Luc Beauregard founded NATIONAL Public Relations in Montreal on September 22, 1976, after a career in newspapers and government communications, and built it into what the firm's parent company called Canada's largest public relations firm. He died on July 26, 2013, at 71, weeks after being named an Officer of the Order of Canada, according to O'Dwyer's and the Governor General of Canada.
Originally published September 24, 2026. Updated November 4, 2026.
Key takeaways
- Beauregard worked at La Presse from 1961 to 1968 and later served three years as publisher of the daily Montréal-Matin before founding NATIONAL, according to a 2013 firm release.
- NATIONAL bought the Canadian operations of Burson-Marsteller in 1987 and later became part of a holding company, RES PUBLICA, that grew into AVENIR GLOBAL.
- The Governor General's records show he became a Member of the Order of Canada in 1995 and an Officer on July 4, 2013, with the insignia presented posthumously on November 22, 2013.
- He co-founded Public Relations Without Borders, and Concordia University opened a research centre in his name in April 2012.
- NATIONAL created the Order of NATIONAL in 2011, and Beauregard was one of its four first recipients.
Who was Luc Beauregard?
Luc Beauregard was a Montreal journalist turned public relations executive who founded NATIONAL Public Relations and chaired its parent group, RES PUBLICA Consulting Group. He was born and educated in Montreal and graduated from Collège Stanislas, according to the Canadian Public Relations Society (CPRS).
His career before NATIONAL moved through journalism, government and publishing, as the table below shows. The sources do not date every step, so undated steps are listed in the order the sources give them.
| Period | Role | Source |
|---|
| 1961 to 1968 | Ottawa parliamentary correspondent and city editor, La Presse | CPRS profile; RES PUBLICA release, July 30, 2013 |
| After La Presse (undated) | Task force on government information for the Privy Council in Ottawa; special advisor and press secretary to Quebec's Minister of Education | Holmes Report, August 5, 2013 |
| Before Montréal-Matin (undated) | Co-founder of the communications consultancy Beauregard Landry Nantel inc. | Presses de l'Université du Québec, biography preface |
| About three years, before 1976 | President and publisher of Montréal-Matin, a tabloid recently bought by Power Corporation | CPRS profile; Concordia University |
| 1976 | Founded NATIONAL Public Relations | NATIONAL history; AVENIR GLOBAL history |
Beauregard told Marketing magazine he began NATIONAL as a one-person practice and expected to stay a solo consultant. The Presses de l'Université du Québec biography, Luc Beauregard: Le pari de la vérité (2012), also says he lived the kidnapping and death of Quebec minister Pierre Laporte at close range during his journalism years.
In a first-person account on the CPRS profile, Beauregard says La Presse called him after half its reporters walked out to start another paper, and that he later left when La Presse offered him the publisher and editor job at Montréal-Matin, a bankrupt tabloid that its owner, Power Corporation, had just bought. The account and the dated profile differ slightly on the sequence, so EPR lists the Montréal-Matin years as undated.
How did NATIONAL grow into Canada's largest PR firm?
NATIONAL grew from a Montreal start-up into a coast-to-coast firm through new offices, acquisitions and outside minority investors. The timeline below uses the firm's own history pages, so the dates are firm-reported.
| Year | Milestone |
|---|
| 1976 | NATIONAL founded in Montreal on September 22 |
| 1986 | Toronto office opens |
| 1987 | NATIONAL buys the Canadian operations of Burson-Marsteller, including an office in Vancouver, plus the Canadian activities of Cohn & Wolfe; Young & Rubicam becomes a minority owner |
| 1997 | NATIONAL enters the Calgary market |
| 2000 | WPP Group acquires Young & Rubicam and becomes a minority shareholder |
| 2001 | The holding company is renamed RES PUBLICA Consulting Group |
| 2006 | Marketing magazine names NATIONAL Public Relations Firm of the Year |
| 2009 | The Holmes Report's SABRE Awards name NATIONAL Canadian Public Relations Agency of the Year |
| 2011 | NATIONAL marks its 35th anniversary and creates the Order of NATIONAL |
| 2018 | AVENIR GLOBAL acquires Padilla, which it described as a top 10 independent U.S. firm with 210 employees |
| 2019 | AVENIR GLOBAL acquires Hanover, a London-based consultancy with offices in London, Brussels, Dublin, Dubai and Abu Dhabi |
| 2021 | A shared Riverside House office opens in London for the group's UK firms |
A 2013 RES PUBLICA release listed NATIONAL's offices in Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City, Saint John and Halifax, among others. The same release called NATIONAL Canada's largest public relations firm. NATIONAL's release on his Ordre national du Québec award also said the firm was one of the first in Canada to develop research and analysis services that monitor public opinion.
