CCR People

Wayne Clarkson has been hired as executive director of Telefilm Canada. He takes up his duties in January 2005. He has been executive director of the Canadian Film Centre since 1991, and has previously served as founding chair and CEO of the Ontario Film Development Corp. and as the first executive director of the Toronto International Film Festival. He was also a member of the Banff Television Foundation board of governors and the feature film advisory group. The position was filled on an interim basis by Carolle Brabant after former executive director Richard Stursberg jumped ship to the join the CBC this summer (CCR, July 30/04). Former MusiquePlus general manager Pierre Marchand has assumed the new role of VP of marketing and communications. The new director of programming is Paola Simonetto, who was the former director of programming development and production. Lyse George will help MusiMax director of programs Jacque Camerlain on a consultancy basis. Bernard Diaz, current director of sales and creative media, becomes interim position of VP of sales. Director of communications Richard Gamache becomes director of disks and entertainment in the sales department with the dissolution of his position. Louis Panneton, VP of sales and marketing, and Johanne Menard, who was VP of programming, are leaving the company. Ian Fodie has been appointed as CFO and vice-president of operations at Mainframe Entertainment. He replaces George Lawton who has left Mainframe to pursue other career opportunities. For the past two years, Fodie has served as an independent director and chair of the audit committee of Peace Arch Entertainment Group Inc., a feature film and TV production company. He has also served as CFO of Sextant Entertainment Group Inc. and International Keystone Entertainment Inc. David Robertson, of Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP, has registered as a lobbyist for CHUM Ltd. He will lobby the Ontario Finance Ministry on the Retail Sales Tax Act. Daniel Brock of the same law firm registered previously as a lobbyist for CHUM (CCR, Nov. 22/04). The 2004-05 appointees to ReelWorld Foundation board of directors are: Gil Blutrich, president of Skyline International Development Inc.; Jim Byrd, president and CEO of Jim Byrd Productions & Consulting Inc.; Michael Harris, VP and general manager of CMT, The Documentary Channel, Scream/Corus Entertainment; Charles Khabouth, owner of The Guvernment and Kool Haus; and Bill Roberts, president and CEO of VisionTV. They will work with returning appointees Carey Singer, partner of Mintz & Partners; and Lillyann Goldstein, president and CEO of @Wallace Avenue Studios. Harris and Roberts will co-chair the board. The appointees to ReelWorld Film Festival board of directors are Hina Ansari, Flare magazine entertainment and photo editor; Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services senior policy analyst Sarah Hardy; Indira Naidoo-Harris, anchor and associate producer of OMNI Television; Jennifer Podemski, actor and producer with Big Soul Productions/Moccasin Flats Films Inc., and Lynne Stoltz, president of Have Faith Productions. Returning festival board members are chair Anton Kim, director of sales at Famous Players Media; treasurer Moe Jiwan, director of Uptown Physical Rehabilitation Centre; Shane Cawley, VP of marketing and sales at Warner Home Video; Vashti Persaud, director of resource development at VisionTV; Sajid Qureshi, president of ASQ Management Group; Ramona Ramtej, executive liaison at Lions Gate Entertainment; Gina Remy, director of legal and regulatory affairs at Corus Entertainment; and Rasool Verjee, chair of Contessa Group. The 5th annual ReelWorld Film Festival will be held April 13-17 in downtown Toronto. The foundation complements the festival by providing year-round education, networking and mentorship programs. Regulatory lawyer Michael Piaskoski has left Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP to join the Toronto office of Miller Thomson LLP where he will continue to practise communications and competition law. Robert Rabinovitch has had his term and as president and CEO of the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. extended for an additional three years. He was first appointed as president of the public broadcaster in 1999 (CCR, Nov. 22/04). The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television has announced the special award winners of the 19th annual Gemini Awards: documentary creator Neil Docherty for broadcast journalism; North of 60, Trudeau, Black Harbour creator Wayne Grigsby for writing; Cosmic Current directed by Anand Ramayya for creative excellence; and Majestic, the country’s first multi-format high-definition production mobile unit developed by Dome Productions for technical achievement. The Gemini Awards will be given out December 11-13. As well, the academy announced that George Robertson will receive the 2004 Gemini Humanitarian Award, and actor Graham Greene is this year’s recipient of the Earle Grey Award for his outstanding body of work in Canadian television. Jan Peeters has been appointed as chair of the board of Cogeco Cable Inc. He has been a Cogeco board member since 1998. He is CEO of Olameter Inc. In memory Daniel Iannuzzi died suddenly on November 20 of a heart attack while in Italy. He was involved in a long unsuccessful battle with the CRTC to win analog carriage rights for World Television Network/Le Réseau Télémonde inc., a multicultural channel he proposed that would air programming from around the world with English and French subtitles (CCR, Feb. 19/03). He was the founder of Multimedia Nova Corp., which publishes a number of Italian and other ethnic newspapers. He formed Multilingual Television Ltd. (MTV), which provided CHUM Ltd.’s Citytv with more than 30 hours of weekly programming in 16 languages from September 1972 to September 1979. That year, MTV was licensed by the CRTC to broadcast CFMT-TV on channel 47 across Southern Ontario. It was bought by Rogers Broadcasting in the late 1980s, and is now OMNI.1. Global Television News Ottawa bureau chief David Vienneau passed away on December 1 after a brief but courageous battle with pancreatic cancer at the age of 53. He joined Global News in 1998, after 23 years with the Toronto Star.

CCR People

Broadcast | December 6, 2004

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