December 15, 2017 (Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures, Québec) – William Garneau, 27, has been named general manager at Louis Garneau Sports, taking over the reigns from his legendary father Louis Garneau who founded the global company in 1983 – official release here.

The announcement was apparently made at the company’s Christmas party on Dec. 8 where Louis added that he hopes that his two other children Edouard and Victoria will eventually join William to run the company. Long-time friend and supporter, Pierre Karl Péladeau, owner of Quebecor who attended the party tweeted, “Congratulations to William Garneau who has been named Director General of Groupe @Louis_Garneau.”

“The next generation will be three family members who will take care of the organization,” said Garneau, who started LGS in his father’s garage and grew it into a global enterprise with over 500 employees and $50 million in sales. A year after founding his company, Garneau competed for Canada at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. Garneau and his wife Monique designed the national team’s kit for those Games and since that time LGS has continuously produced the national and Olympic kits for Team Canada.

William graduated with an MBA from a business school in Vermont. He raced for Canada back in 2008 at the Junior Road World Championships, has held various roles at the company including all aspects of its DreamFactory custom bike program as well as sourcing and procurement. He has also travelled with his father on business and accepted an award with him at Eurobike in 2016 for Garneau’s DreamFactory Trilogy Concept.

“Garneau is more than a company, it’s a family,” said William. “I’m grateful to my father and my brother Edouard, for entrusting me with this tremendous responsibility. I will do everything I can to support and inspire the team to ensure the company’s growth over the coming years. My father started a great company 34 years ago; it’s now up to us to take it into its next prosperous era.”

Edouard is currently a director in the USA for IBD sales while Victoria is completing a course in design at the Notre-Dame-de-Foy campus. Louis Garneau, 59, remains as chairman and President Designer of the company.

Garneau made international headlines when he famously posed for a photo with Queen Elizabeth II in 2002 putting his arm over her shoulder. He has strong beliefs in family traditions, and in his autobiography “Never Give Up” Garneau takes us back in time to his family roots and how things evolved. When we interviewed him for the company’s 30th anniversary we asked Louis about his plans for succession and here’s what he told us. “Only 30% of companies are carried on by the second generation and only some 10% of companies are still run by the family after two generations,” said Garneau. “I’m going to play with the 30%.” – read our 30th anniversary story here. – Le Journal on Changing of the Guard (French) here.