Corus Press Release
With the announcement of a new Management Committee on May 10, 2010, we committed to conducting a review of our organization to ensure it is structured effectively and efficiently and is appropriately aligned to deliver on future opportunities. The objective was to streamline decision-making and clarify roles and mandates. To this end, we are announcing changes to our Television, Radio and Corporate Management teams.
TELEVISION
Reporting to Doug Murphy, Executive Vice President and President of Corus Television, the Television division is adopting a new organizational design to maximize collaboration and teamwork. Key organizational changes include centralizing programming to ensure optimal utilization across our networks and to create a single point of responsibility for managing all programming expenses and investments. We have established two new groups: Networks and Marketing, which will be responsible for the profitability of our services, accountable for planning and managing spending for On-Air Promotions, trade and consumer marketing; and a Business Development group that will service the ongoing needs of our three sources of revenue, advertising and affiliate sales in Canada and international sales from Nelvana Enterprises.
The new TV Management team consists of:
Colin Bohm, Vice President, International – Colin and his team are responsible for maximizing revenue of Corus-controlled content in the international marketplace. This includes placing our shows with leading international broadcasters, selecting and managing our home video distributors, launching and managing our merchandising brands, sourcing new content partners and working with our programming team and Nelvana Studio to develop new shows for our Corus-owned television channels.
Andrew Eddy, Vice President, Affiliate Sales – Andrew maintains overall responsibility for business relationships between Corus and the Broadcast Distribution Undertakings (BDU) segment including: establishing annual distribution revenue targets, working with the TV Management team to determine programming and marketing support for the BDUs and negotiating multi-year agreements for carriage, distribution, wholesale rates and marketing support. In addition, Andrew and his team will also be responsible for championing new product innovation, servicing BDU customer needs in the areas of high definition, on-demand, broadband and mobile platforms and rolling out our non-linear content offerings on emerging platforms internationally.
Bill Knight, Vice President, Business Development and Planning – Bill is responsible for the Television division’s budgeting, forecasting, production and programming finance functions. In addition, his group will provide financial and analytical support to the TV Management team as needed, as we pursue our strategic objectives of revenue growth through new channels, programming and production investments and overall margin management initiatives.
Gerry Mackrell, Vice President, Airtime Sales – Gerry heads up our specialty advertising sales team responsible for maximizing advertising revenue for all of our brands including YTV, TELETOON, CMT and W Network, organized across four key demographic verticals: Youth, Young Adult, Mom/Family and Women. Each of these verticals is designed to offer a range of insight-based on-air, online, in-program, event and mobile solutions for advertisers.
Susan Ross, Vice President, Strategic Planning – Susan who, as recently announced, will be leaving Corus in November, assumes the role of Vice President, Strategic Planning, Corus Television, overseeing broadcast license renewal strategy, process improvements and business and transitional planning.
Susan Schaefer, Vice President, Head of Networks and Marketing – Susan and her team will be responsible for the overall management of network P&Ls and brand plans. Susan will also continue to oversee brand strategy and development, marketing and on-air creative, plus interactive for all of our television brands.
Joanna Webb, Vice President, Head of Programming and Production – Joanna will oversee all programming and production in the Television group. She will be responsible for driving ratings and revenue and controlling costs across Corus’ Specialty and Pay TV services through strategic approaches to program synergy, scheduling, investment and partnerships.
RADIO
Under the leadership of Hal Blackadar, Executive Vice President and interim President of Radio, the Radio division is adopting a new organizational structure, as follows:
Cheryl Bechtel, Vice President, Controller – Cheryl’s mandate includes responsibility for oversight of finances, reporting, budgeting and maintaining internal controls for Corus Radio. Cheryl reports to Hal Blackadar and Tom Peddie, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.
Dave Farough, Vice President, Brands and Programming – Dave’s mandate includes overall responsibility for programming, brand and format decisions including setting standards for programming excellence, and oversight of the on-air talent pool in Ontario and Western Canada. Dave reports to Hal Blackadar.
Jack Hoeppner, National Director, Engineering – Jack’s mandate includes oversight of all radio engineering matters and radio frequency optimization. Jack reports to Hal Blackadar.
David Huszar, Vice President and General Manager, Interactive and Emerging Platforms – David’s mandate includes responsibility for interactive content at Corus Radio and delivery of content on emerging platforms. David reports to Dave Farough.
Western Radio
Garth Buchko, General Manager, Corus Radio Winnipeg – Garth’s mandate includes overall responsibility for CJOB 68, 99.1 Groove FM (CJGV) and Power 97 (CJKR). Garth reports to Hal Blackadar.
Neil Cunningham, Director of Sales, Corus Radio, Western Canada – Neil’s mandate includes responsibility for both national and retail sales throughout Western Canada including co-ordination of sales strategies such as pricing, inventory management and training for Western Canada and Ontario. Neil reports to Doug Rutherford.
