Vachon was born in 1962, in Quebec, Canada. His family started an eponymous pastry company and his father served as the Dean of School of Business at Sherbrooke University. He spoke about his upbringing in Canadian Business, stating, "Being a successful business person was highly valued in our family." He entered Bates College, in Lewiston, Maine in 1979 and became interested in finance early on. Paul Erdman's The Billion Dollar Sure Thing played a role in his interest and shaped his early thoughts on financial markets. Vachon graduated from college in 1983, with a B.A. in economics, and went on to graduate from The Fletcher School of Tufts University, with an M.A. international finance. Vachon is a chartered financial analyst.
Banking career
Vachon began his career in 1985 at Citibank and joined Lévesque Beaubien Geoffrion in 1986. He then moved to Bankers Trust in 1990 where he stayed for six years.
Vachon became the president and chief executive officer of Innocap Investment Management, a subsidiary of National Bank of Canada in 1996. In 1997, he became a vice president in the firm, charged with it treasury and overseeing its financial markets. He eventually became the CEO and president of National Bank Financial, the 4th largest investment bank in Canada. During the 2008-2009 financial crisis, the investment bank was one of the only financial institutions to see profit through the crisis. In early 2009, the board of the bank offered him a $1.9 million bonus for his actions during the crisis.
National Bank of Canada
Vachon was appointed President and Chief Executive of National Bank of Canada on February 2, 2007. In November 2012, Vachon announced that the bank was letting go of nearly 300 jobs in order to tighten expenses and create a streamlined infrastructure. The move as well as an economic contraction had Moody's Investor Service drop the bank's credit rating down a level, projecting it might drop it two at the conclusion of the month. Despite the drop in credit rating, the bank stated that Vachon's vision for the future remained unchanged. His compensation totaled $7,618,503 in 2015, with a base pay of $1,083,333, with other compensation adding up to $6,344,803. Although he heads the 6th largest bank in Canada, he was the most compensated banking executive in 2015. He was criticized for sitting on too many boards as CEO, however Vachon rebutted the claim saying that it was "odd" to say to a CEO, "you can’t sit on an external board even though your company is a major shareholder." In a December quarterly earnings call with investors and analysts, Vachon stated that the bank had increased positive operating leverage in their common equity and increased its quarterly dividend twice during the fiscal year—close to 7%.
Personal life
Vachon resides in Montreal, Quebec. On November 25, Vachon along with the Mayor of Montreal, Denis Coderre, unveiled an art installation piece that displayed along a six-kilometre stretch of Autoroute 20 in honor of Montreal's 375th anniversary. He said that Montreal was "a dynamic city with a reputation for innovation" later noting that "every day, hundreds of thousands of people travel along the stretch of highway between the airport and downtown Montreal, exactly what people will see as they drive into town."
Awards and honours
Vachon has received numerous awards and honors for his work in Canadian investment banking and corporate leadership.
