth, international tech companies. From 2019 to 2022, Étienne served as EXFO’s Vice President, Commercial Transformation in February 2019. From 2017 to 2019, he headed up global commercial efforts as Senior Global Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Eddyfi Technologies, a fast-growing company in the field non-destructive testing inspection technology. From 2015 to 2017, he served as Vice President and then President of Optel Vision, positioning the company as the undisputed leader in the field of pharmaceutical product serialization. Under his leadership, the international sales team generated growth and market share in pharmaceutical packaging rapid inspection and serialization. From 2003 to 2015, he worked at EXFO. As part of his responsibilities as Vice President of Test and Measurement and Corporate Marketing, he was responsible for EXFO's wireline and wireless test and measurement business units (Optical, Transport and Datacom, Access, Simulators and Analyzers) and Corporate Marketing for the company. Étienne previously held sales and innovation roles at TeraXion, EXFO and Bombardier Aerospace. He holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Polytechnique Montréal and a master's degree in European affairs from Télécom Bretagne.

Jean-Luc Labarre serves as EXFO’s Chief Information Officer, leading the Information Technology and corporate security. Appointed CIO in 2020 and following a long-lasting Information technology leadership of more than 10 years, Jean-Luc is responsible for overseeing the global IT and security strategies, including risk management practice. He joined EXFO in 1997 as industrial engineer, transforming and leading the improvement of EXFO’s manufacturing activities. He joined the IT in 2001, leading the group activities and strategic projects amongst which several digitalization projects and ERP implementations worldwide.

Jean-Luc holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Université du Quebec à Trois-Rivières, and a master’s degree in business administration (MBA) from Université Laval in Quebec City.

Mario Paradis has been the interim Vice-President of Finance at EXFO since October 23, 2023. Previously, he served as the Chief Financial Officer of Lumiera Health Inc. from 2020 to 2021. He was the Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer of Neptune Wellness Solutions from 2015 to 2020. From 2008 to 2015, he was the Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer of Atrium Innovations, which was acquired in 2014 by Permira Funds in a transaction worth over $1.1 billion. He also held increasingly significant roles at Aeterna Zentaris, particularly as Vice-President of Finance and Administration and Corporate Secretary. Mario began his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), where he successfully held management positions mainly in auditing and taxation. He is currently the Chairman of the Board of the UTQR foundation. He is a member of the Quebec Order of Chartered Professional Accountants and the Institute of Corporate Directors. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration, specialized in accounting, from UQTR.

Benoit Ringuette has been EXFO’s General Counsel and Corporate Secretary since 2004. Prior to joining EXFO, Benoit practiced mainly in commercial, corporate and securities law from 1998 to 2003 as an associate in the law firms of O’Brien; Flynn Rivard, and Desjardins Ducharme Stein Monast in Quebec City. Mr. Ringuette has been a member of the Quebec Bar since 1998. Mr. Ringuette holds a bachelor’s degree in civil law and a master’s degree in business administration (MBA) from Université Laval in Quebec, Canada.

Michael Scheppke joined EXFO in 2016 and leads the sales organizations for the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region and the global lab and manufacturing market. In his role, Michael is responsible for managing telecom sales for the APAC region and for network equipment manufacturers (NEMs), component manufacturers and research technology leaders worldwide. Michael has over 25 years of experience in the telecom industry, including broad expertise in test and measurement, as well as network performance monitoring. Before joining EXFO, he held various senior sales roles with HP, Agilent and Ixia. Michael holds a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Florida.

Mark Nixon was appointed EXFO’s Senior Vice President of the Adaptive Service Assurance (ASA) division in August 2022. He leads the ASA team towards its ultimate goals: for EXFO to be the market leader for adaptive service assurance solutions and to become the trusted adviser to service providers as they strive to meet the highest customer expectations.

Mark has amassed several decades of experience as an ICT business leader with increasing levels of commercial, strategic, and operational responsibility for delivering revenue growth across the ICT sector. He started his career 40 years ago as a Radio Engineer in the British Army Royal Signals, achieving Traffic Officer status. He then embarked on a successful commercial journey, holding senior leadership roles with Nokia, O2 Telefonica, and other innovative technology companies, as well as a strategic thought leadership role with the TM Forum.

Mark holds a B.Eng. (Hons) in Telecommunications Engineering from the City of London University. His business-focused credentials include courses taken at Harvard Business School and the O2 Executive Development Program at Templeton College, Oxford University.