TORONTO – Rick Brace, president of specialty channels and CTV production at Bell Media, will retire at the end of the year after a nearly 40-year career.
Brace (pictured) will continue to serve as the company's representative on the board of directors of Discovery Canada, CTV Specialty Television Inc., and the Hockey Hall of Fame, as well as lead some “special projects” as a consultant.
Following Brace's retirement, Phil King will assume responsibility for Bell Media's English-language specialty channels, in addition to his current responsibilities, under the new title of president, CTV, sports, and entertainment programming. His current title is president, CTV programming and sports. Catherine MacLeod will continue in her role as senior vice-president, specialty channels, supported by King.
"Rick has been a leader and friend to many of us and is overwhelmingly respected in every corner of this industry. For me personally, he has been a true mentor and a role model," said Bell Media president Kevin Crull, in Monday’s announcement. "I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Rick for his vision and hard work through all these years and wish him a happy, well-deserved retirement."
Other executive shuffles will see Nanci Maclean, Executive Director, Bell Media Production will report to MacLeod, according to a memo circulated to staff from Crull. Also, Sheila Sullivan, executive director/producer, specials production will report to Mark Milliere, senior vice-president of production, TSN. "Bringing these two teams together increases our capacity to produce big events, and ensures they will be even bigger," says Crull's memo.
Domenic Vivolo will report directly to Crull as senior vice-president and general manager of Pay TV. He will be responsible for the overall Pay TV business, focusing on growing subscriptions, developing new business models, further deploying TMN GO onto new platforms — and working with Charles Benoit’s team to launch Super Ecran GO.
All of these changes will come into effect on January 2, 2014.
