CBC News has appointed new senior management for CBC North and the Ontario region.
Mervin Brass, who has been managing editor for CBC North for the last four years, becomes Senior Managing Director for the North. Brass will continue to be based in Yellowknife, overseeing all local programming for stations in Yukon, N.W.T. and Nunavut. In addition to working with the public broadcaster, Brass is also the former publisher of Saskatoon-based Treaty 4 News and the former Executive Director of Communications for the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations. He’s also been a host and reporter with Rawlco Radio in Saskatoon as well as CBC Regina.
The Senior Managing Director role for the North is a new senior management position. Janice Stein, who retired Sept. 25, previously served as CBC North’s managing director for the past nine years, however the North was grouped with Saskatchewan and Manitoba as a “super region.” John Bertrand, who held the title of Senior Managing Director of the Prairie and Northern region, is now responsible for Saskatchewan and Manitoba only.
“This move to create a senior managing director position for the North speaks directly to CBC’s collective commitment to the region and its diverse and unique perspectives, languages and culture,” said Susan Marjetti, General Manager, CBC News, Current Affairs and Local, in a release announcing the appointment. “Our goal is to ensure that CBC shares even more of the stories and perspectives of the North with the rest of Canada and the world.”
Ruth Zowdu, who has been managing editor of CBC Ottawa since 2016, will now be Senior Managing Director of the Ontario region, overseeing all local programming for Hamilton, Kitchener-Waterloo, London, Ottawa, Sudbury, Thunder Bay, Toronto, and Windsor. She’ll continue to be based in Ottawa.
Zowdu started her career with CBC Ottawa as a researcher, moving up the ranks to Executive Producer of Radio Current Affairs in 2008. She holds the distinction of being the first woman of colour to run a local CBC newsroom.
Zowdu succeeds Marissa Nelson, who had been Senior Managing Director for Ontario since Nov. 2015. Nelson, CBC’s former Senior Director of Digital Media, left the public broadcaster in July to work as a senior consultant with Minneapolis-based market research firm, Magid.
Both appointments are effective Oct. 19.
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