The November ICA General Body meeting next week is going to be eventful as Dame Pauline will hand over to a new President, the election for which will take place on 13th November in Antalya, Turkey.
According to reliable sources, Monique Leroux, one of the four candidates in the race for the International Co-operative Alliance’s presidential elections is ahead of her rivals as a chorus of support for her election to the top post is gaining strength.
A board member of the Alliance, Ms Leroux is also president, chair of the board and chief executive officer of Desjardins Group, a federation of 400 credit unions and numerous subsidiaries claiming 7 million members and clients in Canada and operating, through Dévelopement international Desjardins, in more than 30 emerging and developing countries.
ICA also seems to subtly support Ms Leroux as is clear from the latest piece published in Cooperative News- the ICA’s news portal. It reads ”The long relationship between Desjardins and the Alliance goes back to the early days of the group, towards the beginning of the 20th century. Alphonse Desjardins, the founder of the credit union movement in Canada became a member of the Alliance in 1904. Another important figure in the Desjardins’ history, Earl Grey, served as Canada’s governor general and was the Alliance’s President for a number of years.”
Praising Desjardins the post reads “ As a people bank, Desjardins has gone from strength to strength and is now among the five strongest financial institutions in the world (Bloomberg ranking)”.
The others in the race are Jean Louis Bancel from France, Ariel Guarco from Argentina and Euides De Freitas Aquino from Brazil.