Choosing every word the way one chooses one's alliances.

Trained as a translator and reviser, I had the privilege of studying at Canada's largest bilingual university, the University of Ottawa, and at the first school of translation and interpretation in North America. It was there, between languages, that I learned to choose every word the way one chooses one's alliances.

Marketing came next — not as a break, but as the natural extension of that insistence on the right word. I specialised in copywriting, advertising translation and winning strategies, convinced that a brand is not translated: it is reincarnated.

For more than five years I led major projects between New Jersey and Montreal, learning to make teams, markets and cultures speak to one another. Out of that came LeadLAB, my agency devoted to acquisition systems and lead generation, working notably with property developers and investors.

Where does RIA sit in that path?

Far more than one project among others: RIA is the point where all the others converge, the one that finally gives the whole its meaning. RIA is the alliance of strategy, of what I learned in project management, and of a deep attachment to two territories — the Outaouais, where I studied and worked, and Morocco, where I am from. Landscapes with nothing in common, and the same idea of hospitality.