%20LOGO%20-%20REGISTERED%20TRADEMARK.png)
Chief People & Sustainability Officer, CAE: The SustainabilityX® Magazine's Global 50 Women In Sustainability Awards™ 2024 Awardee
Listen to this and other articles from The SustainabilityX® Magazine on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts.
“When we became carbon neutral in the middle of the pandemic, it was a bold move. Offsetting your carbon is not perfect. But showing that an aerospace company could do it was truly inspiring for our employees and our industry. It triggered awareness about carbon and climate change inside our company and guided our journey. It led us to recently submit aggressive decarbonization targets to SBTi." - Hélène V. Gagnon, Chief People & Sustainability Officer, CAE, Canada & The SustainabilityX® Magazine Global 50 Women In Sustainability Awards 2024 (#SustXGlobal50) Awardee
Hélène V. Gagnon, Chief Sustainability Officer and Senior Vice President of Stakeholder Engagement at CAE, stands as a transformative leader in corporate sustainability, with over 25 years of experience shaping strategies that foster environmental responsibility, social impact, and inclusive growth. As part of CAE’s Executive Management Committee, Hélène drives CAE’s ambitious goals in sustainability, overseeing global Environmental, Health, and Safety (EH&S) initiatives, as well as the company’s communication strategies, partnerships, and corporate social responsibility. Her efforts are also deeply rooted in advancing DE&I and Indigenous relations, reinforcing CAE's role as a socially and environmentally responsible leader on the global stage.
With a pioneering mindset, Hélène led CAE to achieve carbon neutrality amid the pandemic—a feat that has since become an industry benchmark and inspired CAE’s ambitious decarbonization goals. By engaging CAE’s diverse teams and aligning sustainability across departments, she has embedded sustainability into CAE’s core operations, illustrating that aerospace can lead in climate-conscious innovation. Her work has inspired industry peers and mobilized global conversations around reducing aviation’s environmental footprint, demonstrating that bold action and calculated risk-taking can yield transformative results.
Hélène’s extensive career spans roles in public affairs, communications, and corporate responsibility across various sectors. She held senior positions with Bombardier and Falconbridge (now Glencore) before joining CAE in 2015, bringing a rich background in sustainability from mining, manufacturing, and aerospace. Her early training as an environmental lawyer with Fasken gave her critical insights into regulatory landscapes, which she has leveraged to champion sustainability within highly complex industries.
In addition to her corporate role, Hélène serves on the boards of Hydro Quebec, the Aerospace Industries Association of Canada, and Aero Montréal. Her influence reaches far beyond CAE as she frequently speaks on global platforms, such as the Global Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ), where she shares practical insights to catalyze sustainability progress across industries. Her contributions include over 40 speaking engagements annually, spreading awareness, shaping public policy discussions, and advocating for a sustainable future in aviation and beyond.
Hélène’s dedication to impactful change has earned her over 70 prestigious awards, including Canada’s Most Powerful Women Top 100™ and the Globe and Mail’s Top 50 Best Executives in 2022. Known for her approach to “collaborative boldness,” she emphasizes the importance of fostering strong networks, embracing transparency, and mobilizing collective action to address today’s urgent sustainability challenges. She envisions a future where sustainability and business are inextricably linked, and her commitment inspires countless professionals and young talent across the industry.
The SustainabilityX® Magazine Global 50 Women In Sustainability Awards™ 2024
The SustainabilityX® Magazine proudly presents its third edition of the Global 50 Women In Sustainability Awards™ for 2024. This annual recognition celebrates extraordinary female leaders who embrace boldness in their pursuit of groundbreaking sustainability initiatives, reshaping industries, and driving transformative change towards a more just, inclusive, and sustainable future.
This year also marks a broader strategic mission expansion for The SustainabilityX® Magazine, with a stronger focus on aligning with the Women's Empowerment Principles (WEPs) in addition to the original foundation of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This evolutionary expansion reflects the magazine’s ongoing commitment to advancing women's leadership in sustainability while championing social equity, environmental stewardship, and inclusive growth.
