Employee Profile: Stéphanie Montreuil
Senior Director, Communications and Media Relations
You would be hard-pressed to meet a bigger fan of alt-rock group R.E.M. than Stéphanie Montreuil. She’s also seen them in Rome where she was lucky enough to meet many of the band members.
She’s seen the band perform multiple times on two continents.
In fact, she once flew into Dublin for an evening show and left the following day.
Her favourite R.E.M. album, Fables of the Reconstruction, has a track called “Driver 8.”
The song’s lyrics read like an homage to life in rail communities, and the video features images of Chessie System trains. (Chessie is now part of American class-one railway CSX.)
Any subconscious musical destiny aside, Stéphanie’s professional journey brought her to the Railway Association of Canada by a headhunter at the start of 2020, an “interesting year” to say the least.
“I’ve worked in many highly regulated environments as an in-house employee,” she says. “I’ve always also had an entrepreneurial side. The RAC allows me to satisfy both parts of my professional self in one opportunity and reinforce the importance of good comms in advocacy.”
Since her arrival, she’s looked at every communications activity RAC undertakes and applied the same rigour that made her a successful solopreneur for almost a decade.
She also brought with her experience in the association world, and a passion for ensuring that members get value for and see return on their investments.
“It’s really interesting to be part of an industry that’s been around for so long but that is also constantly innovating.”
An early Twitter adopter in Ottawa, Stéphanie’s instinct is to “get people to act” for good.
A volunteer for the Royal Ottawa Hospital Foundation and board member on Voice Found, a national not-for-profit that works to prevent child sex abuse and trafficking, she says her biggest goal in life is to be good role model to her two kids, 22-year old Émilie and 5-year old Raphaël.
Stéphanie was born in Montréal, but her family moved all over rural Quebec as her father’s career as a postmaster took him to progressively larger centres.
When Stéphanie was 13, her dad took a job at Canada Post headquarters in Ottawa. And Stéphanie arrived not speaking a word of English.
She learned quickly, despite being in French high school and attending a French college.
She jokes: “I was in Grade 9. It was for a boy.”
Now a master of both the language of Molière and Shakespeare, Stéphanie has come to love Ottawa and the active lifestyle and music scene it (normally) provides.
“I love singer-songwriters, and Ottawa has got such an active scene with some great live music venues. I am really looking forward after COVID to getting back to live shows.”
Meantime, she’s got tried and true recorded favourites.
And, in the words of another song title from her favourite R.E.M. album, she can focus professionally on giving “Good Advices.”
Find out more about other RAC Staff Members.