TORONTO – With new owner BCE expecting to take ownership of CTV come early March, personnel changes and internal restructuring is continuing.
Staff was informed this morning by new COO Kevin Crull of the departure of a number of long-time CTV staffers and the reorganization of the duties of some others.
The best known executive leaving is perhaps programming chief Susanne Boyce, who has been at CTV since 1995. “She is a champion of Canadian programming, production and talent, believing that our content can stand shoulder to shoulder with the best TV on the continent and around the world,” said Crull’s memo.
Also leaving the company are EVP human resources Dawn Fell, CFO John Gossling, head of digital and multimedia Alon Marcovici and EVP corporate affairs, Paul Sparkes.
Staying on at CTV are: Phil King, who is head of sports, conventional programming, and independent Canadian production; Rick Brace who is now head of specialty programming (excluding news and sports) and in-house production; Rita Fabian, head of advertising sales; the recently promoted Wendy Freeman will stay in charge of news and current events programming, including BNN, CP24, and CTV News Channel.
As well, Bart Yabsley remains in charge of sales and distribution of the company’s specialty channels; Chris Gordon remains head of radio and Nikki Moffat who was SVP finance at CTVgm now heads finance and revenue management.
Gary Anderson, who has overseen Bell’s Sympatico portal for 10 years will keep that job and also oversee CTV’s digital side as well. CTV’s digital assets and the Sympatico portal will be integrated, said Crull (pictured at last week’s CRTC hearing into the BCE acquisition of CTV). Andre Serero will head up legal, HR, local stations, operations, engineering and IT, corporate services, and corporate security for CTV and Mirko Bibic will oversee CTV’s regulatory and government affairs, which is also his position at BCE.
“It’s my belief that a core strategic imperative is to view programming assets as interchangeable tools to drive all our businesses – conventional, specialty, digital, and radio. Due to persistent trends where viewers are leaving conventional and profits are concentrated in specialty, we really need to think holistically. Creation and selection of hit programming will continue to be the overriding focus of this executive team, and will therefore receive tremendous attention,” said Crull’s memo.
“For these reasons, we are complementing this organization design with the creation of the Programming Council. This council will be co-chaired by Mike Cosentino and Joanna Webb. Several members of the senior executive team will be participants along with Tracey Pearce, Pat DiVittorio, and Brian McCluskey.”
“I know that organizational change is never easy. I do want to share that each and every member of the leadership team, whether leaving to pursue new opportunities or remaining here at CTV, have displayed the highest degree of professionalism, compassion, and commitment in helping to guide me to this conclusion. And for that I am truly thankful,” added Crull.
– Greg O’Brien
