The sense I got is that, from now on, he will simply chair the meetings of the board of directors.  He will no longer run the company on day to day basis.

In a lot of companies, the Chairman is also the CEO, and as CEO, runs the company.

Beaudoin goes from being Chairman and CEO to just Chairman, and someone else steps in to run the company.

While the circumstances were very, very different, the late Ron Southern did something similar when he turned control of the ATCO Group over to his daughter Nancy.  When she took over the company, he stuck around to be a sounding board and source of advice

In Beaudoin's case, I would read it as more of a demotion.  And I would pay close attention to who steps in to run the company.