Albane Français

Albane serves as a liaison between the industry’s research needs and researchers in order to create synergies among the parties and develop applied R&D projects.

Albane has worked in the digital creation field for 14 years.

She began with École NAD and then held various positions with the production studios URBANIA MEDIA and CREO. She also sits on the board of iScola, an organisation that promotes education in the digital age.

Her range of experiences has given her an excellent understanding of future issues and challenges facing the digital creation sector.

Alexis Lessard

Alexis Lessard has been a Technical Lead at ManaVoid Entertainment since 2018. He previously worked at Ubisoft Montreal as a AI / Gameplay Programmer on the Watch Dogs brand and the game Transference.

Aurelie LeChevalier

Aurelie is a lead programmer with over 8 years of experience in the games industry. She spent over 6 years at Ubisoft Montreal, working on titles like ‘Child of Light’ and ‘For Honor’ as a gameplay/AI programmer and then as a programming team lead. She is now working at Thunder Lotus Games as lead programmer on an announced project.

Avery Rueb

With more than 20 years of classroom experience, Avery brings together a deep understanding of pedagogy and a love of casual games that everyone can fall in love with quickly. His research on games and Csikszentmihalyi’s Flow has been published funded by the SSHRC and published internationally. He is also the co-founder of the Association Edteq which brings together over 80 educational technology companies and non-profits to work directly with the Quebec Ministry of Education to improve access and educational outcomes

Benjamin Denis

Benjamin Denis or ”SenorBenji” has been greatly involved in Quebec’s sports since 2016. He began his career by organizing the Maplestone League (Hearthstone league) between his university classes. From his league’s success, he moves to the next level by joining Montreal Esports where he organizes a multitude of tournaments, streams, showmatchs and a lot of everything that is broadcasted on Twitch. Later, he became the Montreal Esports Academy’s face and ensured the connection with schools in the region.

He is now a member of the board of the Fédération québécoise de sport électronique as he continues his career at Edgegap where he works hard to reduce lagg for everyone. A new challenge, but always with the same goal, to make esports a better place!

Cassie Nantais

Cassie Nantais is a senior production coordinator at Square Enix Montréal, a mobile game development studio. After working with people with autism and their families for almost 10 years, she began her career in the video game industry in 2016 as an administrative assistant and community manager at Borealys Games. Cassie also worked as a release manager at Ludia in 2019 before joining the Square Enix Montréal studio when she currently works on an unannounced project. Cassie takes pride in helping the team to reach their goals and develop an amazing game.

Christopher Chancey

Christopher Chancey is a CEO who specializes in the financing and marketing of video games. In 2015, he ran crowdfunding campaigns for himself and clients totalizing over half a million dollars. In 2014, he founded ManaVoid Entertainment and raised over 3 million dollars for the studio’s second game Rainbow Billy: The Curse of the Leviathan (to be released Q2 2021). Early collaborator in La Guilde and the Indie Asylum, today Chris is a partner and investor in many video game studios. Since 2017 he also teaches game design, programming and marketing at the University of Montreal (UdeM) and the Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue (UQAT), on top of being one of the founders of the indie game microprogram at UQAT, making sure the gaming entrepreneurs of tomorrow are up to the task.

Dany Ayoub

Since joining Unity in 2017, Dany has worked on projects ranging from showcasing new tools and features to creating in-Editor technical demos.
With a background in computer graphics and animation, he is passionate about solving content-creation challenges in Unity, working with virtual cameras, and participating in game jams.

Fabrice Terrier

Fabrice Terrier has been an international student attraction and retention consultant at Québec International since 2018. His role consists of advising institutions in the Greater Quebec City area and supporting them in their efforts to attract international students.

François Devic

After my master Degree at ENJMIN, I was fortunate to do my internship at Ubisoft Montreal in the SplinterCell Conviction team. From the beginning, I worked in the tools team by mostly helping the audio team but also the UI team with
especially tools to create the localisation of projected texts.
I then went to work on the 2 Watch_Dogs titles. This time, it was more to develop the assets creation pipeline as well as the localisation tools.
I have been working at Eidos Montreal for nearly 4 years. I have been working in the technical artists team as a tools programmer to support them and create new tools for them and especially for procedural creation of assets.

François Savard

Founder of a multitude of organizations (including the Fédération québécoise de sports électroniques, the Fondation des Gardiens virtuels and Boreal eSports), François Savard, alias Leonin, is a recognized reference in Canada in terms of the esports industry, online communities and the prevention of various problems present in the digital world.

