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Les Affaires nominates Present and its leader in their 75th anniversary issue

In business at the age of 16 years old
Marc Beaulieu was quickly in business for himself! After working for a short time for a printing company, he decided to launch on his own, L'Empreinte. The slight glitch - he was only 16 years old.

The young entrepreneur who had a passion for innovation quickly realized that computer graphics would be a way of the future. He closed his business, sold the equipment and went back to school to study computer programming at Joliette College. It was the beginning of a new adventure. After landing a job as a programmer and project manager for four years, he founded in 1990, Present, a company that specializes in the reselling and integration of IBM solutions. Today, the company in St. Laurent has fifteen employees and has sales of $10 million. An office in Toronto was opened four years ago.

Marc Beaulieu is a very happy person. "My biggest reward is to walk into the office and hear my team laugh. The team spirit is incredible. In addition, I love what I do, that is developing strategies and long-term solutions for customers and creating a value-add over the competition. I hate to lose." Earlier this year, he purchased the shares of Eric Whitlock, who had been a partner from the start.

"My goal is to grow the company. I have a lot of experience, a lot of energy, I know what I want and what I don't want", says the 39 year old president, who has the ambition to become the largest IBM business partner in Canada.

The goal is a big one, but Marc Beaulieu is not afraid. He understands the importance of being organized and manages his business very efficiently. In fact, his accountants tell him often that Present is the most organized SMB among their clients. "It's a wonderful compliment. When you consider that 70% of SMBs close their doors due to poor administration, it's scary."

Let's succeed. Now.