Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Walter Group
Pierre Somers is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Walter Group headquartered in Montreal, Canada. The Walter Group is mainly active in the financial sector, especially through Walter Capital Management, a major investment firm and pillar of the Group, which brings together business units specializing in public and private markets: Walter Public Investments, Walter Capital Partners and Walter Global Asset Management.
For over 30 years, Pierre helmed the Walter Group’s founding company, Walter Surface Technologies, which was founded by his father in 1952 and owned by the Group until 2018. As head of the company, he was the driver behind its expansion to international markets. Walter Surface Technologies now operates in nine countries across the Americas and Europe. He also innovated with the creation of the Bio-Circle division, which offers environmentally safe solutions for industrial cleaning applications through bioremediation. On the financial side of the Walter Group’s activities, he contributed to the establishment of Walter Capital Management, a renown investment firm in the financial sector. Over the years, he initiated the creation of Walter Capital Partners, a private equity firm dedicated to supporting the growth of SMEs, as well as Walter Global Asset Management, a North American private investment platform specializing in asset management.
Before taking the lead at Walter Group, Pierre held various positions within Walter Surface Technologies in Canada and the U.S., where he garnered in-depth knowledge of various sectors of the company, on his way to becoming Chairman & CEO. At the beginning of his career, he worked as a mechanical engineer at Metabo AG, in Germany.
Pierre holds a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from Clarkson University, in Potsdam, NY, which he obtained in 1976. In 2005, he was appointed Alumni of the YPO/MBA program at the Harvard Business School, an institution he has been active with for over 20 years. He is fluent in English, French and German.
Pierre is a strong supporter of education. He has been honorary president for numerous fundraising campaigns held by organizations such as Madeli-Aide and the ITHQ (Institut de tourisme et d’hôtellerie du Québec), from which he has received an honoris causa degree. Through the Walter J. Somers Foundation, he supports the HEC Montréal Walter J. Somers Foundation Centre for Productivity and Prosperity, where he sits on the steering committee. Mr. Somers is a founding member of the Business Families Foundation, and is a member of the Presidents Club of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the World Presidents Organization and the CEO Organization.
