Jacques Baylaucq

Retirement 14 years ago to the south of his native France has hardly slowed down Jacques Baylaucq, BCom’55. Thanks to a family connection to their subject, he and his brother Dominique have co-written a book about the founder of the Canadian Machine Gun Corps: Brutinel—The extraordinary story of a French citizen Brigadier-General in the Canadian Army. It’s the tale of a little-known hero of The Great War who, after emigrating to and making his fortune in Canada, raised funds to equip a machine gun brigade that fought from armoured vehicles, the first of its kind in the world. Brutinel returned to France after WWI and became a close friend of the Baylaucq family when Jacques’ mother befriended Brutinel’s daughter Raymonde (Robert). It was thanks in part to his influence that Jacques decided to emigrate to Canada. His Queen’s Commerce experience was a life-altering one, he says. Not only did he meet his wife Sylvie, Arts’58, daughter of celebrated Swiss-Canadian painter André Bieler, founding Director of the Agnes Etherington Art Centre and head of what would evolve into Queen’s Fine Arts program, but he was also greatly influenced by legendary marketing professor Dan Monieson. The men became friends. “I experienced the excitement that Dan’s lectures generated,” Jacques recalls. “He would teach us wearing pink shirts to show us what marketing could do for fashion.” Jacques’ career took him first to DuPont Canada then in 1964 to the new field of consulting with P.S. Ross and Partners (later Deloitte) in Montreal. He rose to senior partner before leaving to join St. Lawrence Cement as Vice-President. He returned to consulting in 1981, when he opened the Montreal office for Spencer Stuart, later becoming its Canadian President. He returned to France in 1991, working for DBM, an international outplacement firm, becoming its European Chairman before retiring to the southwest of France in 1998. He and Sylvie are the proud parents of Philippe, a well-known filmmaker in Canada; Veronique (Artsci’82), an actress and film producer in Paris; and Nathalie, a graphic designer who founded Studios Baylaucq in Paris (designers of the Brutinel book). Jacques can be reached at baybiel@bbox.fr