Sylvie Paquette has been with Desjardins since 1984 and has held a number of progressively senior positions at Desjardins General Insurance Group. She started her career in the Actuarial department and was later appointed Head of Integration for the acquisition of the property and casualty insurance subsidiaries of a large Canadian bank. She was Senior Executive Vice-President of Corporate Development for a number of years before becoming President and Chief Operating Officer in November 2008.
Ms. Paquette sits on the Desjardins Group Executive Management Committee, and is a member of the Board of Directors of Western Financial Group, a wholly-owned Desjardins subsidiary.
She has a degree in Actuarial Science from Laval University and is a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries and the Casualty Actuarial Society. In May 2009, she was appointed to chair the Board of Directors of the Centre de développement en assurances et services financiers (Insurance and Financial Services Development Centre). She serves on the Board of Directors of the Insurance Bureau of Canada. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction.
Ms. Paquette is co-chair of a multi-year fundraising campaign for the Cégep of Lévis-Lauson Foundation and is actively involved in a number of other community and charitable organizations.