Garry McKenzie, General Manager, Corus Radio Vancouver – Garry’s mandate includes overall responsibility for AM730 All Traffic All The Time (CHMJ), CKNW AM 980, Classic Rock 101 (CFMI), 99.3 The FOX (CFOX) and Corus Radio Network (CRN). Garry reports to Hal Blackadar.
Doug Rutherford, Vice President and General Manager, Corus Radio Alberta – Doug’s mandate includes overall responsibility for Calgary’s AM 770 (CHQR), Q107 (CFGQ), Country 105 (CKRY), and Edmonton’s 630 CHED, iNews880 (CHQT), CISN COUNTRY 103.9 and 92.5 JOE FM (CKNG). Doug reports to Hal Blackadar.
Ontario
Suzanne Carpenter, Vice President and General Manager, Corus Radio, Eastern Ontario and Vice President and General Manager, CHEX TV and CKWS-TV – Suzanne’s mandate includes overall responsibility for Collingwood’s 95.1 The Peak (CKCB), Barrie’s FM 93 (CHAY) and B101 (CIQB), Peterborough’s 100.5 KRUZ FM (CKRU) and THE WOLF 101.5 (CKWF), Kingston’s Lite 104.3 FM (CFFX) and FM96 (CFMK), Cornwall’s AM 1220 (CJUL), Variety 104.5 (CFLG) and Rock 101.9 (CJSS), as well as the conventional television stations CHEX TV Peterborough and Oshawa, and CKWS-TV Kingston. Suzanne reports to Hal Blackadar.
Victor Giacomelli, Director of Sales, Corus Radio, Ontario – Victor’s mandate includes responsibility for both national and retail sales throughout Ontario including co-ordination of sales strategies between Ontario and Western Canada. Victor reports to Chris Pandoff.
Michael Harris, General Manager, CKWS-TV and CHEX TV – Michael’s mandate includes overall responsibility for our conventional television stations in Kingston, Peterborough and Oshawa. Michael reports to Suzanne Carpenter.
JJ Johnston, General Manager, Corus Radio Cornwall, Kingston and Peterborough – JJ’s mandate includes overall responsibility for Cornwall’s AM 1220, Variety 104.5, and Rock 101.9, Kingston’s Lite 104.3 FM and FM96, and Peterborough’s 100.5 KRUZ FM and THE WOLF 101.5. JJ reports to Suzanne Carpenter.
Chris Pandoff, Vice President and General Manager, Corus Radio Toronto and Hamilton – Chris’ mandate includes overall responsibility for Toronto’s 102.1 the Edge (CFNY), Q107 (CILQ) and AM640 Toronto Radio (CFMJ) as well as Hamilton’s AM 900 CHML, Vinyl 95.3 (CING) and Y108 (CJXY). Chris reports to Hal Blackadar.
Chris Sisam, Vice President and General Manager, Corus Radio, South Western Ontario – Chris’ mandate includes overall responsibility for Guelph’s CJOY and Magic 106.1 (CIMJ), Kitchener’s 107.5 DAVE FM (CJDV) and 91.5 The Beat (CKBT), Woodstock’s Greatest Hits 1039 FM (CKDK) and London’s AM980 (CFPL-AM), The New 1031 Fresh FM (CFHK) and FM96 (CFPL-FM).Chris reports to Hal Blackadar.
Lars Wunsche, General Sales Manager, Corus Radio Toronto – Lars’ mandate includes responsibility for all sales and sales development in Canada’s largest radio market. Lars reports to Victor Giacomelli.
Quebec
Mario Cecchini, Regional Vice President, Corus Quebec – Mario will continue to lead our Quebec radio operations under the current organizational structure. Mario reports to Hal Blackadar.
CORPORATE
Reporting to Scott Dyer, Executive Vice President, Shared Services and Chief Technology Officer, the Shared Services team will provide Corus’ business units with centralized functional departments for infrastructure, production, content management and business processes analysis. The management team will be:
Julie Edwards, Vice President, Facilities and Administration – Julie will continue to oversee Corus’ property management across Canada. She will also expand her role in procurement including purchasing across administrative and technical areas. She will work closely with the infrastructure team to deliver building services such as A/V and telecommunications.
Bryan Ellis, Vice President, Content Management – Bryan will lead the content department focusing on the management of all of our digital media assets and providing new and innovative ways to monetize our owned and rented content. Bryan and his team will be responsible for initiatives in document and enterprise content management, ingest and outgest services that support broadcast and syndication sales, as well as Corus’ central digital asset storage system.
Eric Flaherty, Vice President, Computing and Infrastructure – Eric will lead the infrastructure department which represents engineering, technical services and computing across all of Corus. Eric will have oversight of non-business applications and systems such as database services, the server and network capacity as well as provide engineering for both Television and Radio, along with software development and playout of television services.
