Gildas Poissonnier, Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO), Desjardins Group
Gildas Poissonnier is Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO), at Desjardins Group. He leads a team of experts that support the different business units of the financial cooperative - including retail and business banking, P&C insurance, wealth management and life insurance – in two areas: 1) Moving towards the integration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria into its decision-making and its operations, and 2) Supporting the development of responsible finance products, in line with Desjardins’ commitment to tackle climate change issues and to foster a fair energy transition. By focusing on the long-term socio-economic development of members and communities, he integrates circular economy perspectives and life-cycle assessment into his analysis. Gildas is part of the Disclosure Technical Expert Group from the Sustainable Finance Action Council (SFAC) and has followed the development of the Canadian green and transition taxonomy since its inception with the Canadian Standards Association. He is also co-chair of the Green and Transition Finance Council (GTFC) of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. Before Desjardins, Gildas worked for 11 years at Deloitte, where he led the Sustainability and Climate Change team in Quebec. He holds undergraduate and master's degrees in agronomy from AgroParisTech and an MBA from HEC Montréal. Gildas leads his projects with a strategic vision, always keen to collaborate with his peers.

Bertrand Millot, Chef, Investissement durable
Bertrand Millot leads the Stewardship Investing team, which is responsible for defining and implementing CDPQ’s strategic directions, including integrating ESG factors into all activities and deploying the climate strategy. His responsibilities have three aspects: helping investment teams structure impactful investment opportunities (particularly with regard to social, climate and energy transition investments); managing risks related to ESG, climate change and reputation and contributing to the organization’s outreach in collaboration with the CDPQ Global team.

Mr. Millot is one of the architects of CDPQ’s climate change strategy and a seasoned investor in infrastructure and corporate debt in emerging markets, fields where ESG considerations have historically been at the forefront. At CDPQ since 2015, he previously held various positions in risk management and stewardship investing, including Business Unit Risk Manager for the Fixed Income, Capital Solutions and Cross-functional Risk portfolios. He also served as Head of Climate Risk and Issues and led the Stewardship Investing team.

Before joining CDPQ, Mr. Millot was CEO and CIO at Cordiant Capital, an emerging market corporate debt fund manager. Earlier in his career, he was active in infrastructure project finance with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in London, U.K. and with BNP Paribas in Paris, France.

Mr. Millot holds an MBA from McGill University, a Master’s in Engineering from École Nationale Supérieure d’Arts et Métiers in Paris and is a member of the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD.D designation).