> Its good to see Javier is still with us.

I think we are very fortunate to have him on the board. He is a very talented businessman.

Check out his biography.

http://www.schulich.yorku.ca/SSB-Extra/connect2008.nsf/docs/Biography+-++Javier+San+Juan

Javier San Juan, President and CEO, L'Oreal Canada

Mr. Javier San Juan is President and Chief Executive Officer of L’Oréal Canada, where he started in April 2006, subsequent to a 17 year career path within the L’Oréal Group.

He now manages the 7th most important business subsidiary of the multinational in the world, one of the most flourishing of the 130 other group holdings, taking into account maturing markets.

L’Oréal Canada employs 1200 collaborators and has 3 establishments in the greater Montreal region, including the head office, the distribution center and a high performing manufacturing plant servicing more than 40 countries in the world.

Mr. San Juan took on the mandate of developing, at a rate twice as fast as the cosmetic market, the Group’s diversified brands. Whether originating from Europe, like Lancôme, Yves Saint-Laurent, Giorgio Armani and L’Oréal Paris, or from North America like Maybelline New York, Redken and Kiehl’s, or from Asia like Shu Uemura, the brands which make up L’Oréal’s Canadian portfolio emerge from such diverse worlds as luxury, professional salons, pharmacy and consumer distribution.

This diversity allows L’Oréal Canada to accomplish its mission: to improve the quality of life of our consumers, giving access to beauty day after day, within the reach of every woman and every man.

His previous experiences within the L’Oréal Group led Mr. San Juan to manage Argentina and Romania, after having held the position of Director of Finance and Operations in Russia from 1994 to 1998. His first sales and marketing experiences in Spain and France fostered the core credentials required for any high-end director at L’Oréal. These experiences provided him with an accelerated and enriching immersion within the L’Oreal Group’s culture, in part characterized by the made-to-measure development of collaborators, in particular those with high potential.

Equipped with a Master’s Degree in Law and a Master’s Degree in Economy from the University ICADE in Spain, as well as a Master’s Degree from HEC Paris, Mr. San Juan began his international career at the head office of the pharmaceutical group Sandos (known today as Novartis) and he also worked at one of its subsidiaries in the Philippines as Financial Manager.

Extremely engaged with the countries he passed through during his career, Mr. San Juan speaks four languages. He is a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization, a Board Member of the Luminato Festival in Toronto, a Board Member of Business for the Arts as well as an Advisory Board Member of Schulich School of Business at York University, a member of the Board of Directors of Just for Laughs and a member of the “Comité de pilotage du Plan d’action 2007-2017 – Montréal, métropole culturelle”. He also collaborates for Undergraduate and MBA Programs at HEC Montreal. Mr. San Juan is the proud father of three girls, the youngest of which is a little Canadian born in January 2008.