Gwenaële Montagner is Chair of the Board of The Canada-Africa Chamber of Business and brought her international trade expertise to Canada in 2012, after 23 years of professional experience across Africa and Latin America and following her upbringing across various countries in Europe. Through her carrier, Gwenaële has been confronted to highly challenging business situations and has developed that rare hands-on experience so many companies are often searching. She is today the Senior Director of International Trade Development at the World Trade Centre Toronto and is directly responsible for mentoring hundreds of Canadian companies expand their presence globally.
Gwenaële is the inspiration behind the award-winning Trade Accelerator Program, a revolutionary export development mentorship program for entrepreneurs that has become the Canadian benchmark of international trade training. Gwenaële is now developing complementary initiatives to cement the World Trade Centre Toronto as one of the most dynamic, effective, and influential organizations for international trade in the world.
Prior to her responsibilities at the World Trade Centre Toronto, Gwenaële founded her own consultancy to support SMEs global expansion, acted as the Executive Director of the Canadian Turkish Business Council, was a Director at Naturallia and a Senior Consultant for the Allam Advisory Group. Gwenaële was also the Vice President Group Marketing with the Horne Group. Prior to her arrival in Canada, Gwenaële was a Trade Commissioner and Sector Lead for the Extractive Sector in sub-Saharan Africa with the Global Affairs Canada in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Gwenaële holds a MBA from the University of Oxford Brookes, UK and spent her bachelor years at the École Supérieure des Sciences Économiques et Commerciales (ESSEC) in Paris, France. She is also the holder of numerous diplomas in finance, mining law, commerce and communication skills.