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Estelle Métayer

Competitive and Strategic Intelligence Expert

Estelle Metayer Headshot
Why Companies Need to Experiment
Estelle
Estelle Metayer Headshot
Why Companies Need to Experiment

Estelle Métayer is one of the world’s leading experts on competitive and strategic intelligence. She specializes in how leaders can build and improve their strategic decision-making, corporate governance, and competitive intelligence processes to avoid strategic blind spots. Her best work is done when companies need to drastically change the way they do business, grow aggressively, or both. A former consultant with McKinsey & Company, Métayer is fluent in several languages and skilled at communicating and simplifying complex business ideas and strategies to the needs of her audiences.

Métayer was the president and founder of Competia, a leading training organization for executives and analysts in strategic intelligence, prior to selling it in 2004. She began her career at ING Bank based in both the Netherlands and Poland, where she studied the financial risks of expanding into emerging countries. She then gained first-hand practical experience while managing competitive intelligence, business development, and strategic planning at CAE Inc.

Today, Métayer is a reputed public speaker and facilitates strategic workshops around the world. She is an adjunct professor at McGill University and has previously been a guest lecturer at IMD, IMB, INSEAD, and MIT. As the National Academic Director for the Canadian Institute of Corporate Directors, Métayer spearheaded the Board Oversight of Technology program and has taught the Social Media Oversight module within the national certification curriculum for the past 10 years.

In 2000, Métayer received the Arista Sunlife Award for Entrepreneur of the Year and was a finalist in 2001 for the Women of Merit award from the YWCA. She is an experienced board member, having served on boards of both public and private companies across three continents. Her valuable expertise includes branding, international expansion, analytics capability building, new technologies, and digital transformation. Métayer’s current board positions include Audemars-Piguet and Martur Fompak. She also serves on advisory boards for family offices in Canada and Switzerland as well as Norea Capital and the David Johnston Center for Governance.

Previously, Métayer chaired the board of Nortera and held board positions at Bombardier Recreational Products, Ivanhoe Cambridge, Agropur, Ubisoft Entertainment SA, Blockstream, and Zag Bank, where she led various committees focused on governance, ethics, technology, and compensation.

Métayer was trained in the Netherlands, where she obtained her MBA and PhD from the University of Nijenrode. She is also a commercial pilot and flight instructor.

Speaking topics

Presentations listed below include in-person and virtual keynotes, as well as workshops, fireside chats, and other presentation formats.

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Client reviews

  • Estelle Metayer was a keynote speaker for our conference on “The Future Ready Organization” to celebrate the 10th anniversary of our program. The audience was 150+ senior executives who had completed the EMBA McGill-HEC Montreal over the previous 10 years.  She’s a great speaker, her material is relevant and cutting edge, and she does an amazing job of involving the group.  She had everyone in the group up and working and fully engaged.  She also does a great job of drawing the learnings out of the ideas the group generates.  On top of the great content and delivery, Estelle is a pleasure to work with on every level. We had some great discussions before the conference to nail down the topic and approach – she is keen to understand the audience and to make sure what she delivers is meaningful to them. She’s very professional, well-organized, well-prepared, adaptable and personable.

  • I have had the great fortune of knowing Estelle for a number of years now. Not only is she a thoughtful executive and board member, but Estelle is a one-of-a-kind speaker and panelist. We had the pleasure of hosting Estelle during one of our breakfast conference event at the Quebec Chapter of the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD). Estelle is the only speaker that ever got a 100% approval rating from the audience – we send surveys to people attending (approx. 250 people in attendance with 40% response rate) and every single survey we received rated Estelle and Estelle’s conference as the best ICD speaker and best ICD conference they have ever attended. The result is obviously impressive, but having known Estelle for many years, it was not-so-surprising given how interesting and articulate Estelle is.

  • Estelle has delivered keynote addresses at many conferences and forums that I have organized and hosted over the years. She is a visionary provocateur who challenges assumptions and focuses on the future. Estelle captivates her audience, leaving them wanting more. She doesn’t just give a presentation; she creates an experience. Her thorough preparation, professionalism, and commitment lead to inspired minds, return engagements and an international fan base. Invite Estelle to your next event and prepare for a transformation!

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