Out to conquer the U.S. market: CDPQ in New York with a group of ambitious women entrepreneurs
From March 11 to 14, Yana Watson Kakar, Managing Director and Head of Americas, CDPQ Global, Marie-Pierre Bouchard, Director, Business Relations, CDPQ Global, and Catherine Samson, Senior Director, Québec Communications and Business Development, travelled to New York along with the heads of five women-led companies from Québec who are part of the Cheffes de file initiative. The goal of the trip was to help them strengthen the presence of their businesses on the U.S. market. Danielle Déry from Perlimpinpin, Karine Gagner from fdmt, Mélissa Lambert from Lambert, Myriam and Romy Belzile-Maguire from Maguire, and Maude Rondeau from Luminaire Authentik were selected for this trade mission.
Three leading CDPQ experts provided more information on this initiative and what it meant to the participating business owners.
Left to right (front): Marie-Pierre Bouchard (CDPQ), Karine Gagner (fdmt), Yana Watson Kakar (CDPQ), Catherine Samson (CDPQ)
Left to right (back): Amélie Lefebvre (Perlimpinpin), Laurence Gamache (Lambert), Maude Rondeau (Luminaire Authentik)
How did this international initiative come about?
Catherine: Les Cheffes de file is a unique coaching and training program designed to drive the growth of Québec-based women-owned companies with annual sales ranging from $5 million to $50 million. The program is aligned with CDPQ’s mission to help foster Québec’s economic development. Cheffes de file started out with 50 female entrepreneurs in 2018. There are now more than 120.
In 2023, we asked our members to tell us about their needs and the challenges they were facing. We used this information to revamp our approach, creating subgroups around specific themes and strategic issues.
One of these subgroups is our international cohort, which is made up of five women who own and operate businesses in Québec. Working with them are CDPQ Global’s Marie-Pierre Bouchard and Yana Watson Kakar.
Left to right: Ramy Brook Sharp, founder of the Ramy Brook brand, Myriam Belzile-Maguire (Maguire), Karine Gagner (fdmt), Danielle Déry (Perlimpinpin), Yana Watson Kakar (CDPQ), Maude Rondeau (Luminaire Authentik), Laurence Gamache (Lambert), Romy Belzile-Maguire (Maguire), Marie-Pierre Bouchard (CDPQ)
How did you pick the women who would be in this group?
Marie-Pierre: The important thing for us wasn’t to select as many women as possible. The idea was to create a group where there was a real potential for synergy. We wanted to get them talking and thinking so they could learn from one another. Ultimately, we hoped to create value for each of the businesses by helping them broaden their networks, putting them in touch with our contacts and giving them access to our expertise.
Yana: The women chosen to be in the cohort had a number of things in common: they all operate in the retail industry, they have already starting selling or have developed a presence in the U.S., and they all want to do more business in this market. The group’s strategic composition made it possible to explore potential and mutually beneficial opportunities in the New York market and come up with solutions to the challenges they were dealing with.
Left to right, seen from the front: Romy Belzile-Maguire (Maguire), Myriam Belzile-Maguire (Maguire)
Left to fight, seen from the back: Maude Rondeau (Luminaire Authentik), Sabine Rondeau (Luminaire Authentik)
What was the objective of this trip to New York for the participating entrepreneurs and for CDPQ?
Marie-Pierre: For the Cheffes de file participants, the objective was essentially threefold:
- Develop high-level contacts in the consumer goods industry.
- Tap into a premier source of business intelligence and learn best practices to guide them as they expand into the U.S. market.
- Forge connections with CDPQ experts.
Yana: While in New York, the participants were given the opportunity to fine-tune their sales pitch, learn more about certain financing, legal and tax issues that come with doing business in the U.S., visit different parts of New York to understand how some of these business ecosystems work and connect with some established women entrepreneurs. They also met with Martine Hébert, Québec’s Delegate General in New York, along with Hélène Drainville and Catherine Ferembach, the Deputy Minister and Associate Deputy Minister of the Ministère des Relations internationales et de la Francophonie du Québec. Last but not least, they got a chance to talk to André Frenette, the Deputy Consul General in New York at the Consulate General of Canada in New York.
© Margherita Andreani
© Margherita Andreani
© Margherita Andreani
© Margherita Andreani
© Margherita Andreani
Photos: Tours of businesses in the NoHo and Nolita neighbourhoods in Manhattan and Williamsburg, a neighbourhood in Brooklyn.
How did you play a key role in facilitating this trip?
Yana: Between getting everything ready beforehand and being there with them in New York, we designed a program that was very much in tune with their needs. We actively sought out retail industry leaders who would be willing to share some of their insights and tips on how to make a real splash on the U.S. market. I’m thinking of Marigay McKee, for example, whose jobs have included Chief Merchandising Officer at Harrods and President of Saks Fifth Avenue. She talked about what department stores look for in international and emerging brands. There’s also Ramy Brook Sharp, who founded and runs the Ramy Brook womenswear brand. She took the time to share the story of her company, which she has led with incredible determination. Then there were all the intellectual property experts and investment specialists we heard from, whose contributions were tailored to the needs of our Canadian-based entrepreneurs. The market intelligence they gleaned from these conversations is something they couldn’t have found anywhere else. A big thank-you also goes out to Michael Caracciolo, our colleague at Ivanhoé Cambridge, for lending us his expertise in commercial real estate as we organized this trip.
Marie-Pierre: Not only we developed a tailored program for the Cheffes de file, but we also coached them in the lead-up to the trip. They took part in three working sessions where they set out their goals and developed a business plan, shared their experiences and met with Dominic Létourneau, the CFO and COO of Cozey — one of the companies in our Québec portfolio — who is currently expanding into the U.S. The program was a hit with several of our partners, so much so that their discussions are ongoing and other activities will follow on such up-to-the-minute themes as digital marketing.
What came out of the trip in the end?
Catherine: It’s still early to be able to identify the direct business impacts, but there’s little doubt that the opportunities we made possible will contribute directly to their expansion strategy. Everyone who took part helped shape the quality of the program by being so generous in sharing their experiences and by committing to drive their growth plans forward.
CDPQ is proud to provide these women with a springboard to take their brand to new heights, both here in Québec and beyond. This first theme-based cohort speaks volumes about the added value of the expertise of our CDPQ Global colleagues and the compelling impact they are having on the growth strategies of our Cheffes de file entrepreneurs.