Frédérik Perron-Deschênes

Lawyer at BB Immigration.

Gabrielle Bilodeau

Gabrielle Bilodeau is the Educational Product Designer at Lü – Interactive Playground. Armed with a Master’s in Education and many years spent working with children in a variety of contexts, she traveled from Quebec to England, first to teach and then to work with special needs students. With experience spanning two continents, Gabrielle has acquired many of the skills necessary for her to rise to the great challenge that is combining fun with learning! It’s with that goal in mind that Gabrielle stepped into the role of designing educational games at Lü, creating tools that foster whole child development.

Gregory Belacel

Gregory is in the video game industry for over twenty years, most of them as a game designer. After starting as an independent developer, he joined Ubisoft, and then Warner Brother Montreal, where he developed an expertise in designing system for open world game, especially on franchise like Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry and Arkham (Batman). Event today, he still continue to learn and push game design with the same passion and enthusiasm as when he started in the industry.

Guillaume Leroy

President and co-founder of GANG of Devs, programmer at Ludia, Guillaume joined the Montreal video game industry since 2016.

Jonathan Abenhaim

Jonathan is a professional animator with 15+ years of industry experience in the creative worlds of AAA Games, Mobile, TV & Film.

Credits include: Splinter Cell, Rainbow Six, Prince of Persia, Far Cry, Star Wars, Outlast, The Kid Who Would be King, Halo, Astartes to name a few.

Julie Roy

Julie Roy has worked for Québec International since 2018. As an Advisor – International Talent Attraction, her role consists mainly in advising employers and human resources professionals in the Québec region, and supporting them in their efforts to attract and retain international talents. She previously held various positions in international relations, human resources and communications.

Julien Laferrière

Julien has been working at Ubisoft Montreal for almost 13 years, working mainly on the Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry franchises. He is currently the Producer of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, overseeing the production of the game from Montreal, across 14 studios.

The first game he shipped was Assassin’s Creed II, managing the Presentation team, followed by Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, on which he was in charge of the Missions team, as well as leading the production of The DaVinci Disappearance DLC. He was Associate Producer on Assassin’s Creed 3, managing the design, missions, gameplay and pipeline teams. As Producer, he shipped Far Cry 4 and Assassin’s Creed Origins.

Prior to working in the game industry, he worked as a UX designer, software engineer and project manager in Web-related companies.

Kaermack Polewska

After several years of game development in AAA and VR as Senior Game Designer and Lead Designer, Kaermack is now jumping to the indie scene. He’s currently working on the creation of a new game studio and can’t wait to share the details about his next project. He’s also a teacher and manages the Independent Video Game Design program at Dawson College in Montreal, the first educational program in the world to offer specialized training for the reality of indie game development.

Since discovering game development at the age of 13, his passion has only grown. This passion is still following him today and greatly influencing his career in creation, education and design. Kaermack strongly believes in the importance of democratizing game development by supporting the local and international community of developers, however young they may be.

Kelsey Hlavaty

I have been a User Research Moderator at Ubisoft Montreal for over a year now. I observe, collect and compile data from participants who playtest our video games.

Kéven Boily

Video games have been my passion since I was 3 years old. I’ve been working as a programmer in the industry for give or take 10 years now. I collect game and consoles from all generations, starting from the NES and the Master System. I also co-host a podcast dedicated to the retrogaming world, along with 3 friends.

Marc Suys

Holding a bachelor’s degree in engineering physics and a master’s degree in applied sciences from École Polytechnique de Montréal, Marc has dedicated his career to starting and growing businesses in Quebec. One of the four founders of 5N Plus inc., operating in the field of special metals and chemicals, he contributed for 12 years to the development of this start-up of 15 employees which has now become a multinational company employing nearly 700 people on 3 continents.

He currently serves as President of Nanomonx Inc., a small independent video game developer from Montreal. The company’s flagship product, Boreal Tales, is an app designed to develop writing skills in elementary school students. By providing students with a fun creative platform, the game gives teachers a powerful writing motivation tool that can be tailored to suit students’ needs and grade level. The game was launched in September 2017 and is a huge hit with both teachers and students.

Marion Guignolle

I’ve been working as a technical artist in the video game industry for the past 8 years. During that time I have worked on all types of projects, mostly AAA titles. These experiences allowed me to get a first rate understanding of the whole game development pipeline.

My curiosity and deep passion for animation and video games drives me to constantly look out for new tools and techniques. I love to improve games quality and pipeline efficiency.

