Of Counsel, Partner and Past Chair of Fasken Martineau DuMoulin, Attorneys, Montreal.

Born April 9, 1947 in Paris, France to a Canadian father and an American mother, Maurice Forget received his early schooling at Collège de Saint Laurent and graduated with an arts degree from the Université de Montréal in 1966. He studied law at McGill University and was awarded a bachelor of civil law with honours in 1969. He was called to the Quebec Bar in 1970 after articling at the Martineau Walker law firm, which he joined the same year and of which he became a partner in 1978. His partners elected him chair of the Partnership from 1992-2003 and chair of the Board from 1997-2003.

During his first ten years of practice, Maurice Forget specialized in intellectual property. Since 1980, his practice has been concentrated mainly in the fields of commercial law, business law and securities. In particular, he has dealt with the purchase, sale, financing and reorganizing of private and public companies and especially takeover bids and complex restructurings. He has represented both issuers and underwriters in distributions of securities, by way of prospectus and private placement. He is regular general commercial counsel to several national and multinational businesses. From 1991 to 1994, Maurice Forget was a lecturer in securities law at the Faculty of Law at McGill University. Active in the Quebec Bar, he was chairman of the Bar of Montreal Library and also a member of its Disciplinary Committee.

Maurice Forget sits on the Board of Directors of The Standard Life Assurance Company of Canada, Standard Life Trust Company, MDS Associés-Neuroscience Inc and MDS Life Sciences Technology Fund II (QGP) Inc. He was formerly a director of American Express (Canada) Inc. and of Cabano-Kingsway, a group of transportation companies now known as Transforce.

Maurice Forget is actively involved in Montreal’s community and cultural life and in particular, the visual arts where he has supported numerous organizations, galleries and periodicals. He was president of the Conseil des Arts de Montréal, formerly the Conseil des Arts de la Communauté urbaine de Montréal, from 1999 to 2006. From 1992 to 1995, he was a coopted member of the Board of the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal and during this same period was Chairman of the Foundation of Friends of the Musée. For ten years up until 1995, he was treasurer of the Centre international d’art contemporain de Montréal (CIAC), and then returned in 1999 to become president until he was appointed to the Conseil des Arts. He also acted as first vice president of the Musée des arts décoratifs de Montréal for seven years up until 1999. In 1995, he donated his collection of 400 contemporary artworks to the Musée d’art de Joliette. From 1991 to 1996, he was chair of Heritage Montreal Foundation, the main organization dedicated to preserving Montreal’s architectural heritage. He is a founding member of the Corporate Collectors Association, which brings together leading Quebec companies that have art collections. He is secretary of Fondation Guido Molinari and on the Board of Camp Musical du Domaine Forget. He was a director of the National Ballet School in Toronto, and from 1982 to 1986, he was Chairman of the Board of Governors of Dawson College, which awarded him a DEC honoris causa in 1989. For 18 years, Maurice Forget has worked to promote the well being of persons with intellectual handicaps, first as chairman of the Montreal United Workshops from 1980 to 1984, then as chairman of Centre d’accueil Jean-Olivier Chénier from 1984 to 1994, the largest institution of this kind in Quebec, then four more years on the Board of these two aforesaid organisms combined under the name of Centre de réadaptation Lisette-Dupras. He served on the Board of Douglas Hospital for ten years, five as chairman. He is currently Chairman of Douglas Hospital Research Centre and a trustee of the Douglas Hospital Foundation. Since September 1003, he has been the honorary Consul for the Republic of Estonia in Montreal with a mandate for Eastern Canada.

In 1998, Maurice Forget was made a member of the Order of Canada for his philanthropy in the fields of health, education and the arts. He also received the Jubilee Medal in 2002, in recognition of his significant contribution to Canada.