Manon Brouillette going out with a bang

VIDÉOTRON CEO HAS A LONG LIST OF GREATEST HITS TO HER CREDIT

Residential telephone service was the hot new product Vidéotron Ltd. was preparing to launch when Manon Brouillette joined the company in 2004.

Since then, she has handled every product launch for Quebecor Inc.’s telecommunications arm, first as vice-president of product development and, since 2014, as chief executive officer. Greatest hits include high-speed internet, an upgraded television product, a French-language competitor to Netflix Inc. and, critically, wireless services, which now generate more than half the retail telecom revenue in Canada.

“My boss at the time told me, ‘Manon, you’re going to have to handle the whole (wireless) project,’” Brouillette said in a rare interview at Vidéotron’s Montreal headquarters in November, a month before she steps down. “I was not a project manager … then I had to go and be a chief of 1,000 people. It was the best test for me, because it prepared me to become the CEO.”

Brouillette, 50, is leaving on Dec. 31 for a “well-deserved break” after five years of managing from the top, although she will stay involved with Quebecor as a member of the board. Her successor has yet to be named.

She’s going out with a bang, having just launched Fizz, a low-cost mobile operator, and Helix, an upgraded, premium television platform.

“We always set the trend,” she said during a wide-ranging conversation on the wireless industry, regulatory environment and battling new global players such as Netflix. “I hate the paradigm. When we’re facing something, an opportunity or a challenge, it’s always, ‘Let’s rethink that totally differently’. ”

The biggest challenge Brouillette said she faced during her tenure was launching a mobile network, first as a mobile virtual network operator that resold access to an existing network and then as a new entrant after buying spectrum in the 2008 auction, she said during a wide-ranging conversation on the wireless industry, regulatory environment and battling new global players such as Netflix.

There’s no doubt the wireless venture paid off since the number of Videotron’s mobile subscribers doubled to 1.1 million during her five years as CEO.

GRAHAM HUGHES FOR NATIONAL POST Manon Brouillette, outgoing president and CEO of Vidéotron, oversaw numerous product launches in her four years as head of the company.