Mathieu Lavoie

Mathieu Lavoie is an award winning composer, entrepreneur and educator. Doctor in composition (University of Montreal, 2012), he co-founded Vibe Avenue, a leading audio and music creation studio for visual media, with fellow composer FX Dupas, in 2013, and holds a position of professor at the University of Quebec in Montreal.

While also assuming the role of co-creative director and CEO, he has worked on music for dozens of video games, films and commercials, as well as many concert pieces. Amongst his most recent projects are the games Star Trek Fleet Command, Omensight, Livelock, Lakewood Plaza Turbo and Ultimate Chicken Horse. He is currently working on numerous upcoming titles such as Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance.

A specialist in hybrid orchestral music, Mathieu Lavoie’s musical style is hard to define in absolute terms, having scored games and films using multiple fusions of other genres, such as heavy-metal, retro synth, EDM, jazz, funk and world music. He owns hundreds of flûtes and plucked strings instruments which he uses regularly to enhance his scores.

Mathieu Lefort

Mathieu Lefort has over 13 years of experience in strategic planning, project management and analysis in the fields of economic development, media and education. Mathieu started his career at HEC Montréal where he contributed to the Campus Abroad program for MBA students. Then, he worked for nearly 6 years in the economic affairs department at Montréal International and 3 years in the strategic planning team at CBC/Radio-Canada. Mathieu returned to Montréal International in 2016 and was appointed Director of the I choose Montréal initiative, dedicated to international students in Greater Montréal. He holds a bachelor’s degree in administration (finance) from ESG UQAM and a master’s degree in international business from HEC Montréal.

Maxime Pelletier

Maxime Pelletier holds a master’s degree in public policy (which has nothing to do with his current job!) and is head coach at the Montreal Esports Academy, where he has been teaching the concentration in esports since its inception in September 2019.In addition to being a semi-professional Hearthstone player for Mirage Sport Électronique, he coaches collegial League of Legends and appears frequently in the Quebec and Canadian media to discuss current developments in esports.

Nadine Gelly

Working in Quebec’s tourism and cultural industries for more than 20 years, Nadine was the general manager of La Vitrine culturelle de Montréal for more than 10 years and participated in the creation of an environment conducive to the development and influence of Montreal entrepreneurs in the fields of content creation and technology in the creativity and entertainment sector as the general manager of Hub créatif Zú, Guy Laliberté’s flagship Montreal project. She now holds the position of Executive Director of the La Guilde du jeu vidéo du Québec, which has more than 245 members and whose mission is to promote the video game industry locally and internationally and to support its development as a global hub. Quality of the workforce, training, recruitment, diversity, creativity, innovation, support for entrepreneurship, export, outreach and member growth are her leitmotifs.

Concerned about all opportunities for arts-business networking and actively involved in various creative projects and the place of women in key positions, Nadine sits on the board of directors as vice-president of the Festival international de la chanson de Granby, on the board of directors of Concertation Montréal as treasurer, is president of the governance committee of the Synthèse project, pôle image Québec, acts as a director on the boards of La Ruche, CEGEP du Vieux-Montréal and Antenne créative and also sits on various committees, including the Cravates Roses.

Nicolas Robillard

Founder of the Montreal Video Game Museum, Contributor at RGCA, Podcaster on “Le Shack à Cassette”, Geek, Gamer, Console Collector and Video Game History Researcher

Noeul Kang

User Interface artist (sometimes integrator and designer) who enjoys working on the entire user experience. Worked previously as an English teacher, pre-press infographic artist, graphic designer, a UI artist for B2B mobile applications to finally go into video games in 2016.

Working with a small, dynamic and agile teams is a must. Organizing and finding solutions to User Interface issue is always a welcome challenge. Supporting the designers, artists and programmers work by creating and maintaining the best interface design is her current passion.

Odile Prouveur

Host and freelance writer, Narrative Designer and Voice Actress in video game; Odile plays as many characters as she writes and stages their adventures. She also teaches scenario and narrative design for video games at UQAT, Udem and NAD.

Osama Dorias

Osama is the Lead Game Designer at Warner Brothers. In the past, he’s worked at Gameloft, GEE Media, Ubisoft, and Minority Media.

He is currently teaching game design at Dawson College.

Osama loves to empower people in expressing themselves through game making. He especially love to give a voice to marginalized people and causes. He hosted game jams, workshops and other community activities to this end.

