22 Several Canadian media enterprises have promoted women to high-powered positions, generally believing they bring to the management table a range of opinions, views and experiences, as well as a more collaborative and inclusive leadership style. For seven years, Kirstine Stewart held major management roles at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), her last as the head of its English Services Programming. She is the only woman to have held that position, arguably one of the most scrutinized and politically-charged in Canadian broadcasting. Her departure set the stage for another woman to fill this important role. In April 2013 Stewart’s surprise announcement came: she was leaving for the U.S.-based social media giant Twitter. Stewart started as Twitter’s Canadian managing director. Barely a year later, she was promoted into a bigger pond — one that includes Canada — as VP, North American Media, overseeing Twitter’s partnerships in sports, television and music. Stewart’s resignation from the CBC triggered an extensive search for her replacement, and in September 2013 Heather Conway was formally appointed as the CBC’s next EVP of Englishlanguage Services, a position that puts her in charge of media products in what she has called “the most important cultural institution in the country.” She joined the public broadcaster’s senior executive team as a non-traditional programmer, coming from the Art Gallery of Ontario, where she was chief business officer overseeing human resources, digital services,marketing and corporate and public affairs, among other operations. Like Stewart, Conway spent time as an executive at Alliance Atlantis, responsible for strategic marketing, publicity and on-air creative plans for its Canadian cable specialty channels. And she and Stewart share the honor of having been named to Canada’s Top 40 Under 40. In appointing Conway, CBC’s president and CEO Hubert Lacroix, pointed to her leadership attributes: “a person with a business focus to decision-making,andareputationofnurturingand developing teams, a person who is as comfortable in a corporate boardroom as she is on the newsroom floor. And a person who has delivered results in a wide variety of circumstances.” Her arrival at the CBC comes amid budget cuts and — most importantly — the loss of hockey rights and Canada’s TV jewel, Hockey Night in Canada. Doing more with less while protecting Canadian programs is the most challenging job in Canadian television. During her brief tenure to date, the cashstrapped public broadcaster announced a huge shift in direction to a “mobile-first” initiative, taking into account that Canadians increasingly receive their news on laptops, tablets, smartphones and through social media. At Shaw Media, a diversified communications and media company that operates one of the largest conventional TV networks in Canada, Global Television, Barbara Williams’s recent promotion came as the result of the tragic death of Paul Robertson. But it was no surprise to the industry, where Williams is a highly respected executive with extensive accomplishments both as a television executive and as a passionate advocate and mentor for women and diversity. Last September she was appointed to EVP, Broadcasting, and president of Shaw Media. Like Stewart and Conway, her career includes time at Alliance Atlantis. In her new role, her key focus will be to continue to strengthen the company’s core business while moving it strategically into the ever-changing media environment. These changes have created other opportunities for women. Just as Williams has moved up, development executive Christine Shipton has moved up to SVP, Content at Shaw. Conway has appointed Sally Cato as general manager of Programming, CBC Television. Elsewhere, Tracy Pierce is now SVP, Specialty and Pay at Bell Media, and Bell and Rogers Media have both recently appointed women as senior media sales executives. Like Stewart, other Canadian women are making their mark outside of the country: Canadian Roma Khanna is president of Television Group and Digital at MGM Inc., and Laura Michalchyshyn, (also an Alliance Atlantis alumnus) is partner/producer at Robert Redford’s Sundance Productions, to name two. But Canadian women are not new to leadership roles. Well-established female Canadian executives include Lisa DeWilde, CEO at TV Ontario; Helga Stevenson, CEO, Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television; and Valerie Creighton, president and CEO of the Canadian Media Fund. In November, Canada’s Women in Communications and Technology announced a new initiative designed to catapult more women into the C-Suite, i.e., CEO-type positions. The program, “The Protégé Project,” will match fast-tracking senior women executives with powerful sponsors to give them the leg-up into the industry’s top decision-making positions. Sponsors include CTV News, Blue Ant Media, and Shaw Communications, also a partner in the venture. Noting that the percentage of women in senior television roles is well under 30 percent, Shaw’s Williams said, “Our hope is that as these sponsored women start to advance, we see a ripple effect, a groundswell of women helping the next round of up-and-coming female leaders to move up.” New non-traditional media companies “without norms and legacy, may herald a new meritocracy,” said Twitter’s Stewart. But the question still remains: Despite the change in the wind and all the good intentions, will women ever make it to the very, very top of traditional media enterprises, in Canada and abroad? By Isme Bennie From Starring RolesOnTV, Women Move to Top Roles InTelevision January 2015 Filling the Gender Gap in Canada Shaw Media’s Barbara Williams Twitter’s Kirstine Stewart MGM’s Roma Khanna
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