A CMA with “Green Blood”

In plain view on the wall, the portraits of Alphonse and Dorimène Desjardins show that through his wisdom, the founder has an inspirational presence. A little closer, there is a photo of a small boy with big green eyes and a mischievous smile that offers immediate evidence of life here. In the middle of these faces, she stands in front of me, graciously smiling, beautiful and welcoming. She has won me over already! I am in the office of Sylvie Béchard, CMA, Vice President, Financial Governance and Internal Controls of the Desjardins Group.

A series of challenges
Sylvie Béchard has a unique and new position that was created in 2009. She is in charge of, among other things, implementing financial governance adapted to the environment of financial institutions and optimizing internal controls for the financial information of the entire Desjardins Group. This is a huge job! Just looking at her, with her youthful, fresh appearance, you would think that she was just hired by a head hunter and took a month’s vacation before beginning her duties. But you can’t always trust appearances!

In fact, Sylvie Béchard has always had “green blood,” as they say in the cooperative financial institution, in reference to the colour of the logo. She began working at Desjardins while she was still at university and held her first job at Sécur, its former subsidiary that was specialized in cash handling services. Although she had no career plan, she did have an insatiable desire to meet challenges, which meant that as a young woman, she was appointed to many key positions that involved financial statements, cost accounting and the budget process, customer service, strategic planning and project management, before finally becoming Vice President, Administration and Investigations. All that in 14 years.

“As many challenges as pleasures!,” she sums it up. “I was lucky that many opportunities came my way.” When the subsidiary was sold in 2003, Sylvie Béchard made sure that the transition in activities went smoothly with the outsourcer, and even optimized the automatic teller machine envelope handling process at Transit Desjardins. What would she do next?

“It is a question of values and a feeling of belonging,” she explains to me with, in the background, the unwavering and scrupulous regard of Mr. Desjardins. Integrity, transparency, respect, self-confidence and confidence in others, accountability, managerial courage, all of that is fundamental to me.” She could have added “loving your job,” because there’s no doubt about it, Sylvie Béchard has definitely not counted the hours since she finished her studies.

Starting from scratch
Up until now, her thirst for management accounting has been quenched and her CMA competencies have served her well. “Like all CMAs, I was attracted by accounting, management, control and supervision, but I also liked to have a comprehensive view of businesses. The positions I held soon brought me to manage projects and large-scale changes, and lead successful teams.”

I observe her for a moment, trying to go beyond her words. While she prepares to tell me about her beginnings at the Desjardins Group, she strikes me as calm and confident. In her means and abilities. Like a high-level athlete, she has great determination, strength and assurance. I notice her green eyes, exactly like the eyes of the boy in the photo, her son Félix.

“So I preferred to stay at Desjardins.” The timing was perfect, because her “new” employer needed someone energetic and enterprising to apply Regulation 52-109 respecting Certification of Disclosure in Issuers’ Annual and Interim Filings. “After the financial scandals that rocked the United States at the beginning of this century, the Canadian government imposed measures that were intended to certify the reliability and integrity of financial information, particularly by making presidents and chief financial officers personally accountable.”

With the support of a very small team at the beginning, Sylvie Béchard started to implement the regulation in two subsidiaries of Desjardins that were subject to the regulation: the Caisse centrale Desjardins and Capital Desjardins. “That was quite a challenge! We had to build this new certification process. We had to rapidly set up the mechanisms that would enable us to issue regulatory certifications in 2004.” After that, this process was gradually applied to all of the other components of the Group, even though they were not required to comply with it, so that full certifications can be performed on December 31, 2011.

Sylvie Béchard performed the job so well that she accumulated more jobs and her team gradually grew until a new division was needed in the institution. “Since 2009, financial governance resources and expertise have been centralized under our division. For us, this is a really wonderful achievement. It means that we were able to demonstrate the added value of this process.” 

“We have until 2011 to complete the progressive implementation. This does not release the components from their accountability, but all the tests and documentation are produced by us. We also have the larger task of implementing operational and regulatory controls for the network of caisses, which is allowing us, among other things, to set up a single resource for internal controls within our division in the interest of optimization.”

A new wind?
Since she began talking about work, Sylvie Béchard has used the pronoun “we.” We, for the Desjardins Group and we, for her team, she adds. She also does not play down how much she values the members of her team. “When I come to work, I am happy, and I want that to be the case for the people I work with. We do the work together. They have to feel that I am there to help them, assist them, that I respect them and recognize what they do.”

Within this growing team, which will soon have 65 people, there are three women directors. I take a brief pause before asking: “Since the election of Monique Leroux as President, is there a wind of feminization blowing through the Desjardins Group?”

“You have to have the necessary competencies to hold a position,” she answers. Diversity in every sense of the word is highly prized by the Group. For my management committee, I selected women because they were the best candidates. But I do notice that there are a lot of women in the financial governance field. For example, 12 of the 13 members of the governance steering group are women. Is that because they have a greater propensity for attention to detail? I don’t know...”

Next, the Vice President and CMA tells me that a few years ago, she helped create a steering group to discuss best practices in financial governance.  Through simple word of mouth, this informal circle has grown to 13 members and includes none other than the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, National Bank, Laurentian Bank, the Fonds de solidarité FTQ, Saputo, the Business Development Bank of Canada, Rona, Gaz Métro and the SAQ.

When everything is in its place
Sylvie Béchard may know how to choose her collaborators, but she is also an expert organizer. With so many responsibilities not just at work, but at home too, she has to be! She immediately credits her spouse, who shares the day-to-day chores with her. Then, she concedes that her organizational skills are just as natural to her as the endless energy she seems to be blessed with.

“My mother uses me as an example with my son,” she notes while laughing. She says that at school, I always did my home work in advance, and it’s true! I was lucky that I loved school and wanted to be involved. I participated in committees; later, I worked on setting up the CMA Student Committee at Université Laval. Now, I organize family celebrations, birthdays for friends...I love it!”

Her organizational skills are wide-ranging: she also organizes recreational activities! An experienced woman, Sylvie Béchard knows that she must take some stress-free moments for herself: a few workout sessions per week, skiing with the family on weekends in the winter and walks around the lake in the summer. That is when I see, in front of me, a small, inconspicuous picture of a lake surrounded by trees. “I chose it on purpose. It reminds me of summer vacation at our cottage and sometimes, I look at it to escape a little...”

I then notice that everything is in its place: the Desjardins couple, venerable and inspiring; her family, Vincent and Félix; the joy of living and the future promises of her son; the lake, a picture of rejuvenation. And this wonderful woman who is still smiling at me. At 43, Sylvie Béchard is quite simply well-adjusted.

For her fellow CMAs
Tips and tricks by Sylvie Béchard

• Do not be afraid to share your successes and achievements and those of your team, or to place value on what is done.
• Show openness, accept criticism even if it is not always easy: we learn by watching others.
• Do continuing education so that you really know your stuff.
• Take time for yourself, it’s a question of health!
• Accept that everything may not be perfect everywhere and know when it is the right moment to let go.