Pierre Moisan

Pierre Moisan, LL.B., M.A.

Pierre Moisan is one of Canada’s pioneers in the digital entertainment industry, a seasoned manager and entrepreneur. He has acted, over the last twenty years, as Vice-President of Megatoon (Behavior), founder and president of Artmedia Studio, and producer at Ubisoft.
For nine years, he was Vice-President Strategic & Business Affairs at Frima Studio which became Canada’s largest independent videogame development studio.
Pierre Moisan has built a large network of contacts around the world, particularly in the field of new media and video games. Over the past few years, he has successfully organized missions abroad for young Canadian video game developers: Seattle, San Antonio, San Francisco, Paris, Malmö, Cologne, Busan, Tokyo… He is regularly invited as a lecturer (Egypt, Peru, Australia…) and leverages his network for the benefit of entrepreneurs.
Pierre Moisan worked for several years for McGill University’s International Contracts and Civil Law of Quebec Research Group. He holds an M.A in International Relations from Laval University (University of Montpellier 1, fellow of the French Republic) as well as a Bachelor of Law, also from Laval University (Dalhousie University, fellow of the Government of Canada).

Pierre-Luc Labbee

With nearly 15 years in the industry, Pierre-Luc is the founder of Rhum, humans and resources: an organization that helps creative companies attract, hire, and manage talent for their projects and contribute to their success. . With clients in Video Games, VFX, Animation, Advertising and Innovation, the Rhum team is a go-to when it comes to discussing careers and talent in the industry.

Samuel Gignac

I am a full time partner broadcaster on Twitch for the VD Zone. I prefer to play competitive games in a non-competitive and casual way. Games with viewers, giveaways, try new games and more are offered on my Twitch channel.
I also offer my services as a facilitator in collaboration with the Virtual Guardians project. With a Bachelor’s degree in social work in my pocket, it is only natural for me to offer listening, mutual aid and referrals when needed, and this, during pre-established time slots and during my broadcasts!

Samuel Laflamme

Based in Montreal, Samuel Laflamme is a score composer for video games, film, TV, advertising and documentaries.

He has developed his skills in a wide range of styles from classical orchestration to modern writing with electronic techniques. Always in synergy with the images on the screen, his compositions reflect refinement, originality, subtlety and awareness.

Sandrine Buannic

In video games for 14 years, I have worked on a wide variety of projects and in companies such as Ubisoft, Gameloft and most recently iLLOGIKA. Each experience brought me new challenges and allowed me to meet many interesting people.
Level designer since 12 years ago, my work has been at the heart of game development, from conception to integration and finalization. It takes technical and also artistic skills in order to create levels and specific mechanics.

Sarah Esteves

IN MONTREAL
Founded in 1992 and located in Montréal, the School of Digital Arts, Animation and Design at the University of Quebec at Chicoutimi (NAD-UQAC) is a university campus offering academic programs and research in 3D animation, visual effects, design and digital arts. For 28 years now, the school has educated thousands of 3D animators working in reputable companies around the world in different industries: film, television and video games.

On this campus, several programs are offered: Certificate in 3D animation and digital design (in French); Bachelor degree in 3D animation and digital design (profiles in video game and in visual effects for film and video) (in French); Specialized graduate diploma in narrative design for video games (in French); Master’s degree in art, specialized in digital design (in French).

WHY CHOOSE NAD-UQAC SCHOOL?
– Almost 30 years of expertise
– 80% of the graduates find a job in their domain 12 months after graduation
– Over 2,500 graduates worldwide
– Privileged link with the video game, animation and visual effects industry

IN SAGUENAY
On the main campus in Saguenay, UQAC also offers a program related to the video game industry, named bachelor’s degree in game design. The objective is to train IT professionals in the development of high technology for the video game industry. A partnership with NAD-UQAC allows students to work in multidisciplinary teams of artists and developers.

Sébastien Croteau

Metal singer for the band Necrotic Mutation and cofounder of The Monster Factory, Sébastien is a voice actor who specializes in monsters and creatures and he has participated in more than 20 productions like Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Far Cry 5 and Rainbow Six Siege : Outbreak.

Shawn Young

Shawn Young is a co-founder and CEO of Classcraft, the Engagement Management System for schools. Since its launch, Classcraft has gained incredible traction with educators worldwide, providing tools to gamify their classrooms.

