Our Team

People before titles. Action before speeches.

The Virtual Guardians Foundation is not driven by a team “on paper.” It is carried by people who intimately understand the realities they address, because they have seen them, heard them, and lived them, often in real time, behind a screen.

Here, expertise is not limited to a single specialty. It emerges at the intersection of psychosocial support, digital spaces, and communities. It is built through listening, presence, and the ability to intervene where traditional reference points do not always exist..

Our team brings together profiles from mental health, psychosocial intervention, research, communication, technology, and digital cultures. Some come from the community sector, others from video gaming or esports. All share the same commitment: to be there, at the right moment, in the right language.

How we make an impact: By being where it happens.

At the Virtual Guardians Foundation, leadership is not measured in statements. It is shown through our ability to quickly understand what is emerging, to name what is changing, and to act before the gaps widen.

We observe, test, adapt, and adjust continuously. Platforms change. Practices evolve. So does distress. Our role is to keep moving, to build bridges between communities, and to turn real-world observations into concrete practices.

By working hand in hand with community organizations, public institutions, research groups, and international partners, we help advance the ways online intervention is carried out.

Here, leadership is not a showcase.
It is a sustained, responsible, and deliberate presence.

To understand the Virtual Guardians Foundation, you must first understand its founder.

François Savard, known under the pseudonym LeoninQc, has been active in video game communities since 2002 and has devoted himself to them full-time since 2015. Trained at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston within the Canadian Armed Forces, he then made a professional shift that marked the beginning of a full commitment to digital communities.

A builder of ecosystems, he is a founding member of several key organizations, including Boreal eSports, the Quebec Esports Federation, UQAM Gaming, and the Virtual Guardians Foundation. A practitioner-researcher in game studies, he now works at the intersection of field practice and research through an interdisciplinary PhD in Health and Society at UQAM, a teaching position at UQTR, and numerous scientific collaborations.

His leadership and impact have been recognized through the King Charles III Coronation Medal, the Hommage bénévolat-Québec Award, as well as his participation on various juries and recognition bodies.

By bringing together influences from the military, community, academic, business, and video game sectors, the Virtual Guardians Foundation team has shaped an organization with a unique positioning, able to intervene effectively in the face of complex contemporary challenges, while remaining agile, human, and attentive to the realities of those who make it up.