André Chagnon

André Chagnon OC OQ (March 17, 1928 – October 8, 2022) was a Canadian businessman and philanthropist. He was noted for being the founder of telecommunications company Vidéotron.

Chagnon was born in the Ahuntsic neighbourhood of Montreal on March 17, 1928.^[1][2] His father worked as an electrician and entrepreneur.^[3] Chagnon was raised near Gouin Boulevard during the Great Depression,^[4] and recounted how his family survived on "a lot of bread and molasses".^[5] He attended the École technique de Montréal [fr] from 1945 to 1949.^[6]

Chagnon became an electrician like his father and began his work career by laying underground cables for the City of Montreal.^[2][3] He eventually started his own contracting company – E. R. Chagnon et Fils^[1] – in 1957, when he was 29.^[3] He later sold it to his employees. In 1964, he founded the cable company Le Groupe Vidéotron. Under his leadership, the company adopted an acquisition-based growth strategy,^[3] starting with the purchase of Câblevision Nationale in 1980. It went on to acquire Télé-Métropole six years later. This was ultimately sold when the company bought CF Cable in 1997.^[1] Vidéotron was also listed on the Montreal Exchange in 1985,^[1] and established a branch in London in 1988, before branching into the United States five years later.^[3] These moves led to Vidéotron becoming Canada's third-largest telecommunications company and the largest in Quebec.^[1][3]

Chagnon was one of the four industrial leaders invited by the Government of Canada to take part in the 1995 G-7 Ministerial Conference on the Information Society, held in Brussels. He was also named to the Information Highway Advisory Council that same year.^[3] Retiring in 2000, Chagnon set up the Fondation Lucie et André Chagnon [fr], an organization working to prevent poverty and illness in families, which has $1.4 billion in assets and was one of the largest foundations in Canada.^[3][5] He had a net worth of $474 million CDN in 2006.^[7]

Chagnon was married to Lucie Dolan-Chagnon for 65 years until her death in August 2014.^[3][8] Together, they had five children. One of them, Christian, predeceased Chagnon.^[8] Chagnon became a vegetarian around the 1990s.^[5]

Chagnon died on October 8, 2022, at age 94.^[8][9]

Chagnon was appointed an officer of the Order of Canada in October 1992 and invested six months later in April of the following year.^[3][10] He was inducted into the Canadian Business Hall of Fame in 2002.^[3][11] One year later, he was invested as an officer of the National Order of Quebec.^[3][12] He was subsequently conferred the Entrepreneur Of The Year 2005 Lifetime Achievement Award by Ernst & Young.^[3] Chagnon was granted honorary doctorates from the University of Ottawa (2004),^[13] McGill University (2004),^[14] Concordia University (2004),^[15] HEC Montréal (2008),^[3] and Université Laval.^[16] He was made a commander of the Order of Montreal in its inaugural class of 2016.^[16]

• Fondation Lucie et André Chagnon
• Article at thecanadianencyclopedia.ca
• Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year 2005 Lifetime Achievement award
• Concordia University Honorary Degree Citation, June 2004, Concordia University Records Management and Archives