Christiane Germain — 2026 Testimonial Dinner Award Honouree

Register now to join us at the 2026 Testimonial Dinner in Toronto, where we will be celebrating Christiane Germain, Robert Fife, John Knubley and other exceptional Canadian honourees. 

A streak of independence runs through Christiane Germain’s work life.

“I always wanted to do my own things,” Germain explains. She and her two younger brothers grew up in their parents’ restaurant, Le Fiacre, a steakhouse in Quebec City. At 15, she got her first job. “But I had my pride, you know? If I’m going to work somewhere, I’m not going to work for my family.” She worked in a cheese store, then a men’s clothing establishment.

“And I really didn’t like going to school,” she offers. After completing high school, she started CEGEP, the public collegiate system in Quebec prior to university, but quit without telling her parents, who were on vacation. Next came a job in a bank, which she left when she discovered a man in the same position was earning more.

School was important, she realized, and she chose what she had some familiarity with: a hospitality program at Humber College in Toronto so she could be independent from her family and learn English. For several years, she worked for an American company, helping with launches in Canada. Then, her father, a self-made man with whom she often disagreed, suggested she return to her hometown. He owned several restaurants at this point and some real estate. “I said, ‘Well, I could show you what I’ve learned. Maybe for a few months.’ So, I went back, and I never left.”

She revamped a bankrupt restaurant her father had bought, turning it into a success called Le Cousin Germain which included a bar and discotheque. Her brother, Jean-Yves, who is a year and a half younger, ran it with her before starting his own restaurant. Three years later, her father got an offer to buy her establishment. “I said, ‘Go ahead. Sell it. It’s fine with me. I’ll find something. Don’t worry.’”

“There is a difference between being focused and being rigid. You have to be focused when you decide on doing something. But at the same time, rules are there to be changed sometimes.” 

She and her brother travelled to research new ideas and came across The Morgans in New York, considered the world’s first boutique hotel. They quickly decided they would open something similar in Quebec City. “We really had guts,” Germain says. Their father owned an office building in Sainte-Foy, a suburb of Quebec City. He didn’t give them money but offered a long-term lease on the building. Cobbling together financing of over $8 million, they renovated the building into a 126-room hotel called Le Germain-des-prés, which opened in 1988.

“I’d like to tell you we had this big vision but it wasn’t the case,” Germain says, adding that they experienced a few failures along the way, such as acquiring a small inn from Relais & Chateaux, the culture of which didn’t fit theirs. It wasn’t until the late 90s, when they had two Germain hotels in Quebec City and one in Montreal, that they started thinking about a vision they could roll out across the country.

Highly personalized service, local procurement and a European flair are key aspects of the hotel network that now numbers 20 establishments (including brands Alt and Escad as well as Le Germain hotels) and close to 2,000 employees in seven provinces. After many years of searching for a location in Vancouver, a Germain hotel will open there in 2029.

The imperative to support the local economy reaches back to her father. “My Dad did very well, and one day, I said to him, ‘Why don’t you buy a nice BMW?’ He was driving a General Motors car. And he said, ‘I’m not interested.’ I kept asking the question, and finally, he said, ‘This car is made in Ontario.’ And this stuck with me. The economy of our country is important. I was raised like this. So when we started, it was the thing to do to get the furniture made by the same person who did the furniture for my dad’s first restaurant. We had opportunities to have furniture made in other countries, but we’ve never done it. It’s always been made here in Quebec.”

The company, which has received many buy-out offers over the years, is constantly sourcing supplies and furnishings from Canada, she says. “But, for example, we might buy fabrics from other countries but we have the linens made here.”

“I’d like to tell you we had this big vision but it wasn’t the case.”

Germain, who participated in Dans l’œil du dragon (the French version of Dragon’s Den) for several seasons, has been frequently named one of 100 influential women in Canada by the Women’s Executive Network. A board member for many organizations, she is the recipient of honours that include Officer of the Order of Canada and Knight of the Order national du Quebec.

“When I started, I was very young, very bossy,” she says of her leadership philosophy. “I had to show who was the boss. But I learned a new type of leadership though getting involved in community. It was more working with people, leading by example. Instead of telling people what to do, (it was) showing them what to do, working together.” She has also learned to be flexible. “There is a difference between being focused and being rigid. You have to be focused when you decide on doing something. But at the same time, rules are there to be changed sometimes.”

Recognized as one of Canada’s 50 best managed companies, Germain hotels now employ six family members, including Germain and her brother. (Their younger brother also worked with them at one time.) In addition to a corporate board, they created a family council with an outsider to air family issues.

“There are probably things that I accept from my family members that I would not take from other people. We’re not talking about being dishonest or anything like that but sometimes it’s difficult, and I take a deep breath and sometimes I’ll go for a walk. But overall, it has been a pretty easy ride.”