TORONTO – While the company said today a search committee will be convened to determine who will be the next chief executive officer of Rogers Communications, most of the industry and its observers would be pretty surprised if current president and COO Nadir Mohamed wasn’t the choice.
As we have reported earlier today, company founder and CEO Ted Rogers died this morning of congestive heart failure at the age of 75.
Right now, Alan Horn, the company’s long-serving former CFO and current board chair is acting CEO, a role he has held since Rogers was hospitalized on October 30th.
There are other potential internal candidates, of course, such as Edward Rogers, son of the founder, who heads the Rogers Cable division and current CFO Bill Linton, but most expect Mohamed to take the top job until either Edward, or perhaps his sister Melinda, who is currently SVP strategy and development at RCI, are deemed ready for the CEO post by the board.
While today’s press release made mention of the search committee looking at external candidates, “(i)t is my belief that an internal candidate will become CEO,” said Ted Rogers himself in his newly released book, Relentless.
And any stories that happen to percolate about the company being sold? Don’t bet on it. The company founder was adamant that it not be sold and has ingrained that into his family, who control the voting shares of the cable, Internet, wireless and media giant.
“I would like to see the Rogers family keep control of this company that I worked to damned hard to build over 50 years for as long as feasible under today’s tax law regime,” said Rogers in his book. “I have done everything I can to cause this to happen within the law.”
A family trust with 15 advisors was created years ago by Rogers, with one person in charge, Ted. That position overseeing the family trust now falls to Edward, who will now hold that position for two years, according to his father’s will. “There has to be an individual controlling shareholder to whom the board of directors and the chief executive officer can turn when needed,” wrote Ted in Relentless.
One of the noticeable things that just might change is that the company may be more averse to risk in the future. Rogers notoriously “bet the farm” a few times – and won almost all of those bets – but the new leadership will probably shy away from big risks that the founder might have found compelling.
