Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge on Friday launched the application process for the next president of CBC/Radio-Canada.
The minister announced the convening of an independent advisory committee consisting of 10 individuals to make the selection ahead of current head Catherine Tait’s term expiry next January. Tait, who became the first woman in the history of the public broadcaster to serve as president and CEO, was extended last June.
“The successful candidate will support CBC/Radio-Canada in transforming the way it engages with Canadians in a rapidly changing environment by making the public broadcaster more digital and more ambitious in its Canadian programming,” according to a job posting. “CBC/Radio-Canada is ensuring a space for Canada and Canadians in the digital world and wishes to increase and deepen audience engagement.”
Applications for the position, which holds a term of no more than five years under statute, are due April 12.
Charles Decarie, chief executive officer of comedy outfit Just For Laughs, will chair the selection committee. He has over 20 years of experience in leadership positions across multiple sectors in the entertainment industry, according to a Heritage biography.
The other members of the committee include Cameron Bailey, CEO of TIFF and the Toronto International Film Festival; Jocelyn Formsma, executive director of the National Association of Friendship Centres; former minister Lisa Raitt, who is managing director and vice chair of global investment banking at CIBC Capital Markets; Michael Goldbloom, chair of the board of directors of the CBC; Monique Simard, chair of the board of multiple organizations and former member of the expert panel for the government’s Broadcasting and Telecommunications Law Review; Jeremy Torrie, an Ojibew from the Treaty 3 territory in Ontario who is a CMPA member on various working committees; Prem Gill, CEO of Creative BC; Francoise Enguehard, journalist and author, who heads her own company called Vivat Communications; and Paul Andrew, well known in Yellowknife for his work in culture and residential school education, who became Chief of Tulita (formerly Fort Norman) at 22 and spent 30 years working with the CBC before his retirement.
