CCR People

Denise Donlon leaves her position as Chum Television’s VP and general manager of specialty music channels MuchMusic and MuchMoreMusic to become president of Sony Music Canada. Based in Toronto, Donlon will be responsible for the day-to-day operations of Sony’s Canadian operations and will report to Sony Music International president Rick Dobbis. Donlon’s resignation results in a shift in personnel at CIVI, Chum Television’s recently licensed television station in Victoria. David Klines, who was named earlier this month to the position of VP and general manager of CIVI now becomes VP and general manager of MuchMusic and MuchMoreMusic. Instead, Howard Slutsken, in the position of CIVI VP and general manager, will oversee CIVI’s launch in Fall 2001 and its day-to-day operations. Chartered accountant George Rossi joins embattled Cinar Corp as senior VP and CFO, taking overall responsibility for financial issues within the company. Following allegations that it abused Canada’s film and television tax credit system by putting Canadian names on scripts written by Americans, Cinar has not released financial statements for its 1999 fiscal year and has yet to restate them for the fiscal years ended Nov. 30, 1998 and 1997. Rossi takes over from Nasanan Panju, who was dismissed in March along with company heads Micheline Charest and Ronald Weinberg. Previously, Rossi was president of Omni Media USA, a subsidiary of the Astral Group, and CFO of Radiomutuel Inc, which was taken over by Astral last year. A restructuring at BCE Inc sees former CTV president Ivan Fecan becoming president and CEO of BCE’s new media division, which includes the Internet, Sympatico-Lycos Inc web portal, the Globe and Mail, and CTV, pending regulatory approval. The new company will focus on developing Canadian content for new and traditional media. Effective Dec. 1, BCE plans to center its activities around new media, Bell Canada, Teleglobe and BCE Emergis, with all investments going through a new group called BCE Ventures. Bill Anderson, current CFO of BCE, becomes president of BCE Ventures. A replacement has yet to be announced for the position Anderson vacates. Blue Zone Entertainment COO Catherine Warren has been named to the board of directors of the Women’s Television Network Foundation, an organization dedicated to advancing women in broadcasting. Ron Nadeau has been named the new CEO of the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, a national service dedicated to showcasing aboriginal programming. Nadeau was a founding member of APTN’s board of directors and chair of the General Counsel of Native Communications Inc. Nadeau says he aims to have APTN distributed on cable systems with fewer than 2,000 subscribers and to reach out to aboriginal communities in the U.S., Central America and Europe. Anne-Marie LaPointe has left the CTV programming communications team to join affiliate specialty network, The Comedy Network, as publicist. Cyberworld International, a software company providing infrastructure solutions for the web, named Todd Goldsbie as VP of planning and business development, and added Anthony DeCristofaro to its board of directors. DeCristofaro co-founded soft-ware company MGI Software, while Goldsbie was VP of new media at Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc and was responsible for the development of web and webTV projects in its film and television divisions. Medbroadcast Corp, the creator of medical information web sites, has named Bruce MacCormack to its board as director. MacCormack is managing director of the interactive arm of CanWest Global Communications, and is part of CanWest’s executive management committee responsible for integrating Internet and interactive technologies into the corporate portfolio of the international television networks, radio, newspaper and production studios. Brant Scott, chief writer and editor of telecommunications in the CRTC’s decisions division, leaves his post Nov. 10 to become a senior consultant with National Public Relations in Ottawa. Scott got his start as a telecommunications journalist in 1994 as editor of Network Letter, an affiliate of CCR. He held the position for five years. He has also worked for various members of Parliament, and as a newspaper columnist and editor. Please send your news and appointment notices to newsdesk@decima.ca.

CCR People

Broadcast | November 9, 2000

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