Gérard Parizeau

Gérard Parizeau

Gérard Parizeau, underwriter (b at Montréal 16 Dec 1899; d at St Lambert, Qué 25 Jan 1994). After graduating from the École des hautes études commerciales at U de M, Parizeau worked in the civil service from 1920 until 1925, when he became head of the francophone section of Irish & Maulson, an insurance brokerage firm. In 1925 he also founded L'Actualité économique, the official magazine of the École des hautes études commerciales, at which Parizeau taught beginning in 1928.

In 1938 he founded his own brokerage house and made it one of the most important in Canada. In 1961 he helped create the reinsurance brokerage house Le Blanc, Eldridge, Parizeau and was its chairman for many years. He bought La Nationale in 1965, a Canadian reinsurance company until then a subsidiary of La Nationale of Paris. In 1972 he founded the management firm of Sodarcan, grouping under it a dozen insurance and reinsurance companies. Parizeau and his son Robert held majority control until his death. Another son, Jacques PARIZEAU, rose to the leadership of the Parti Québécois and became premier of Québec.