Board of Directors
Marc Gingras, President
Marc Gingras is the son of SOPAR’s founders, André Gingras and Bala Theresa “Angel” Singareddy-Gingras. He has been involved with the organization from a young age, watching it grow from its earliest days, and has served on its board since 2005. As President of SOPAR, he provides strategic leadership to the organization and helps strengthen its partnership with Bala Vikasa, one of India’s leading community development organizations.
Marc is a Canadian entrepreneur, investor and technology leader, and a 3x founder. He is Co-Founder and CEO of Bloks, the Un-CRM — an AI platform for financial advisors. He previously founded Foko Retail, acquired by WorkForce Software, and Tungle.me, acquired by BlackBerry. He brings his entrepreneurial experience, strategic vision and passion for innovation to advancing SOPAR–Bala Vikasa’s work in rural India.
Marc has also shared his entrepreneurial expertise as a former instructor of entrepreneurship at the Telfer School of Management at the University of Ottawa. He holds an MBA from INSEAD, a MASc in Management Sciences from the University of Waterloo and a BASc in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Ottawa.
Andre Bourassa, Vice-president
André has been a volunteer and Board member of SOPAR-Bala Vikasa for more than 30 years. Trained as an Engineer and an Economist, he mainly worked as a senior international policy and relations advisor for the Government of Canada. He did extensive work on the contribution of the mining sector to development in developing countries.
Veronique Gervais, Secretary
Veronique is a former high school teacher in Gatineau and has been working as a public servant for the Canadian Government for the last 15 years. In 2010, while studying at the University du Quebec en Outaouais, Veronique participated in a one month long CDD training program in India. It is then that she was first introduced to the Bala Vikasa family. She has remained actively involved by volunteering with SOPAR, by presenting our programs in different schools and raising money on her birthday. Veronique holds our mission dear to her heart, and to increase her support, she joined SOPAR’s board of directors during the summer of 2022.
Sonia St-Michel, Administrator
Sonia holds a Bachelor’s degree in Geography from the University of Ottawa and has also completed a short postgraduate program in religious studies entitled ‘Theravada Meditation and the Creative Process: Critical and Experiential Approaches’. She has worked for 23 years as a choreographer, dancer and teacher of classical Indian dance (Odissi). It was through her involvement as a volunteer, board member and program officer at SOPAR between 1997 and 2004 that she developed an interest in Indian art and dance. Sonia has been a member of the Centre for Studies and Research on India, South Asia and its Diaspora (CERIAS) since 2023 and currently works for the Government of Canada.
Louis Verret, Treasurer
Louis is originally from the Quebec region and holds a degree in Geography from Laval University. He is a proud father of a family of 6 children, including 5 daughters. For several years, he has been living in Chelsea and actively explores the trails of the Outaouais region through biking and hiking.
Professionally, he worked as a development officer at the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) for over 30 years, with several assignments abroad in countries like Cameroon, India, Brazil, and Mali. During his last assignments with Global Affairs Canada (GAC), he was responsible for programs in ‘fragile states’ facing security challenges, such as Haiti and Afghanistan, before being appointed as the Program Director for Development and Canadian Ambassador to Mali and Niger from 2017 to 2019.
In 2020, he retired from the federal government. From November 2021 to April 2022, he accepted an interim role as Chief of the GAC mission in Dakar, Senegal. He remains active in the development world through involvement with organizations like CECI, the Université de Sherbrooke, and the Canadian Ambassadors Alumni Association.