Cascades is made up of around 11,000 women and men working in over 90 business units throughout North America and Europe.
Among these Cascaders, you'll find all kind of personalities and profiles: mothers, young professionals, sportsmen, etc. This month, our team chose to feature Régis Arsenault, plant manager at Cascades Groupe Tissu – Lachute.
What is your professional background? Tell us a little about yourself.
I am from deep in the Gaspé region. I graduated with a degree in chemical engineering from Université de Sherbrooke about 15 years ago. I began my career with the Cascades family as a process engineer at the Research and Development Centre in Kingsey Falls. This is Cascades' top breeding ground where you learn a lot in a very short period of time and are able to work on projects at several plants. About 10 years ago, one of the plants offered me the position of paper machine production manager at Cascades Groupe Tissu – Lachute, which I accepted. I am still with this great team, but now I have been plant manager for the past six years.
How old were you when you became plant manager?
I was 32 years old when I accepted the position. This might seem young, but I am lucky to be working with a very experienced team and with very committed employees in Lachute.
What is a typical day like in the life of a plant manager?
In short: Coordinate plant activities and make sure that everyone has the tools needed for us to reach our objectives as well as those of Cascades.
You can say that I'm something of a conductor/psychologist! In other words, some would say that not much work is getting done during the day! J
It's a very varied type of job where each day is different and stimulating. In general, a typical day consists of monitoring production and holding follow-up meetings on various projects and plans of action. Trying to spend time on the floor and responding to requests from the corporate teams (marketing, sales, customer service, management).
Complete the following sentence:
Being a Cascader, means... Being people-oriented. Working hard, not taking myself too seriously and enjoying myself at work....
What is the most unusual object in your office?
Excluding the drawings and the somewhat strange but cutesy pencil holders made by my daughters, I would say a cork from a champagne bottle. It's from the bottle that we opened when the SAP system was successfully installed at the Lachute plant. This was the first plant where the system was installed and I'm very proud of my team
What are you passionate about?
My three children! I try to spend as much time as possible with them, even though I feel that I don't succeed. Otherwise in life, I am passionate about a lot of things, especially being outdoors. I love bow hunting, and I go every fall with my father. I go cycling and take part in the Tour CIBC Charles-Bruneau. I go telemark skiing with my daughters, a type of downhill skying for outdoorsy types. I have a weakness for golf. I would like to be able to go golfing more often. However, I'm lucky to be able to have a week with the guys each fall to make up for the days I miss in Quebec. You've probably figured out that I have an understanding wife, who lets me enjoy my hobbies! J
Since most of our Cascaders are ecologically-minded, but nobody is perfect... What is your environmental confession?
Composting.... with the kids. I realize that we throw out too much food that is not being composted right now.
Source: Green by Nature Blog (Cascades)
