MONTREAL and HALIFAX – Siim Vanaselja, chief financial officer of BCE and Bell Canada, will retire early next year and be replaced by current Bell Aliant CFO Glen LeBlanc.
Vanaselja, who joined the BCE group in February 1994, will retire after the company’s 2015 annual general meeting of shareholders, scheduled for April 30, 2015, and before the end of Q2 2015. He will continue to serve on the board of directors of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (MLSE).
Following the closing of BCE's privatization of Bell Aliant and until Vanaselja's retirement, LeBlanc (pictured) will serve as senior vice president, finance for BCE. LeBlanc joined Aliant in 1993 and was named executive vice president and chief financial officer in 2005. As CFO of BCE, he will be located at the company's Montreal headquarters and will maintain an office at Bell Aliant's headquarters in Halifax.
"Our succession plan for the CFO role leverages the exceptional executive talent at the BCE group of companies to ensure a smooth transition," said George Cope, president and CEO of BCE and Bell Canada, in the announcement. "Siim Vanaselja has been a key leader in BCE's transformation into a re-energized competitor in every sector of communications, building a robust capital markets strategy, guiding important strategic acquisitions, and delivering on our commitment to shareholder value through consistent dividend growth. Siim has worked closely for the last decade with his successor Glen LeBlanc, an accomplished CFO who has helped build our Halifax-based affiliate Bell Aliant into one of the best-run telcos in North America."
