Laurent PICARD

My most memorable MBA professor, among a field of giants. Professor Picard's "Decision-Making Process" course helped really taught me how to think, and enabled me to make some of my most significant professional contributions, as a senior auditor. He truly made a difference in my life! A delightful professor and very warm human being who remembered his students long after they had finished their studies.

Je garderai toujours un excellent souvenir de get excellent professeur et de cet homme hors-pair qui a grandement influencé ma carrière.

A great professor, a great friend, and a personal guide who took interest in every student's career.

NM, MBA '87

Dr Picard was my strategy teacher at McGill and I often quote him as teaching us 'strategy has got to be simple'. His class was my favorite and we all enjoyed his teaching style. Once during break I asked him a question. I remember that he was eating a muffin while explaining to me that he was trying to give up smoking. He had a great sense of humor for his students and really challenged us.
My sympathies go to his family.
Mary

Hello
Sorry to learn of Larent's death. He was one of the higlights of my McGill MBA program.
Excellent teacher and kind man. un Grand personnage .
Our sympathies JE McGill MBA '94

"Laurent Picard was a great Quebecer and a great Canadian. Not that I'd ever heard of him when I migrated in early 1973, aged 31, from the business towers of Bay Street to a peculiarly titled job in the wintry Ottawa suburbs - the President's "Special Assistant". Laurent was a committed federalist, but, well, different. An original. I was very impressed. He was multi-degreed with two Laval BAs (in Arts and in Physics) and a Doctorate from Harvard Business School (where he was on staff for several years). He had been a Montréal labour arbitrator, an entrepreneur, a professor at Laval and at McGill. Not the typical bureaucrat. But it was his style that attracted most, especially in the Trudeau era. He was an energetic, robust and lively man, just 46. And very funny. He brought to the CBC a deeply French way of thinking about things and the "can do" mentality of a Harvard DBA. He admired original thinking. It was typical to hear references to Henry Ford, Freud and Chagall in his ongoing after-work gin & Gitanes gabfests. Head in the clouds, feet firmly grounded.

He was feisty and often a contrarian. For example when the entrenched corporate affairs people advised him to read his opening address at his first CRTC Licence Renewal Hearings, he demurred. Rather, he spoke extemporaneously from a sort of Powerpoint presentation. One national paper reported his "floating like a butterfly, stinging like a bee". The CRTC seemed less impressed. Later, when Pierre Juneau directed the CBC to drop TV commercials, he listened to his able lawyers ("they tell me what I should do") and promptly appealed the directive to Cabinet as naive and totally unaffordable ("I tell them what I must, for the good of the Corporation"). TV ads stayed. He did drop radio ads, quipping that they cost more to sell, than they brought in. And he supported groundbreaking work on the status of women in the CBC (not good) … again quipping, "We can't control what men think, but we can affect their behaviour". And he did, and did much else. He spoke of CBC widely and often, charming critics, citizens and colleagues. And typically to standing ovations.

He loved the CBC, both radio and TV, English and French. And did much narrow the two solitudes. He slept in his Montréal office during separatist incidents. He and the seigneurial Radio-Canada head Raymond David made a high impact "dream team", often smoothing troubled waters. Toronto fascinated him, in good part because it was certainly not Montréal. One day at lunch at Fenton's, a fashionable 70's eatery, he offered that it must be managed by someone from Montréal - it wasn't! He had cocktails with Barbara Frum to learn more about English Canada, helped open the Maison Radio-Canada and the CN tower. Always on the go. He was made a Companion of the Order of Canada in 1976, just after leaving the CBC. No higher order.

Laurent died late last month. I have lost my most important mentor. His beautiful wife, Thérèse, has lost her lifelong companion. But his elegant eldest son and my good friend, André, has a Montréal email address ending in "@hahaha.com". The legacy endures!"

I knew Laurent Picard from when I was a non-tenure-track lecturer in the Faculty of Management some countless years ago. I recall many wonderful conversations with him about politics, his years at the CBC, and his experiences in the academic world. It is partly because of him that I continued on to get a Ph.D. and have had a great life. He was truly a gracious gentleman of the old school who was always willing to help a young lowly lecturer. I will always remember his kindness.

Our hearts are with you and the family, Therese, at this time of great loss. Much love, Guy and Teri Picard

He was a great teacher! I took his class back in 1981 ..I still remember his lessons. May he rest in peace.

I was secretary to the Associate Dean of the BCom Program at the time Dr. Picard came to the Faculty as Dean. He was a WONDERFUL person, a kind and gentle soul with so much insight into people and his role in the Faculty. I have worked for seven Deans in the Faculty of Management, and I can honestly say that my best memories were when Dr. Picard was Dean. He treated everyone with respect and it was a pleasure to go to work each day. Whenever I reflect back on my 40+ years at McGill, my best memories are of Dean Laurent Picard and his leadership skills.