From engineer to CEO

“The best defense is offense”.

When Serge Gendron took the helm of his father’s company in 1981, Acier Gendron was coming out of a very difficult decade and still didn’t have its head above water. “In the 1970s, inflation was running high. After the 1976 Olympics, construction dropped off. Many companies didn’t make it. To weather the storm, we had to manage from day to day,” recalls Gendron.

The continued existence of this rebar manufacturer and installer was at stake. To reinforce his company’s financial foundation, Gendron patiently expanded the scope of his activities outside the province. “To grow, we had to go beyond Quebec,” he adds.

Thirty years later, the company has become a multinational, renamed AGF Group, employing 2,250 people. It operates 17 plants, and half of its sales of $400 million come from outside Quebec. Through mergers, acquisitions and the creation of subsidiaries, the Group now comprises 38 companies in Canada and farther afield.

AGF has a number of high-profile achievements to its credit, such as Dubai’s metro system, the launch pad for the Soyuz rocket in French Guiana and the Green Point soccer stadium in Cape Town, South Africa. The Group regularly announces new projects abroad, such as the expansion of a hospital in Abu Dhabi and construction of a bridge in Kuwait.

The 61-year-old CEO, a civil engineering graduate of École Polytechnique, believes there is no better defense than offense. “AGF’s continued existence depends on having the size and scope it needs to stand out on the international scene,” insists Gendron. He sees AGF’s future as also dependent on product diversification and a high-quality succession.

That’s why the Longueuil company launched a scaffolding division, which Gendron believes is ranked first in Canada for market share. Another subsidiary, KLH Element, has begun installing structural systems using cross-laminated timber, an “alternative to concrete.”

And now it’s time for succession planning, with a third generation of Gendrons coming up through the ranks. Son Maxime Gendron, also an engineer, is coordinating AGF’s work on the Highway 30 extension, a huge contract valued at $100 million. Like father, like son…