By Rajitha Sivakumaran
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What does a Montreal-based production
company have in common with one of the
largest networks of private rehabilitation
hospitals in Quebec? The same man, Alain
Racine, was behind both ventures.
Racine established himself at a small com-
munity hospital in New Brunswick shortly
after graduating from the Université de
Montréal in the 1990s. He also dabbled in
the show business industry. “As you can
see, I’m a versatile person,” he said with
a chuckle.
His next venture idea arrived in 1994 when
he decided to focus his energies on phys-
iotherapy. Only three years afterwards,
Racine opened his very first clinic, Phys-
ioExtra. Today, this physiotherapist is the
founder and president of an extensive re-
habilitation network, currently consisting
of 13 clinics in the Montreal, Laval, North
Shore and South Shore regions and em-
ploying over 200 employees and consul-
tants.
So why make the jump into physiothera-
py? What pushed Racine to take the leap
into health-focused entrepreneurship? He
attributes the move mainly to certain gaps
he saw when he entered the job market.
“I always had the sense, when working for
other clinics/employers, of this gap on the
proactiveness side. I wanted to excel, pro-
viding outstanding treatments to patients,
seeing relief,” he said. The goal was not to
make money, but to focus on wellbeing.
Being the visionary that he was, Racine
pictured a clinic that provided both person-
alized treatments and proved to be a good
work environment for employees.
One of the reasons Racine’s clinics have
OCTOBER 2016
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business elite canada
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