Réal Raymond

President and Chief Executive Officer - National Bank of Canada

Réal Raymond as CEO and President of National Bank of Canada is responsible for the strategies, orientations and development of the Bank and its subsidiaries. Prior to this appointment, he held the position of President and Chief Operating Officer.

Mr. Raymond has worked at National Bank since 1970. In 1977, at the age of only 27, he became one of the youngest branch managers of the Montreal-based institution, before joining the Corporate Banking division in the mid-1980s. This marked the beginning of a rapid rise through the Bank.
In 1987, Mr. Raymond was promoted to Senior Manager – Corporate Banking, Eastern Canada, a position he held until 1989, when he was appointed Vice-President of that sector. In 1991, he became Senior Vice-President – Real Estate and Corporate Banking for all of Canada, after which his career moved more towards financial markets. In 1992, Mr. Raymond was appointed Senior Vice-President – Treasury and Financial Markets, and in 1997 he joined the ranks of Lévesque Beaubien Geoffrion, the
leading Quebec securities broker (which has since become National Bank Financial), as Senior Executive Vice-President. In the fall of 1999, he was appointed President – Personal and Commercial Bank, in which position he was responsible for the Bank’s day-to-day operations. He continued in this capacity until his appointment as President and Chief Operating Officer in July 2001.

In addition to his professional activities, Mr. Raymond is actively involved in a number of well-known Quebec institutions. He chairs the major development campaign at the Université du Québec à Montréal, which began in 2002 and ends in 2007 and also chaired the Banks division of the 2006 Centraide du Grand Montréal campaign. In 2003, he was named financial personality of the year by the business publication Finance et Investissement. In 2002, he was awarded the Prix Hermès by the Université Laval Faculty of Business Administration and, in 2000, he was honoured as MBA
of the year by the Quebec Association of MBAs.

In 2005, Mr. Raymond was named CEO of the Year in a survey conducted by the French daily La Presse and was among the nominees for the prestigious CEO of the Year award given by the Financial Post Business Magazine. In its Sunday, March 12, 2006 edition, La Presse named Mr. Raymond as its Personality of the Week. Mr. Raymond sits on the Board of Directors of National Bank and is Chairman of the Board of the subsidiary National Bank Life Insurance. He is also on the boards
of St. Mary’s Hospital Foundation and the Cercle des présidents, and is a member of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and the Fondation de l’UQAM. He is also President of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts’ Foundation and Governor of the Quebec Association of MBAs. Nationally, Mr. Raymond serves as Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of the Conference Board of Canada. Mr. Raymond is a graduate of the Université Laval in administration and has a MBA from the Université du Québec à Montréal and a diploma from the Institute
of Canadian Bankers. In 1990, Mr. Raymond successfully completed the renowned Executive Management Program at the University of Michigan.