Virtual Event
Women in Manufacturing
May 13, 2021 at 1:00pm ET

Meet our speakers:

Brendan Sweeney, Managing Director, Trillium Network for Advanced Manufacturing

Brendan Sweeney is the Managing Director of the Trillium Network for Advanced Manufacturing. Prior to his appointment with the Trillium Network, Brendan served as the Project Manager and Research Director of the Automotive Policy Research Centre (APRC) at McMaster University, where he also taught in the DeGroote School of Business and the School of Labour Studies. Brendan holds a PhD in Geography from Queen’s University and a B.A. in Labour Studies from McMaster. He has also held appointments in the School of Policy Studies at Queen’s University and the Department of Economics at the University of Manitoba and spent a year at the University of Washington as a Visiting Fulbright Scholar.

Marie-Pierre Lalande, Head of Human Resources, Sanofi Canada

Marie-Pierre Lalande has over 20 years of experience in all aspects of human resources management within the competitive and fast-paced pharmaceutical and technology industries. In particular, she has contributed to strategic development and implementation of key HR initiatives during numerous mergers and acquisitions.

Marie-Pierre initially joined Hoechst Marion Roussel, a Sanofi predecessor company, and since then her responsibilities have continued to expand in line with the integration of HR activities across Sanofi’s entities in Canada. As Head of HR for Canada since 2016, she is responsible for providing support to all Sanofi business units across Canada and sits on the Canadian Council and the Inclusion and Diversity Executive Committee. During her career she has held multiple roles in talent acquisition, payroll, and information management systems, and has led overall corporate offerings and provided strategic support to the company’s business objectives.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a master’s degree in management science, both from the École des Hautes Études Commerciales in Montreal.

Gary Kidson, Head of Human Resources, Sanofi Pasteur, Toronto

Gary Kidson has spent over 26 years in the field of human resources across multiple industries, in both Canada and South Africa. He began his career in automobile manufacturing (General Motors) in South Africa before moving to Canada in 2000. Since then his experiences span the commercial printing (Quebecor World), pharmaceutical (Baxter International) and biopharmaceutical (Sanofi Pasteur) industries.

The majority of his professional experiences have been in supporting manufacturing operations, in a variety of leadership roles. Currently, Gary leads a team who are responsible for providing HR business partnering support to all business functions of the human vaccines business located in Toronto.

Sanofi Pasteur is the human vaccines division of Sanofi. Founded as the Connaught Antitoxin Laboratories and University Farm in 1917, Sanofi Pasteur’s Canadian facility has supported numerous scientific breakthroughs while making significant public health contributions. The Toronto site was home to the world’s first large-scale commercial insulin production and was the sole supplier of the diabetes treatment to Canadians until the 1980s. It also produced a highly accessible antitoxin for diphtheria, the leading public health threat to Canadian children in the early 1900s, and was an important partner in the eradication of polio in North America and smallpox around the world.

Currently, Sanofi Pasteur’s Toronto site manufactures millions of doses annually of vaccines that protect against pertussis, polio, diphtheria, and tetanus, among others, for more than 60 countries worldwide including Canada. Sanofi Pasteur’s Toronto site employees roughly 1,600 people across industrial operations, R&D and commercial operations. Sanofi Pasteur’s mission is one in which no one suffers or dies from a vaccine-preventable disease, and in Canada the company is focused on growing its business and local talent in support of this mission.