Helen Lebeau, Vice President, Production – Helen will be responsible for the production department which will combine the existing post production group with a new focus on live action production. This department will act as an independent producer and Nelvana Studio will become part of this group. The Television division will be the primary client for the department which will work closely with Sales, Interactive, OAP and Creative Services.
Chris Nalborczyk, Vice President, Business Transformation – Chris will oversee the ongoing company-wide review of processes and workflows, such as the work being done to support the broadcast move to Corus Quay. Chris will also manage the delivery of business applications, such as Great Plains, as well as client services and the Help Desk. The business transformation group will also support and coordinate our annual strategy planning process.
In Corporate Finance, certain finance and accounting functions have been centralized under Tom Peddie, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Tom’s team consists of:
Judy Adam, Vice President, Finance – Judy will oversee all accounting for the Television division and consolidated corporate accounting, analysis, forecasts and external and regulatory reporting for the Company.
Cheryl Bechtel, Vice President, Controller, Corus Radio – Cheryl will oversee all accounting and analysis for the Radio division and also reports to Hal Blackadar.
Doug Sharpe, Treasurer – Doug will oversee our banking relationship and credit and compliance issues for the Company as well as oversee credit and collections and accounts payable processing.
Jeremy Wilson, Vice President, Taxation – Jeremy will oversee all tax issues for the Company including annual filings and tax strategies.
With Judy Adam moving to Finance and Kathleen McNair’s recent move to Human Resources and Corporate Communications, the Risk and Compliance and Corporate Development positions have yet to be filled and will be announced at a future date.
Reporting to Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Gary Maavara, the legal department service functions have been grouped to align with the new operating structure, and with a focus on providing legal support and expertise for the creation and use of content rights as well as digital media.
Sylvie Courtemanche, Vice President, Government Relations – Sylvie is responsible for government relations including managing our relationships with agencies such as the CRTC. She will continue to guide our relationships with trade associations and oversee the prosecution of the various tariffs we use, such as matters before the Copyright Board.
Dale Hancocks, Associate General Counsel – Dale will oversee the outbound rights group, focusing on Corus rights that are exploited outside the Company. This will include oversight of our offshore activities such as KidsCo International as well as the rights management and protection of our content as we sell or license to third parties in Canada and around the world.
Jane Harrison, Associate General Counsel – Jane will head up the inbound rights group that handles the legal elements of third party programming and other rights as they flow into the Company. This team will manage the programming rights as well as equity rights that we obtain from outside producers. This group will also oversee the affiliate agreements with cable and satellite carriers and the on-demand platforms that we are introducing.
Elaine Partridge, Associate General Counsel – Elaine will lead the rights creation group that works with the creative elements of Corus including Nelvana Studio. This group will work on the content rights that Corus owns, whether it be in television, radio, books, merchandise, online, etc.
Ariane Stren, Assistant General Counsel – Ariane will oversee legal issues relating to content standards, libel and slander claims for all media, as well as provide support for various sales projects such as contests for Radio, TV and Interactive. Ariane will also be our designated Privacy Officer under the federal legislation and will provide legal advice on on-air talent agreements and trademark matters.
Randy Witten, Associate General Counsel – Randy will continue to oversee corporate projects including real estate matters such as leases, etc., corporate development work such as mergers and acquisitions, and general corporate matters.
Reporting to Kathleen McNair, Executive Vice President, Human Resources and Corporate Communications, Human Resources and Corporate Communications functions have been consolidated as follows:
Larry Burnett, Director, Human Resources, Radio and Labour Relations – Larry will continue to oversee HR matters related to Radio as well as the labour relations portfolio outside Quebec.
Celese Fletcher, Acting Director, Human Resources, Television and Corporate – In this role, Celese oversees human resources for Television and Corporate and is currently implementing transition plans related to Corus Quay.
Sally Tindal, Director, Corporate Communications – Sally is the key point of contact for Corporate Communications including consumer and trade publicity, investor relations support, as well as internal communications.
Penny Vlachos, Director, Human Resources, Compensation and Benefits – Penny continues to oversee payroll and compensation policies regarding payroll, pension and employee benefits.
With these strong leadership teams in place, coupled with our new, state-of-the art technological infrastructure in Toronto, we are well positioned to meet the evolving demands of the marketplace. By streamlining the decision making in our Television, Radio and Corporate divisions and implementing better work flows, we will be able to compete more efficiently and service our customers and our audiences more effectively.
Our new teams will continue to examine our business operations and organizational structures to ensure we meet our objectives and are positioned to drive future growth. As always, we remain committed to communicating with you in an open and timely manner about any future decisions.
Corus partner companies, including Telelatino, TELETOON, Canadian Broadcast Sales and Toon Boom, as well as services in which we hold an ownership interest which include Food Network, qubo and KidsCo, will continue to operate as separate functional organizations, as is currently the case.
Thank you for your continued support and commitment.
John Cassaday
President and CEO
