Understanding the impact and implications of COVID-19 with Diane Brisebois, President & CEO of Retail Council of Canada, Frank Lavin, Chairman and Founder of Export Now from Singapore, and Marc Fortin, President of RCC-CCCD Quebec

Welcome to the The Voice of Retail, I’m your host Michael LeBlanc, and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.

In this episode I’m starting to address the COVID-19 crisis and it’s impact on the retail industry with a mix of episodes interviewing retail advocates, thought leaders, strategists and retailers themselves as we all work together to get our arms around this shock to world.

First up Diane Brisebois, President & CEO of Retail Council of Canada is my special guest.  After 25 years serving the retail community in Canada Diane and her team’s substantial skills are being put to the ultimate test.

Next, live from Singapore Frank Lavin, Chairman and Founder of Export Now returns to the podcast to update us on the Chinese market as they get their arms around the COVID-19 crisis and start to see daylight, yielding important lesson and opportunities for retailers our of what Frank describes as a “tornado of bad news”

Finally Marc Fortin, President of Retail Council/CCCD Quebec joins me from his home office in Montreal.   We hone in on the Province of Quebec and the work Marc and his team is doing to support and advocate for retailers, and how key connections to government will leverage Quebec’s food industry to get food onto grocers shelves in innovative and bold new ways

But first, let’s jump right into my conversation with Diane Brisebois from Retail Council of Canada

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Thanks to Diane, Frank and Marc for being my guests on this episode.  Retail news of the week will return next week/next episode as I return to my two interview format.

That’s a wrap on this edition of The Voice of Retail.  If you liked this podcast you can subscribe on Apple iTunes or your favourite podcast platform, please rate and review, and be sure and recommend to a friend or colleague in the retail industry.

I’m Michael LeBlanc, Founder and President of M.E. LeBlanc and Company Inc. and you can learn more about me on www.meleblanc.co or of course on LinkedIn

Until next time, have a safe week!

Michael LeBlanc is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and now, media entrepreneur.  He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. 

Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels, most recently on the main stage in Toronto at Retail Council of Canada’s Retail Marketing conference with leaders from Walmart & Google.  He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, CanWest Media, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice.

Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in America, Remarkable Retail with his partner, Dallas-based best-selling author Steve Dennis; Canada's top retail industry podcast The Voice of Retail and Canada's top food industry and one of the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax.

Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail experts for the fifth year in a row, the National Retail Federation has designated Michael as on their Top Retail Voices for 2025, Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail, RTIH has named him a top 100 global though leader in retail technology and Coresight Research has named Michael a Retail AI Influencer.  If you are a BBQ fan, you can tune into Michael’s cooking show, Last Request BBQ, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok.

Michael is available for keynote presentations helping retailers, brands and retail industry insiders explaining the current state and future of the retail industry in North America and around the world.