Every Monday in February, at 6:30 p.m. on DanieleHenkel.tv and on our social media: Facebook | Instagram | YouTube

Episode #1

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted every business, big or small. Let’s take a look at how our four entrepreneurs dealt with the many challenges they faced during the pandemic and how they reinvented themselves to better meet the needs of their teams and customers.

Episode #2

Lack of financing is one of the major challenges faced by women entrepreneurs when starting or growing their businesses. The four entrepreneurs Souad Elmallem, Caroline Arnouk, Alexandra Roy and Gabrielle La Rue tell us how they had to be creative and how Femmessor's support was decisive for them, especially in times of uncertainty.

Episode #3

We continue our dive into the daily lives of our four entrepreneurs to address a crucial topic: recruiting and retaining staff. In a context of labor shortages and temporary layoffs, how did they mobilize and boost the morale of their troops?

Episode #4

Does the famous glass ceiling still exist for women in business? To ask the question is to answer it. Our four entrepreneurs tell us how they dealt with this reality and what they learned along the way. They also share their advice for women who would like to start a business, for better or for worse.

WHO ARE THEY?

ALEXANDRA ROY

Organized and driven, Alexandra Roy embodies change. She demonstrates that the glass ceiling established between genders is not an obstacle to development and advancement as long as one is invested by passion and the desire to surpass oneself.

With ten years of experience in the construction sector, she started her first business in a completely different field. XO Institut , a high-end hair and beauty salon, was founded in Quebec City a few years ago. But, passionate about the construction industry, she returned to her roots and became a partner at STC Acoustique 2015. A family business that specializes in the interior systems of commercial, industrial and institutional buildings. Her desire to innovate in this traditionally male-dominated industry motivated her to develop innovative products and market the Goliath Tools line, tools that reduce health and safety risks at work and significantly increase worker efficiency.

CAROLINE ARNOUK

A passionate and innovative entrepreneur, Caroline Arnouk is evolving and standing out in the technology industry.

A civil engineer graduated from Polytechnique Montréal, Caroline also holds a master's degree in urban infrastructure management from the École de technologie supérieure. A passionate businesswoman, she disrupted the status quo in geospatial management by founding OPA Technologies , which developed the OPA software, a decision-making support tool for managing traffic obstacles. Caroline is the first woman to be part of the first Parcours Techno of the École d'Entrepreneurship de Beauce. In 2017, she earned a degree in entrepreneurial development from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and completed the CDPQ-HEC training in international SME emergence and the FTQ-HEC training in value creation and business growth in 2018. The following year, she received the BMO Women in Business, Pioneers and Innovators Recognition Award. In 2020, OPA Technologies won a Canadian competition overseen by Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC), a recognition awarded to companies that develop clean technology solutions in the transportation sector.

SOUAD ELMALLEM

Visionary, determined and honest, Souad Elmallem is a public figure in the business world in Morocco and North America.

For many years, she held the position of Chief Representative, International Business Strategies and Development, Africa at Bombardier. It was to support the growth and internationalization of Quebec and North American companies that she created the company 6temik to support organizations in deploying their operations, increasing their exports, developing their competitiveness and conquering new markets. Accompanied by an experienced, dynamic and very agile team, she offers companies turnkey solutions, based on the expertise sought and the development of an effective business network. An activist for the principle of living together and inclusion, she sits on the boards of directors of Entreprendre ici and Mémoires & dialogue, among others. In recognition of her contribution to the development of the aerospace industry, she received the Wissam Royal du grand mérite decoration from the King of Morocco.

GABRIELLE LA RUE

Human, creative and agile, Gabrielle La Rue comes from the world of major events. When she is not on stage with her band, she works behind the scenes at major festivals as a producer specializing in logistics.

Her many field work experiences made her aware of the lack of satisfaction of festival organizer clients during field events in terms of their comfort and peace of mind. She therefore decided to launch Locketgo in 2016, the temporary storage solution offered to event organizers. Due to the pandemic, the company made an entrepreneurial pivot and added parcel delivery to its bow by offering its technology to eliminate delivery failures and thefts. Locketgo thus offers an intelligent storage experience, combining both software and hardware to create a personalized and efficient storage solution for the event management and delivery and pickup sectors.