Shawn taught 11th grade physics for 9 years, holds a bachelor’s degree in physics and master’s in education from Université de Sherbrooke and is also a seasoned web developer. Shawn sits on the the Scientific Advisory Board for UNESCO’s MGIEP, sits on the corporate advisory board for Future Ready Schools New Jersey, sits on the corporate advisory board for SETDA, is the vice-president of the Edteq Association and is an Ambassador for the Education faculty of University of Sherbrooke.

Shawn is interested in how we can create community in the classroom and how playful principles can help teach the whole child.

Simon Forget

History and geography teacher revolving around the video game scene since 2013. Chief writer for the indie magazine Multijoueur.ca and host for the Multicast podcast for seven years. Panelist, MC, volunteer and planner for Montreal Comiccon, Dreamhack Montréal, Montréal Joue, Demonight, Lan ETS and many of Loto-Québec’s initiatives including its Indie Game Zone. Now working as a freelancer in different video game related projects.

Stella Fleury

For over three years, I have been helping Greater Montréal businesses recruit qualified and experienced workers from abroad by organizing international recruitment missions. With over 5 years of recruitment experience beneath my belt, I have a deep understanding of the challenges related to acquiring the best talent.

Stephan Carmignani

20 years of experience in video games as creative director, level design director and Lead level designer. My principal interests are: tools design, storytelling, open world creation, multiplayer, first person and 3rd person adventure games.

Stéphanie Bouchard

STÉPHANIE BOUCHARD is a Game Designer specialise in artificial intelligence. She designs gameplay systems influenced by human relation and their transformation under pressure allowing the player to systemically come stir the pot. Her two last missions were to implement functional Proto-Indo-European in the tribes of Far Cry primal and Crank up the Glamourous Sassiness of San-Francisco mobsters and enforcement forces of Watch dog 2. When she is not a CEO, Stéphanie works on personal games about tension, little gestures, repercussions, horror and a little bit of human drama! She loves Food, Intricate clever systems, horrible puns and trying to solve the unsolvable.

Suzanne Guèvremont

Suzanne Guèvremont has served as executive director of SYNTHÈSE—the organization mandated by Québec’s Ministère de l’Éducation et de l’Enseignement supérieur to stimulate the digital creation ecosystem by ensuring better alignment between academia and industry needs—since August 2018.

In 1995, she became director of business development of École NAD and assumed the executive directorship in 1999, contributing significantly to the economic development of Québec’s creative industries (3D animation, visual effects, video games, virtual reality, etc.), culture, and education over the course of 23 years.

With a law degree and a graduate diploma in management, she has extensive experience sitting on boards of crown corporations and NPOs, including as board chair and vice chair or as the chair of governing, human-resource, technology, and infrastructure committees. She current sits on the boards of CBC/Radio-Canada, SODEC, and Collège Notre-Dame. From 2008 to 2018, she sat on the boards of the Bell Foundation, the ADESAM, and the Alliance numérique.

Tiphaine Chazeau

After my master degree in ENJMIN school, I worked 4 years at Amplitude Studio in Paris as a junior 3D artist on “Endless Legend”, “Dungeon of The Endless” and “Endless Space 2”. I left France to join Ubisoft Quebec for two years, where I helped the vegetation team as well as the naval team on “Assassin’s Creed Odyssey” as a 3D artist. Then I wanted to do differents projects, so I joined Beenox on “‘Crash Team Racing Nitro Fueled” and “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2”.
I am now lead artist at Trebuchet in Montreal where I learn to make games in VR.

Véronique Bouffard

Founder of the esport team Sailor Scouts and Community developer at Ubisoft since 2016.

Yann Penno

I got my start in video games at 21, in 2007, as a 3D modeler by cobbling together a portfolio that was stretching the truth and not entirely mine. I learned most things on the fly, often with stress-induced stomach aches in the morning because of the fear of having practically no skills.
At 23, I left France for Quebec to attend the last year of what was then called the Campus Ubisoft. Finishing the course as an animator, with this single year of studies to back me up, I started doing animation at Minority Media on Papo & Yo.
After nearly a decade, I decided to start Pamplemousse Games and began work on Spleen, the studio’s first game.
This new adventure came mostly naturally. The need to follow my own path, try new things (like incorporating watercolours and traditional animation) and share stories and themes that are important to me are the things that drive me daily!

Yannick Babin

Yannick Babin founded Mirage Sport Électronique in 2017, it is now the most successful team internationally in esports. He is also vice-president at Northern Arena, the company that acquired the team in 2019. Northern Arena specialize in content creation and tournament organization in esports.