Jean-François Beaulieu

President, Chief Executive Officer and co-owner, Les Pliages Apaulo inc.

A background in industrial relations

A graduate in industrial relations from Université Laval, Jean-François Beaulieu entered manufacturing at the turn of the 2000s.

The choice of discipline matters for what follows. Industrial relations sits at the intersection of management, labour law and work organization — the three registers a plant manager has to hold at once. His path began with people and led to operations, the reverse of the usual route.

2000–2011 – Eleven years in human resources

In the summer of 2000, he began his career in human resources with several multinational companies. Over eleven years he moved up from advisor to human resources director.

Ball Corporation – The move into operations

Identified as a high-potential employee by Ball Corporation’s leadership, he was offered a structured development programme covering administration, finance, LEAN methodology and project management – designed to prepare candidates for general management roles.

In January 2011, he was promoted to head of operations at the multinational’s Sherbrooke plant. In 2015, he became its plant manager.

These are the years in which the dual competence that still defines his management took shape: a detailed understanding of work organization, carried over from human resources, applied to the daily running of a production site.

Usinatech – Vice-President, Operations

He went on to serve as Vice-President of Operations at Usinatech.

2022 – From executive to owner

In March 2022, he made the move into ownership. Together with a group of Eastern Townships entrepreneurs, he acquired Les Pliages Apaulo inc., a molded plywood manufacturer established in Waterville since 1988, becoming co-owner and Chief Executive Officer. Read the company’s story →

To carry the project through, he built his leadership team around seasoned collaborators, several of them former colleagues. The selection criterion went beyond technical skill: he chose people who share the same standard of excellence, collaboration and rigour.

How he leads

The investments made since the acquisition follow two deliberate tracks: increasing production capacity on one side, improving employee safety and well-being on the other.

That pairing is not a communications line. It follows directly from a career that started in industrial relations, where manufacturing performance and working conditions are treated as two faces of the same problem rather than as objectives to be traded off against each other.

Continuous improvement runs through his method, carried over from his LEAN training and his years in plant management.

Under his leadership

Since 2022, Les Pliages Apaulo inc. has risen to become the world leader in wooden rotary dies by units sold, shipping to more than twenty countries today. Expansion projects are under review to meet growing demand. See the company’s track record →