“Empowering women to lead in sustainability is at the heart of our mission,” says Supriya Verma, founder of The SustainabilityX® Magazine and one of Corporate Knights' Canada’s Top 30 Under 30 in Sustainability Leadership and one of The Peak's Emerging Leaders. “These trailblazers are breaking barriers and redefining what sustainable leadership looks like—showing that it’s about more than policies and practices, but also about social justice, economic resilience, and a regenerative future.”
Rooted in the magazine's guiding pillars of environmental protection, economic prosperity, social inclusion, and ethical governance, The SustainabilityX® Magazine's Global 50 Women In Sustainability Awards™ showcases women from all sectors, industries, and regions, igniting crucial conversations on the intersection of gender equality and sustainable development.
Amidst global challenges and uncertainties, this year’s awards highlight the critical role of women in steering the world towards a more resilient, equitable future. With a continued digital format, the awards amplify voices across borders, bridging the gap between global sustainability efforts and local impact.
As Verma states, “The future of sustainability hinges on bold, inclusive leadership, and these women exemplify the courage and vision needed to transform our world. The SustainabilityX® Magazine remains steadfast in our mission to celebrate and elevate those who are shaping a future where every voice counts and every effort contributes to a thriving, sustainable world.”
View the full list: The SustainabilityX® Magazine Global 50 Women In Sustainability Awards 2024
Read the full press release: The SustainabilityX® Magazine Announces 3rd Annual Global 50 Women In Sustainability Awards™ Under the Theme "Embrace Boldness"
About The SustainabilityX® Magazine
The SustainabilityX® Magazine is an award-winning, digital, female-founded, and female-led non-profit initiative bringing the environment and economy together for a sustainable future through dialogue, and now transforming the environment and economy for a sustainable future through the power of women's leadership. Founded on May 8, 2016, and inspired by the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals by Canada's Top 30 Under 30 in Sustainability Leadership awardee, Supriya Verma, the digital media initiative focuses on approaching the world's most pressing challenges with a holistic, integrated, systems-based perspective as opposed to the traditional and ineffective siloed approach with a single lens on interdisciplinary topics like climate and energy. This initiative ultimately seeks to explore how to effectively bring the environment and economy together through intellectual, insightful dialogue and thought-provoking discussion amongst individuals across sectors taking an interdisciplinary and integrated approach to untangling the intricate web of sustainability while championing women's leadership in sustainability.
The SustainabilityX® Magazine is built upon the four foundational pillars of sustainability: Environmental Stewardship, which emphasizes the importance of improving environmental health; Economic Prosperity, which promotes sustainable economic growth that transcends traditional capitalist models; Social Inclusion, which focuses on equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) for BIPOC, LGBTQ, and other marginalized or vulnerable communities; and Just Governance, which highlights responsible leadership, the equal application of the rule of law, and the creation of fair systems for all.
As we expand our mission to align with the Women's Empowerment Principles (WEPs), we continue to explore the diverse and interconnected factors that influence sustainability. By recognizing how these elements interact across local, national, and international levels, we aim to accelerate progress toward sustainability goals. In essence, this aligns with The SustainabilityX® Magazine's vision of integrating environmental and economic progress for a more just, inclusive, and sustainable future through thoughtful dialogue.
Whether your background is in science, engineering, business, law, politics, media, entertainment, or beyond, your voice plays a crucial role in shaping this future.
Show your support for independent, high-impact publications by becoming a subscribing member and help power international conversations that matter.
The SustainabilityX® Magazine is a proud member of the Sustainable Journalism Partnership, serves as a cause-based media partner for various events such as WIRED Impact, and officially delivers remarks at international conferences such as UNESCO's annual World Press Freedom Day Conference.
SustainabilityX® is a brand of the non-profit social business SPSX Group.
®SUSTAINABILITYX AND SUSTAINABILITYX DESIGNS ARE REGISTERED TRADEMARKS.®
Comments