MONTREAL—Luc Beauregard, founder chairman of the Res Publica Group—Canada’s largest public relations business and parent company to market leader National PR—has passed away on the eve of his 72nd birthday.

After beginning his career as a journalist, serving as Ottawa parliamentary correspondent and city editor at La Presse from 1961 to 1968, Beauregard then served on a task force on government information for the Privy Council in Ottawa and as special advisor and press secretary to
Quebec’s Minister of Education before founding National in 1976.

He grew it into Canada’s leading public relations firm, and one of the top 30 in the world, with 425 employees spread across offices in Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City, Saint John, Halifax, St. John’s, New York, London, as well as a satellite office in Copenhagen. It is primarily known for its work on high-stakes corporate communications and public affairs issues, handling many of Canada’s most high-profile PR assignments.

Res Publica is also parent to Cohn & Wolfe Canada; Axon Communications, a specialist in the healthcare sector with offices in both Toronto and London; and Sonic Boom, which specializes in digital
communications, with offices in Toronto and Montreal.

Says Jean-Pierre Vasseur, president and chief executive officer of Res Publica:  “We have lost a leader who left his mark on his generation in many ways, as much through his significant contribution to the development of the discipline of public relations as through his political, social and cultural contribution benefitting numerous causes.”

Beauregard was a former president of the Canadian Public Relations Consultants Institute (1979), former president of the Canadian Public Relations Society (1984) and former chairman of the North American Public Relations Council (1985). From 2000 to 2007, he chaired the CPRS College of Fellows and was a director of the Communications + Public Relations Foundation (2007-2013).

He was also founding chairman (2007-2013) of Public Relations Without Borders, which leverages the discipline of public relations for the benefit of populations struggling with issues that hinder their development, including violence against women and children, poverty, malnutrition and access to education. PRWB carried out its first mission in 2009 in Niger, in partnership with Oxfam-Québec. Since then, projects have been completed in Bolivia, Tunisia, Uganda, Benin, Haiti, Burkina Faso, India and Tanzania.

At his request, donations in Luc Beauregard’s memory may be made to Fondation du CHUM, 500 Place d'Armes, suite 1405, Montreal, QC H2Y 2W2; the Neuro, 3801 University St., Montreal, QC H3A 2B4, where he established the François and Gertrude Beauregard Fund in memory of his parents; or l’Appui, 400 De Maisonneuve Boulevard West, Suite 720, Montreal, QC H3A 1L4.