Ag in the Classroom Canada (AITC-C) has a new Executive Director.

Mathieu Rouleau grew up on a dairy, cash crop, and maple syrup farm in southwestern Quebec, and graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Agricultural Economics, Agricultural Business and Agronomy from McGill University. He worked as an agronomist in Quebec as well as in the finance industry, where he co-founded Ecole-O-Champ, a non-profit organization dedicated to agricultural education and AITC-C’s member organization in Quebec.

“Now I’m jumping on to bring together all of Canada and all 10 member organizations as we have a really cool country with lots of diversity in agriculture.” Rouleau said.

With that kind of a background, Rouleau says he likes to keep busy and learn new things which is perfect for the new role.

“(It’s) very important in the role of executive director to be able to have had multiple hats to be able to get multiple perspectives and also be able to collaborate with many people,” he said. “Ag in the Classroom Canada is an organization that collaborates with the industry, with the educators, with our provinces, so it’s very important and I hope to continue to build off of all the existing partnerships we have.”

Part of his vision for the organization is to include the 3 Territories – Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut – as well as be involved in every aspect of the agriculture industry, from economics to the labour force.

Rouleau assumed the new role on Monday (Nov. 6) and takes over from Sara Shymko, who was leading on an interim basis.