Bernard Amyot is Chair of the Board of Directors and the Board of Governors of the National Theatre School of Canada since February 17, 2012.
Mr. Amyot graduated from McGill University's Faculty of Law and is a senior partner in the litigation group of Heenan Blaikie in Montreal. For twenty-eight years now, Mr. Amyot has managed a hybrid practice in both litigation and commercial law. He has extensive experience before the Quebec courts, representing in particular Canada's leading investment dealers and life insurance companies and has lectured and written frequently on legal issues of interest to their operations. He also acts as lead counsel in numerous class action matters involving multiple jurisdictions across Canada and cross-border issues.
He has served as National President of the Canadian Bar Association in 2007-8; has been President of the Young Bar Association of Montreal as well as a member of the Council of the Montreal Bar and Executive Council of the Quebec Bar. He has served as President of the American Counsel Association, and as Co-Chair of the Annual Meeting of the Litigation Section of the American Bar Association held in Toronto in 2011.
Mr. Amyot's involvement in business circles and the community is equally noteworthy. He served as Chairman of Brébeuf College from 2005 to 2011 and was a director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.
In 2009, Mr. Amyot was a recipient of the Quebec Bar's honorary title of Emeritus Lawyer. In 2011, he became Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. He is recognized as a leading practitioner in the area of corporate and commercial litigation in the 2012 edition of The Best Lawyers in Canada (Woodward / White).
Photo Credit: Heenan Blaikie

Montrealer Simon Brault has been with the NTS since 1981. At the School's AGA, held at the end of October 2008, he was named CEO. He has been its Director General since 1997 and from 1992 to 1997, he was NTS Administrative Director, during which time he coordinated the major restoration and revitalisation project of Montreal's historic Monument-National.

Convinced that the cultural milieu needed to increase its connections with other players in society, Mr. Brault was closely associated with the Forum d'action des milieux culturels de la Métropole from 1994 to 1999. He also initiated Journées de la culture, a massive undertaking first held in 1997 to democratize the arts and culture across Quebec. During the Sommet de Montréal, held in June 2002, he led a delegation of 20 leaders of the cultural community. He is also a founding member of Culture Montréal and has been its elected Chair since its origins in 2002. Since 2007, Simon Brault heads the steering committee that organized the RV07 – Montreal, Cultural Metropolis event; the committee currently assures the follow up of recommendations made during RV07.

Since 2010, at the invitation of Quebec's Ministry of Culture, he serves as cultural advisor to Agenda 21C, thus enhancing Quebec's place in the global Agenda 21 movement, where culture is held as the fourth pillar of sustainable development.

As guest speaker, he has been invited to address a number of national and international conferences as well as cultural and business organisations from Montreal to Tokyo. In 2012, he became a scientific committee member of a project in Nantes (France) titled Valeur(s) et utilités de la culture. Researchers and an assorted group of professionals gather to discuss and define the value of cultural activities in any given territory.

He has been Vice-Chair of the Canada Council for the Arts since March 31, 2004. In January 2009, his term was renewed for another five years, effective March 31, 2009 to March 30, 2014.

In 2005, he was appointed Officer of the Order of Canada. In September 2008, he was honoured with a Fellowship by the CGA, and in February 2009, he received the Keith Kelly Award for Cultural Leadership offered by the Canadian Conference of the Arts and in June 2011, Simon was appointed Officier de l'Ordre national du Québec, the most esteemed honorary distinction attributed by the government of Québec. Simon Brault is also a member of the International Advisory Board of the Musagetes Foundation.

In September 2009, Mr. Brault published an essay on the rise of arts and culture on Canadian and global public agendas. Titled Le FACTEUR C - L'Avenir passe par la culture, published by La Presse / Éditions Voix parallèles, the book explains the role that the arts and culture play - and will increasingly play in the future – in the lives of individuals and communities. This is especially significant in an age when more than half of the world's population lives in an urban setting. FACTEUR C was translated into English by Jonathan Kaplansky and released under the title No Culture, No Future by Cormorant Books in May 2010. In June 2011, the Presses de l'Université du Québec and the Chaire de leadership Pierre-Péladeau published a monograph about Simon Brault: Prendre fait et cause pour la culture. It is a scholarly thesis on his personal and professional journey in the arts.

You can follow him on Twitter @simon_brault

Download a pdf version of Simon Brault's biography here.
Photo Credit: Maxime Côté

Teacher and director Denise Guilbault was the head of the Theatre Department at Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf (cegep level) from 1982 to 2000, before being appointed Artistic Director of the French Acting Program at NTS in January, 2001. Since 1996, her reputation as a director has grown, thanks to her staging of plays by David Mamet, Ruth Wolff, George F. Walker, and Henri de Monterlant presented mainly at the Théâtre de Quat'Sous and Théâtre Denise-Pelletier. In February, 2005, she directed La Tempête (The Tempest) by Shakespeare, in collaboration with multimedia designers Michel Lemieux and Victor Pilon, at Montreal's Théâtre du Nouveau Monde. The piece has toured internationally, notably in France, Spain and the United States. In the winter of 2006, Ms. Guilbault also directed Wit by Margaret Edson (in its French translation), at the Théâtre de Quat'Sous, and in the autumn of 2007, she directed Électre ou la chute des masques by Marguerite Yourcenar at Québec's Théâtre du Trident.
Photo Credit: Maxime Côté

Alisa Palmer is an internationally trained award-winning theatre director, playwright, dramaturge and theatre producer. Her work crosses genres, including the classics, contemporary plays, creation projects, musicals and operas. Ms. Palmer's work is characterized by vivid performances, a bold use of music, powerful visuals and a passionate commitment to the body politic. She is the recipient of numerous awards and has premiered and toured original and provocative theatre creations for over twenty years.
Ms Palmer has taught in conservatories and universities across Canada. She was Artistic Director of Nightwood Theatre and was Resident Director for the world premiere of The Lord of the Rings. She has just completed her eighth season at the Shaw Festival and has projects in development with both the Shaw and Stratford Shakespeare festivals. She is the founder of Vita Brevis, a company overseeing new creation and training projects, in partnership with other theatre companies to produce new Canadian work. Recently, while in residence with Toronto's Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, she initiated a new training opportunity for young theatre professionals called "Life is Too Short".
Stressing the importance and high expectations of the School's training programs, Alisa Palmer stated that she wishes "to provide leadership that will create a vessel steady enough to hold the vagaries of personal and artistic growth, with teachers and guides who put the goals of the students first. The School needs to be a place where each artist is, above all, a person, unlimited by gender, race or class."
Photo Credit: David Cooper Photography

Luc Pelletier has over fifteen years of experience in project management and organizational logistics. He holds a degree in administration and human resource management, a B.A. in Communications from the University of Montreal and a certificate from the Institute of Communication and Advertising, in Toronto.
Mr. Pelletier's career path has led him to work in many cities across Canada; he also spent four years working in The Netherlands. Upon his return to Montreal, he was Account Executive at PALM, a Montreal advertising agency, where he managed large budgets and developed effective professional relationships between the creative advertising team and his assigned clients.
Since 2004, Luc Pelletier is one of four directors on the School's Management Committee. He coordinates the activities of the administrative and student services sectors. He is a member of the Association des écoles supérieures d'art de Montréal (ADÉSAM) and sits on the Board of Trustees of Théâtre Aphasique theatre company.
Photo Credit: Maxime Côté