What is the Order of NATIONAL?
The Order of NATIONAL is an internal honor the firm created in 2011 to recognize the people who built it. Jean-Pierre Vasseur, president and CEO of RES PUBLICA, announced it at the firm's 35th anniversary, and the first recipients were Beauregard, Francine La Haye, Robert McCoy and Daniel Lamarre, according to NATIONAL.
The firm repeated the honor at its 40th anniversary on September 23, 2016, when chairman Andrew Molson said the vision and legacy of its founder was felt every day in its services and its people. The award shows how the firm kept Beauregard's name tied to its culture three years after his death.
What honours did Luc Beauregard receive?
Luc Beauregard received national and provincial honours for his work in public relations and in volunteer service. The Governor General's online records give exact dates for the Order of Canada.
| Honour | Detail | Source |
|---|
| Member of the Order of Canada | Awarded November 15, 1995; invested May 8, 1996 | Governor General of Canada |
| Knight, Ordre national du Québec | Named in 2013 | RES PUBLICA release, July 30, 2013 |
| Officer of the Order of Canada | Awarded July 4, 2013; invested posthumously November 22, 2013 at Rideau Hall | Governor General of Canada; NATIONAL release |
| Career Award, Conseil du patronat du Québec | Presented posthumously in April 2014 | 2014 hall of fame biography |
Concordia University also noted that the CPRS gave him its Award of Attainment, which the university described as the society's highest recognition.
What did Beauregard build beyond NATIONAL?
Beauregard built professional and charitable institutions beyond his firm. The CPRS says he co-founded and chaired Public Relations Without Borders from 2007 to 2013, a group that uses public relations skills for populations in developing countries. The CPRS also lists him as president of the Canadian Public Relations Consultants Institute in 1979, and NATIONAL's Ordre national du Québec release says he chaired the CPRS and the North American Public Relations Council.
His civic service ran through arts and health. NATIONAL's releases say he chaired the Fondation du Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal and served 12 years on the museum's board, chaired the board of AMARC, the City of Montreal's corporation that managed Man and His World and La Ronde, from 1982 to 1986, and sat on the advisory council of the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital from 2000.
Concordia University's John Molson School of Business founded the Luc Beauregard Centre of Excellence in Communications Research in April 2012 to link scholars with industry. The centre's director, Jordan LeBel, was quoted mourning him in July 2013.
Who owns NATIONAL Public Relations?
NATIONAL is owned by AVENIR GLOBAL, a Montreal-based holding company that is itself owned by RES PUBLICA Consulting Group, according to AVENIR GLOBAL's April 3, 2019 release. That release said AVENIR GLOBAL owned NATIONAL in Canada, SHIFT Communications and Padilla in the United States, and Hanover and other firms in the United Kingdom, with about 1,000 employees in 25 locations after the Hanover deal.
These figures date from 2019. Readers who need current ownership should check NATIONAL's website and AVENIR GLOBAL's newsroom.
What can PR founders learn from Beauregard's career?
PR founders can take four practical lessons from the published record. This is EPR analysis based on the sources above.
- Start with a narrow personal practice. Beauregard began alone, according to Marketing magazine.
- Buy established teams to open new markets. The 1987 Burson-Marsteller Canada purchase gave NATIONAL a national footprint.
- Add research to the service mix. The firm built public opinion monitoring early, according to its own release.
- Give back through the profession. Public Relations Without Borders and the Concordia centre carry his name beyond the firm.
For another founder who built a firm into a global name, read EPR's profile of Margery Kraus and APCO Worldwide. For a sister firm in the AVENIR GLOBAL group, see the Padilla agency profile, and browse the wider Architects of PR encyclopedia.
Related: The Architects · PR agency profiles directory · PR leaders directory · Margery Kraus: APCO Worldwide
