Michael D. Penner

Michael D. Penner is a Canadian lawyer, businessman and Chairman of the Board. Born in Montreal, Quebec, he served as Chairman of the Board of Hydro-Québec from 2014 to 2018.[1]

Michael D. Penner
For the American sportswriter, see Mike Penner.

Born in 1969, Penner attended elementary school at Roslyn Elementary School and secondary school at Selwyn House School.[2][3] He received his JD degree from Hofstra University in Long Island, New York after earning an undergraduate degree at McGill University, Montreal, Quebec.[4] He began his career as a lawyer in New York, first with Rivkin Radler & Kremer then with the Olsten Corporation.[5]

Business career

In 1998, Penner joined Richelieu Group, a company that manufactures and imports legwear, and then acquired the company in 2006.[6] He managed the company through the economic downturn that began in 2008 when many manufacturers began exporting production overseas and returned the company to profitability. Penner became an advocate of the Made in the USA program, which aimed to bring back manufacturing to the United States.[7] The company expanded into the United States in 2011 through the acquisition of certain assets of International Legwear Group (ILG), which included the brands PEDS and MediPEDS. On November 17, 2014, PEDS opened a state-of-the-art manufacturing plant in Hildebran, North Carolina with Governor Pat McCrory in attendance.[8]

U.S. President Barack Obama invited Penner to talk about PEDS' investment at a roundtable discussion at the White House in 2014.[9]

In 2016, Gildan Activewear Inc. purchased PEDS for US$55 million.[10]

He currently serves on the board of directors of Scotia Bank, the Toronto headquartered financial services company with 88,000 employees serving 23 million customers in over 55 countries worldwide, with a stronghold in Canada and Latin America.[11] In his function as a Lead Operating Director for Partners Group based in Zug Switzerland (www.partnersgroup.com), Mr. Penner serves as the Chairman of the United States Infrastructure Corporation (USIC) and EnfraGen Power. USIC is the largest underground telecommunications, power and water utility line locating and damage prevention company in North America.[3] EnfraGen is a leading developer, owner and operator of renewable power generation assets in Chile, Colombia and Panama. EnfraGen’s power portfolio includes solar, hydro, and gas generation assets. Mr. Penner is also Director of The Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD) of Quebec, a non-profit association representing Canadian directors and boards across all sectors [12]

Chairman of the board of Hydro-Québec

On October 8, 2014, Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard announced that Penner, who had supported him for the Liberal Party leadership,[13] would replace Pierre Karl Péladeau as Chairman of Hydro-Québec. He was the first anglophone, first Jewish, and youngest person to hold this position.[14] He confirmed that Hydro-Québec would not be privatized. [15] Penner resigned on November 5, 2018, shortly after Couillard was defeated.[16]

Honors

In 2008, Penner was named by Caldwell Partners as one of "Canada’s Top 40 Under 40".[17]

References
  1. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on November 22, 2013. Retrieved March 20, 2015.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. "Penner picked to chair Hydro-Quebec". October 9, 2014.
  3. "Selwyn House School Yearbook 1986". Retrieved June 8, 2020.
  4. http://www.cjnews.com/canada/hydro-québec-gets-its-first-jewish-chair Canadian Jewish News article. Retrieved March 20, 2015
  5. https://www.ledevoir.com/economie/actualites-economiques/420767/le-ca-d-hydro-quebec-a-un-nouveau-president-michael-d-penner (in French) Le Devoir article. Retrieved March 20, 2015
  6. http://www.cjnews.com/canada/hydro-québec-gets-its-first-jewish-chair Canadian Jewish News article. Retrieved March 20, 2015
  7. An American Revival, The Globe and Mail, July 5, 2014
  8. http://www.morganton.com/news/peds-legwear-ribbon-cut-for-new-facility/article_ad3f7adc-c835-11e4-8448-db16a9755c34.html Morganton News Herald article. Retrieved March 20, 2015
  9. http://business.financialpost.com/2014/05/20/how-the-ceo-of-montreal-sock-maker-richelieu-group-got-to-meet-barack-obama/Financial Post article. Retrieved March 20, 2015
  10. https://montrealgazette.com/business/gildan-snaps-up-peds-legwear The Gazette article. Retrieved November 14, 2016
  11. "Board of Directors".
  12. "Underground Utility Location and Damage Prevention | USIC".
  13. "Couillard supporter Penner is new Hydro-Québec chairman | Montreal Gazette". October 9, 2014.
  14. https://montrealgazette.com/business/michael-penner-on-his-first-year-as-an-entrepreneur-and-an-anglophone-at-the-head-of-hydro-quebec The Gazette article. Retrieved November 29, 2015
  15. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-ttews/energy-and-resources/sell-hydro-quebec-no-way-chair-says/article27266400/ The Globe and Mail article. Retrieved November 29, 2015
  16. https://www.lapresse.ca/affaires/economie/energie-et-ressources/201811/05/01-5203071-le-president-du-conseil-dhydro-quebec-claque-la-porte.php La Presse article. Retrieved November 5, 2018
  17. http://investdb.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/story/GAM/20080506/SRTOPATTRIBUTES06 Globe and Mail article. Retrieved March 20, 2015
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.