Marie St-Gelais is an Innu engineer with a MBA from Pessamit that has 18 years of experience as business owner, project manager and design engineer. Since 2006, she has worked in mining, in engineering consulting services, in construction and with many First Nation communities. Her previous work experiences led her to develop a strong expertise in civil and structure technical design, as well as in project management.

Since 2016, she has been managing and growing her own Indigenous consulting firm Ashini Consultants, coordinating the engineering and construction projects while ensuring the company’s development. The mission of her company is to support First Nations communities in their development. It also pursues the objective of developing and maintaining an indigenous achievement capacity and professional technical expertise. She works actively to ensure that Indigenous professional firms excel and participate in major infrastructure, natural resources, and industrial projects, giving First Nations a technical voice in projects affecting their ancestral lands.

Ms. St-Gelais is also actively socially involved in her community. Among other implications, she has developed scholarships programs destined to Indigenous students in the engineering sector and she is an administrator on the BOD of the Conseil du patronat du Québec since 2022. To conclude, her technical expertise and her human considerations bring success upon each project she works on by allowing her to accompany her clients and find solutions that are perfectly adapted to their needs.